Artwork
Figures
Figures is an unspecified painting by Benjamin F. Berlin. It dates from 1937 and is held in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
About this work
Overview
Figures, painted around 1937 by American artist Benjamin F. Berlin, belongs to the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The canvas presents an abstract composition dominated by deep blues and blacks, interspersed with lighter tonal areas. Though no recognizable objects appear, the work conveys a sense of motion through its vigorous handling of paint.
Technique & Style
Berlin employs broad, assertive brushstrokes that generate a textured surface, allowing layers of pigment to interact visibly. The juxtaposition of dark and pale hues creates depth, while the overlapping strokes suggest a swirling dynamism. The painting exemplifies the abstract tendencies of the late 1930s, emphasizing gesture and color over representational content.
Subject & Meaning
Absent of figurative references, the piece invites viewers to experience visual rhythm rather than narrative. The interplay of blue and black may evoke nocturnal or aquatic atmospheres, yet the artist leaves interpretation open, focusing on the emotional impact of movement and energy conveyed through form and color.
History & Provenance
Created circa 1937, Figures entered the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s holdings at an unspecified date, becoming part of the institution’s representation of early American abstraction. Its acquisition reflects LACMA’s broader effort to document the development of modernist painting in the United States.
Context
The work aligns with a period when American artists were exploring non‑representational approaches, influenced by European avant‑garde movements and domestic experiments in abstraction. Berlin’s contemporaries pursued similar investigations of paint as material, emphasizing the canvas’s surface and the physical act of painting as central concerns.
Artist & collection
Artist
This American painter made dream-like scenes where shapes drift like smoke. In Untitled (Surreal Abstraction) the pale forms float against a soft grey field, quiet and slow. Figures shows a cluster of silhouettes that…
