Fletcher Benton at Neuhoff

The ancestry of Fletcher Benton's abstract sculptures goes back to Russian Constructivism and the Machine Age by 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 crowded exhibition at Neuhoff covered work spanning almost a quarter of a century. It ranged from sensitive graphite drawings with nervous scumbling, in the spirit of early Johns, to works hovering between painting and relief; from a series of shaped works ("Letters of the Alphabet") cut out of painted sheets of metal, to welded constructions contrasting closed volumes, open forms and linear elements.

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

Some of Benton's essays in formalism come across as dated, dry and somewhat doctrinaire, particularly the relief constructions made over the past three years. Recalling Ben Nicholson, Meridian Lines, Composition 11 (steel and acrylic on canvas, 2001), a small steel assemblage in front of an acrylic painting on canvas, is a case in point. The work seems at once precious and unresolved, demonstrating that it is no easy task to successfully combine easel painting and sculpture.

Benton is very good when he is at his zaniest, as in Cologne Construct 21 (1995) and Truckin' Geo 17 (2000), both steel with patina. The latter, with its lovely gray metallic sheen reminiscent of polished lead, has a kind of narrative drive. A small assemblage of sharp forms mounted on two wheels pulls a larger construction, consisting of 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 steel, 2003) resembles a thick doughnut from which a large chunk has been meticulously removed. Tilted forward, it is prevented from falling over by smaller, equally treacherously positioned shapes, including narrow, jutting posts and Benton's trademark pair of balls, which can be oddly suggestive. Everything seems to be positioned in a situation of rigorously choreographed flux. Benton, at his best, achieves formidable physical tensions and visual dynamics.

--Michael Amy

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