Running Man, ca. 1918-1925
Thomas BenrimoOil on canvas
30 × 24 inches
Provenance
The artist
Mrs. Kosky, New York, acquired from the attic of the above, circa 1960
Bob Kosky, South Carolina, son of the above, by descent
Valley House Gallery, Dallas, acquired from the above
Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, acquired from the above
The King Collection, Texas, July 2011.
Running Man is one of only six Cubo-Futuristic works by the artist known to exist. It was discovered circa 1960 in the attic of a New York house that Benrimo had once rented. It is believed that the artist destroyed most of his earlier work by 1939 when he moved with his family to Taos.
Dr. Patrick Shaw Cable eloquently describes Running Man: “With its irregularly faceted planes and inherent sense of figural and spatial movement, the painting is [a clear example] of a “Cubo-Futurist’ approach. The picture stands as a rare extant early work, in which Benrimo embraced modernist innovations he had experienced as a fundamental revelation at the 1913 Armory Show” (P.S. Cable, Modern American Painting 1907-1936: The Maria and Barry King Collection, exhibition catalogue, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas, 2013, p. 177).
Exhibited
- Fort Worth Art Center in cooperation with Valley House Gallery, Texas, and elsewhere, “An Exhibition of the Work of Tom Benrimo, 1887-1958,” 1965;
- El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas, “Modern American Painting 1907-1936: The Maria and Barry King Collection,” September 8, 2013-January 5, 2014, no. 71.
Literature
- P.S. Cable, Modern American Painting 1907-1936: The Maria and Barry King Collection, exhibition catalogue, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas, 2013, pp. 177-78, no. 71, illustrated.