Benedict Michael Tatti, Bronze Sculpture Abstract Brutalist Goat or Ram WPA Artist Mounted on Base, c.1950's

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Benedict Tatti (1917-1993) worked in New York city as a sculptor, painter, educator, and video artist. He studied stone and … Read more Benedict Tatti (1917-1993) worked in New York city as a sculptor, painter, educator, and video artist. He studied stone and wood carving under Louis Slobodkin at the Roerich Museum. He later attended the Leonardo da Vinci School of Art studying under Attilio Piccirelli. In l939 he taught adult classes with the Teachers Project of the WPA and attended the Art Students League for three and a half years on full scholarship. He studied under William Zorach and Ossip Zadkine and later became Zorach’s assistant. Later in his career, he attended the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts. During World War II, Tatti served in the United States Army Air Force, where he spent three years assigned to variety of projects. In 1948, Benedict Tatti married Adele Rosenberg in New York City. Throughout his career, Tatti continuously experimented with various media. From 1952-1963, Tatti executed sculptural models of architectural and consumer products for the industrial designers, Raymond Loewy Associates; later he became a color consultant for the firm. In the 1960s, influenced by the Abstract Expressionists, Tatti turned from carving directly in wood and stone to creating assemblage architecture sculptures, using bronze metal and other industrial materials. He was included in the important show "Aspects de la Sculpture Americaine", at Galerie Claude Bernard Paris, France, in October 1960 along with Ibram Lassaw, Theodore Roszak, David Smith, Louise Bourgeois, Danese Corey, Dorothy Dehner, Lin Emery, Lily Ente, David Hayes, Louise Nevelson, Tony Rosenthal, Richard Stankiewicz, Sam Szafran and Benedict Tatti. During this period, Tatti spent summers on Monhegan Island in Maine, where he developed his watercolor techniques. In the 1970s, Tatti, with no previous background in video work developed technology for video imaging. He became an associate member of the Kitchen at the Mercer Arts Center exhibiting his video sculptures along with other early innovators of this new art form. He assisted his brother, Alexander Tatti and his nephew, Steven Tatti on the restoration of the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island. Benedict Tatti received solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries in the United States and abroad, including the Burr Gallery, Claude Bernard Galleries, ACA Gallery, Puma Gallery, Weyhe Gallery and Metropolitan Museum of Art, under the Artists for Victory Program, Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Art, Northeast Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Roko Gallery. Also, Tatti's work was regularly featured in annual exhibitions of several arts organizations: American Society of Contemporary Artists, Annual Avant Garde Festival, Audubon Artists, Brooklyn Society of Artists, and Painters and Sculptors Society of New Jersey. His awards included the National Soldier Art Competition at the National Gallery of Art (1945); Artist-in-Residence, National Center of Experiments TV, San Francisco, California, (1969); and the Creative Artists Public Service (CAPS), (1972). Tatti's artwork is in the permanent collections of the American Numismatic Society, Art Students League, Dumbarton Oaks, Monhegan Museum, Smithsonian Institution, and the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts. He won first prize for his sculpture, “Soldier”, in the National Soldier Art Competition, which was exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. and the Chicago Art Institute. He continued to direct carve both wood and stone into the decade of the fifties. He also developed his watercolor techniques during summer visits to Monhegan Island, Maine, where many of his friends summered. See less