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Benjamin Miller (1877-1964), American
Expressionist Woodblock Artist, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied
at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and the Cincinnati Art
Academy under Duveneck, Meakin, and Sharp. Traveling in Europe in 1919, he
was influenced by the vigorous revival of the woodcut, especially those of
Gauguin and Nolde and Rohlfs, and turned to European Modernism for stylist
inspiration. From 1924 to 1935 he created powerful, emotionally charged
woodcuts that received recognition and international acclaim both in this
country and abroad. His abstract works, completed in 1935, are among the
earliest abstract prints made in the United States. Physical illness
prevented him from continuing his career as an artist after that time. He
died in Cincinnati in 1964. HI woodblock prints are represented in many
institutions including the Bibliotheque Nationale, the New York Public
Library, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Cincinnati Art Museum.
"In little more than a decade, he mastered a difficult medium – the
woodcut – and forged a distinctive style that reflected a subtle
understanding of and deep sympathy for advanced trends in modern art,
especially the work of contemporary German artists such as Kathe Kollwitz
and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. The lovely linear woodcuts and abstract images
Miller created in the early 1930s are exquisitely drawn and rank among the
finest prints of this type produced in the United States at that time.
Allen Bernard’s catalogue raisonné is a welcome addition to the literature
on twentieth-century American printmaking and on the important role that
Cincinnati played in its history.”
– Timothy Rub, Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum.
“Miller’s work can stand with the very best
graphic art being produced in Paris, Berlin, or New York in the first
quarter of the twentieth century."
–Joseph G. Goddu, Director of Prints at Hirschl and
Adler Galleries, New York City
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