Gershon Benjamin

Gershon Benjamin (January 6, 1899 – September 2, 1985) was an American modern painter. Born in Piatra Neamț, Romania, he immigrated with his family to Montreal at the age of two, to escape the persecution of Jews throughout Eastern Europe at the time. As a youth he was trained by Edmond Dyonnet and then mentored by landscape painter Arthur-Dominique Rozaire, whom he intended to follow to Los Angeles but his parents forbid it.

In 1923, Benjamin moved to New York City and married actress Hilda Zelda Cohen. He worked nights in the art department of The Sun and enrolled at Art Students League of New York, Cooper Union, and The Educational Alliance, where he began to etch and continued to draw and paint. His influences were Henri Matisse, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Édouard Vuillard, and Rembrandt. He was also inspired by Japanese prints, folk art, and primitive painting. He formed a friendship with Milton Avery soon after Avery arrived in New York in 1925 and their families became close. Benjamin was part of a circle of artists which included Avery, Wallace Putnam, Mark Rothko, and Adolph Gottlieb.

The Benjamins moved to Free Acres, New Jersey in the 1930s, drawn by the communal aspects and large concentration of visual artists, writers, and actors. Benjamin lost his job when The Sun closed in 1950, and then concentrated on painting. Gershon and Zelda became very involved in the community; he taught summer art courses and later instructed inmates in a drug rehabilitation program at Caldwell Penitentiary, while she directed plays at the community theater. Benjamin died in Free Acres at the age of 86, shortly after completing two retrospectives at Drew University and New Jersey Institute of Technology, his first solo exhibitions in 25 years.