A Bird of Sea and Land

about A Bird of Sea and Land

An original cubist gouache painting by American artist Benjamin Benno.

This surreal teal composition does little to resemble anything from its title, instead leaning more towards looking perhaps like a distorted person or tree. As is common with many of Benno’s work, the painting centers a blue pallet and cubist construction of form. By the early 1930s he had established a reputation as a member of the international avant-garde and exhibited with the most significant European artists including Paul Klee, Max Ernst, Wassily Kandinsky, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Hans Arp, and Fernand Léger. Pablo Picasso sponsored Benno’s first one-man show in Paris in 1934.