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Ben L. Culwell | A Retrospective of the Texas Abstract Expressionist
Opening: Saturday, September 20, 2014, 4:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Show/Exhibition: September 20 – November 1, 2014
David Dike Fine Art presents a collection of paintings by Abstract Expressionist painter Ben L. Culwell (Am. 1918-1992) from the artist’s estate. Culwell’s career was launched to the national level when he was included in the MoMA’s 1946 exhibition of Fourteen Americans alongside Arshile Gorky, Robert Motherwell and Mark Toby, which shortly followed his one-man exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art in 1945.
Pollen Count High, 1957-79
Oil and mixed media on Masonite, 28 x 48
Signed all four corners: BC
Culwell studied art at SMU and Columbia University in the 1930s. Culwell’s interactions and assimilations made in New York from his exposure to artists like Valcal Vytlacil (1892-1984), visiting shows at Armory Show and the Squibb Galleries inspired him to paint and draw with eagerness.
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Untitled, c. 1960
Oil and mixed media on Masonite, 30 x 36
Signed all four corners: BC
Culwell painted while serving in WWII, including his time at Pearl Harbor and in the Pacific. After the war and after the attention he received from his exhibitions and national exposure, Culwell continued to work as a businessman in Dallas, but painted his entire life.
Sophistic, 1960-77
Oil and mixed media on Masonite, 30 x 36
Signed lower right: BC
His paintings are intense; he rotated his paintings as he worked on them. Many can be hung in any direction and are signed in all four corners. He uses several different mediums in his paintings, including oil, lacquer, epoxy and even metal objects or broken glass all built up on his sturdy Masonite-manufactured ground, making them almost sculptural. The paintings are layered, complex, chunky, intense and bright.
This is a rare opportunity to experience paintings from his estate that have never before been available.
Information above drawn from: Midcentury Modern Art in Texas, by: Katie Robinson Edwards; © 2014 University of Texas Press
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