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biography
Thomas Whelan Benton was born Nov. 16, 1930 in Oakland, California. Benton attended Glendale High school and Glendale Junior College before joining the Armed Forces and serving in the Korean War. After the conflict, he studied at the University of Southern California, where he earned a degree in architecture. In the years following his graduation, Benton designed and built a number of buildings in Southern California.
In his early years, Benton visited Colorado a number of times and was continually drawn to the area. In 1963, Benton designed and built a building at 521 E. Hyman in downtown Aspen that would become his home, art studio, and gallery. Benton became involved in local politics and his gallery soon became the central meeting place for local intellectuals, artists, and activists. He shifted his focus from architecture to graphic art and design in the mid-sixties, creating political posters for the Aspen Liberation Front, a loose-knit group of local activists. From the beginning of his career, Benton was especially drawn to the impact of symbols and text, working in tandem in his political works to convey his message.
According to Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis, "Benton was heavily intellectual and understood the threat that speculators were to our environment before anyone else. Throughout his career Tom remained steadfastly loyal to rock solid values and committed to sending his political message through his art."
During the late 1960s, Benton met Hunter Thompson. His friendship and collaboration with Thompson spanned more than four decades and created or inspired some of Benton's most recognized works. The 1970 "hunter s. thompson for sheriff" campaign poster included a two-thumbed fist and peyote button for his run for Sheriff of Pitkin County. This work also inspired the famous "Gonzo Fist" logo Benton designed with fellow artist Paul Pascarella. Benton also created the original cover for Thompson's "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" and collaborated with Thompson on a series of Aspen Wall Posters that featured artwork by Benton on one side, and literature by Thompson on the other. On the political front, he went on to create campaign posters for over 30 candidates including Gary Hart, George McGovern, and Willie Brown. Tom also created numerous "cause" posters for local benefits, non-profits, and charitable causes.
Benton's artwork continued to evolve throughout his career from political posters to abstract silkscreen prints, monoprints, and oil paintings. His iconic works, composed of complex, layered images of bold colors, text and symbols, mesmerized his subjects. Benton drew upon his early career as an architect, the influence of his time is SE Asia, and from artists such as Mark Rothko and Katsushika Hokusai, Paul Jenkins, and Morris Lewis. His artwork always remained original and grew in size throughout his career, creating prints over 3' X 3' and oil paintings measuring 5' X 5'.
"My interest in art is for the organic and poetic. I have great respect for oriental art and do not deny its influence in my work. In a sense, I'm a raku painter. Raku is a way of approaching art. It's a spontaneous, intuitive sense. You learn to take advantage of what's happening to your work while it's happening. There's a lot of emotion and intuitive feeling involved to the point that you almost know when something is going to happen, and afterwards, you say, I'm not surprised."
In the 1980's and 90's, Benton worked part time as a jailer for the Pitkin County Sheriff's Department and continued to create artwork until he died from lymphoma on April 27, 2007. Benton was the featured artist in a retrospective at the Aspen Historical Society in 2007.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Thomas W. Benton was his fiercely independent nature, and the enigmatic nature of the man and his work. Though known internationally, Benton was best-known and most-loved by the regular people. He was prodigiously productive, and certainly a man considered by peers and collaborators alike as equal parts dreamer and doer. He was known for creating everything he needed--from his art supplies to his furniture to his home and art studio--and often his tools and accessories were as captivating as his works on display. Said friend Jay Cowan, " he could have gotten rich designing buildings, furniture, accessories, almost anything, probably, but he wanted to produce art and he did."
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