Venice Watercolor, 1973
Watercolor on paper
Gift: Anton Segerstom, 2007
Born in Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1930’s, Billy Al Bengston moved to Los Angeles in 1948. Begston attended Manual Arts High School where he developed an interest in ceramics. He became an avid surfer and while working as a lifeguard, he befriended fellow surfer (and later artist) Kenneth Price. At the California College of Arts and Crafts he studied painting with Richard Diebenkorn and participated in a group exhibition at the avant-garde Six Gallery in San Francisco in 1956. Later, he enrolled in what is now the Otis Art Institute and studied ceramics with Peter Voulkos. His attention gradually shifted from ceramics to painting.
Bengston lives and works in Venice Beach, California.
Mecca Dracula, 1968
Lithograph
Gift: Anton Segerstrom, 2007
