Kopman, Benjamin
(1887-1965)
“Street Scene”

Artist Biography

Benjamin Kopman (1887-1965)

Born/lived: Born in Russia; he came to the United States in 1903, Lived in New Jersey, New York; Died NJ

Known: Painter, lithographer, educator, illustrator, sculptor, writer. He often used heavy black outlines in the style of Georges Roualt and Henri Rousseau. He became well known as an “American Scene” artist.

Studied: National Academy of Design

Member: Allied Artists of America; American Group; American Artists Congress; AEA.

Exhibited: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Corcoran Gallery; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; “NYC Works Progress Administration Art”; Parsons School of Design; Art Institute of Chicago; Salons of America; Carnegie Institute; Gallery Claude Bernard, Paris, Invitational; Peoples Art Guild; the Jewish Art Center, NY; Philips Memorial Gallery, Washington, DC; with Claude Buck (his brother-in-law) as part of the Introspective group of painters.

Work: Brooklyn Museum; Whitney Museum of American Art; Modern Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Carnegie Institute; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Philips Memorial Gallery, Washington, DC; Butler Art Institute; WMA; Detroit Institute of Art; Academy of Arts and Letters; Tel-Aviv, Ain-Harod Museum, Israel; PC; Nelson Gallery of Art; Works Progress Administration (WPA) artist.

Publications: Illustrated Crime and Punishment, 1944; Frankenstein, 1948