Fletcher Benton at Neuhoff

The ancestry of Fletcher Benton's abstract plastic arts goes back to Russian Constructivism and the Machine Age through way of pure, hard geometric form and the art of assemblage. Using this modernist vocabulary, Benton achieves a dynamic balance between opposing, gravitydefying shapes.

The rather thronged exhibition at Neuhoff covered work spanning almost a quarter of a hundred It ranged from sensitive graphite drawings with nervous scumbling, in the spirit of early John to works hovering between painting and relief; from a series of shaped works ("Letter of the Alphabet") wound out of painted sheets of metal, to welded constructions contrasting clos contortions open forms and linear elements

The shiny, dark-brown Plane to cutting side with Triangle (steel with patina, 1997) consists of a large rectangular plate that is miraculously balanced upon the side of a small cylinder resting upon a rectangle, a cylinder and a triangle resembling a gabled cover Through some mysterious engineering feat, these ultimate parts remain locked in place as still others appear to cascade from the plate toward the floor. Here, we find echoe of the humor and dramatic necessity of Julio Gonzalez.

a certain quantity of of Benton's essays in formalism draw near across as dated, dry and somewhat doctrinaire, particularly the relief constructions made above the past three years. Recalling Ben Nicholson, Meridian Lines, Composition 11 (steel and acrylic upon canvas, 2001), a small carburet of iron assemblage in front of an acrylic painting upon canvas, is a case in point. The work appears at once precious and unresolv demonstrating that it is no easy task to luckily combine easel painting and sculpture

Benton is true good when he is at his zaniest, as in eau-de-cologne Construct 21 (1995) and Truckin' Geo 17 (2000) the couple steel with patina. The latter, with its delightful gray metallic sheen reminiscent of polished lead, has a kind of narrative drive. A small assemblage of sharp forms mountained on two wheels pulls a larger construction, consisting of make open circles, half a disk and a sphere, down an incline.

The monumental, light-brown, floor-bound Tilted Donut with Zig and Balls (Cor-Ten carburet of iron 2003) resembles a thick doughnut from which a large chunk has been meticulously remov Tilted forward, it is obstructed from falling over by smaller, equally treacherously positioned shapes, including narrow, jutting pillars and Benton's trademark pair of balls, which can be uncouthly suggestive. Everything seems to be positioned in a situation of rigorously choreographed flowing Benton, at his best, achieves formidable physical tensions and visual dynamics.

--Michael Amy

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