Xanis 29/100

About Xanis 29/100

Anthony Benjamin, a British contemporary artist was known for his life-long experimentation with dynamic form and colour in painting, printmaking and sculpture.
This is one of a series of ink on paper pieces he did in the 1970’s. An X-like shape is rendered in subtle earthy colours—yellow, orange, aubergine; the image duplicated appears to almost vibrate across the paper. The same shape appears outlined in bright green.

It was during the 1970’s that Benjamin, a close school friend of Brian Eno (a musician and member of Roxy Music) created a series of prints that visualized the popular band’s electronic music. Benjamin experimented with form and colour throughout his artistic career. Edition 29 of 100.

“To rationalize my own work is easy, but I don’t want to rationalize it for in rationalizing it one seems to be led by what seems rational.”
Anthony Benjamin

Born in England in 1931, he first studied draughting at a technical College in 1947 and was accepted as an engineering draughtsman at the University of Westminster (1950–1954). After only one year of school, he travelled to Paris and studied for three months with a modern French artist, sculptor and filmmaker, Fernand Léger. He continued his studies in Paris after graduation having won a one-year scholarship for painting and printmaking. Benjamin taught and lectured at schools in England, the U.S., in Calgary and at York University in Toronto. He returned to London and moved to the country in Norfolk in the mid 1980’s. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. Anthony Benjamin died in 2002. His work can be found in public and private collections.