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EXHIBITION
KARL BENJAMIN
His Students’ Work 1953 – 1970s
Ginger Elliott Center at Garner House | Exhibition will continue through Saturday, January 31, 2026 with a closing reception from 6:00-9:00PM.
840 N Indian Hill Blvd. Claremont, CA 91711 (909) 621-0848
Exhibition will be open during normal business hours: Monday - Friday from 10am - 3pm - or by appointment (Please come to Claremont Heritage at Garner House for entrance to the exhibition)
The final exhibition in a series of exhibitions celebrating Karl Benjamin's centennial year, this exhibition looks at the beginning and what inspired Benjamin's first forays into painting in the 1950s, when he was teaching 5th- and 6th-grade students in Bloomington, then Chino, CA public schools. Artwork by Benjamin’s students forms the heart of the exhibition, revealing how the creative exchange between teacher and students helped spark an artistic journey that would shape the rest of his life.
Karl Benjamin (1925 - 2012) taught elementary school for almost thirty years (1949 - 1977), before he started painting and after he had made his mark in the annals of the contemporary art world. His interaction with 5th and 6th grade students inspired his interest in art and ultimately inspired him to pursue art as a career.
Benjamin first began teaching as an emergency sixth-grade art teacher in Bloomington, California in 1950. He relocated to El Rancho Elementary School in Chino in 1953 and later transferred to Gird Elementary School in the same city in 1963. His students were primarily Chicano children from low-income families who lived in rural and barrio neighborhoods. With little previous exposure to art, they created works of great intensity and intuition which strongly influenced Benjamin’s own practice, and vice versa in a mutually creative relationship. Karl is quoted as saying that the work of his 5th and 6th Grade students was as good as abstract artists like Lee Krasner, William de Kooning, and Jackson Pollack.
In the classroom of Karl Benjamin, students worked in an atmosphere of quiet concentration. Every drawing had to be finished, and each sheet of paper had to be fully filled in. Figurative work was typically not allowed although some kids couldn’t help themselves. This framework of rules empowered students to transcend the conditioning to produce art that simply imitated or conformed to reality. The same rules that Benjamin gave to himself allowed students to exercise the free play of their artistic impulses.
View some of Benjamin's students work HERE
Special thanks to Beth Benjamin, without whom this exhibition would not have been possible. Karl long hoped that his early students would one day be recognized for their work — and now they are.
Louis Stern Fine Arts is the exclusive representative of the Estate of Karl Benjamin.
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