FLETCHER BENTON

(AMERICAN, BORN 1931)

Donut No. 3, 2002
COR-TEN steel
276 x 240 x 144 inches
Laumeier Sculpture Park Collection, gift of Mrs. and Dr. Yoel Haller

Fletcher Benton’s, Donut No. 3, 2002, maintains a balance against improbable odds. In this monumental work, Benton contrasts symmetry and asymmetry, order and chance, logic and uncertainty. Using a coat of rusty red paint, each classical, colossal form exists neatly within the visual and conceptual Constructivist vocabulary. Benton believes that “one can obtain the highest aesthetic impact with the most economical statement; and the most vital and elusive of the sculptor’s materials is space itself.” In this work, Benton combines the heaviness of the COR-TEN steel with the rhythmic arrangement of pure geometric forms, exemplifying Benton’s willingness to adjust to thinking “in the medium.” The work is both rigid and organic in its formal arrangement, and is a complement to its place in the natural setting.

Sculpture Interaction Guideline: Look, But Do Not Touch

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Fletcher Benton was born in Jackson, Ohio, in 1931. He earned his B.F.A. from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1956. Benton taught at the San Francisco Art Institute and California State University in San Jose. He has received several awards, including the Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award from the International Sculpture Center in 2008. Benton has been in numerous solo and group exhibitions since 1959, including exhibitions at the San Antonio Museum of Art; the Klingspor Museum, Offenbach, Germany; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. His works are represented in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Kröller-Müller Museum and Sculpture Garden, Otterlo, The Netherlands; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Visit www.fletcherbenton.com for more information.