William Behnken
About the Artist
William Behnken born in 1943, has been a life-long resident of New York. He began his formal studies as an artist at the High School of Music and Art and earned his M.A. and B.A, degrees at the City College of New York where he has been teaching for over three decades. Mr. Behnken has also taught drawing and printmaking at the Provincetown Art Association and at the National Academy of Design School of Fine Arts, and is currently an Instructor in Printmaking at The Art Students League.
Mr. Behnken is a member and former president of the Society of American Graphic Artists and is an elected member of the National Academy of Design. His work has won awards from the National Academy as well as from Audubon Artists and numerous other juried exhibitions. Among the most recent are a Gold Medal of Honor from Audubon Artists, the Emile and Dines Carlsen Award , and the Ralph Fabri / Leo Meissner Prizes from the National Academy of Design. Mr. Behnken was honored by the City College Art Alumni Association by being given their Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2006 the Print Club of Albany commissioned Mr. Behnken to produce their Annual Collector’s Print.
Mr. Behnken’s working process was the subject of an article in American Artists Magazine in May 2007.
Mr. Behnken’s work has been included in numerous group and solo exhibitions both nationally and internationally and his work is in such collections as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Brooklyn Musem, the New York Historical Society, the Mississippi Museum, the Indianapolis Museum , the Zimmerli Art Museum, Bowdoin College Museum, the New Orleans Museum, and the New York Public Library Print Room, and in the Permanent Collections of the National Academy and the Art Students League, among others.
Artist’s Statement
In my work I try to create a harmonious and cohesive composition using elements distilled from my visual and emotional experiences in order to give these fleeting moments a permanence and memorable order. Over a lifetime of working I have found that for me, tonal values and light become the expressive equivalents of mystery and introspection as well as for the ideals of resolution and fulfillment. I have come to focus my skills on printmaking because it offered me an involvement in a medium that demanded disciplined control as well as a sensual and rich material experience.
Prints
William Behnken
“Close of Day”
Medium: Stone Lithograph
Date: 2019
Sheet size: 11 X 30 in. (each image in this suite is 5 X 7 in.)
Edition: 40
Signed, dated, numbered and titled in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $950
William Behnken
“The Embrace of Winter”
Medium: Lithograph
Year: 2017
Image size: 12 x 13.5 in. (30.5 x 34.2 cm).
Paper size: 18 x 20 in.
Edition: 40
Signed, titled, and dated in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $850
William Behnken
“Pearls and Black Lace / Winter Dusk”
Medium: Aquatint and soft-ground etching
Year: 2016
Edition: 30
Image size: 14.75 X 16.8125 in.
Paper size: 21 X 23 in.
Signed, titled, dated and numbered in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $700
William Behnken
“Approaching Night”
Medium Aquatint
Image Size: 19.375 X 23.875 in.
Edition: 30
Signed, titled, numbered and dated in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,200
William Behnken
“Gyotaku Memories”
Medium: Aquatint
Image Size: 17.625 X 23.875 in.
Edition: 50
Signed, titled, numbered and dated in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $650
William Behnken
“Early Autumn/In Memoriam”
Medium: Aquatint
Date: 2014
Paper size: 18 X 24 in.
Image size: 13 1/2 X 18 in.
Edition # 13/30
Condition: Mint
Price: $900
William Behnken
“Night Passage/Noble & Serene”
Medium: Aquatint
Date: 2014
Paper size: 17.5 X 30 in.
Image size: 12 X 24 in.
Edition: 30
Condition: Mint
Price: $900
William Behnken
“Summer Crossing”
Lithograph
2012
15 15/16 x 18 in.
Edition: 25
Signed, titled and dated in pencil.
Description: New York Harbor.
Condition: Mint
Price: $800
William Behnken
“Summer Crossing II”
Color Lithograph
2013
15 15/16 x 18 in.
Edition: 25
Signed, titled and dated in pencil.
Description: New York Harbor.
Condition: Mint
Price: $950
William Behnken
‘Round the Town
Aquatint
2010
17 5/8 x 18 15/16 in.
Edition: 30
Signed, titled and dated in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $900
William Behnken
“A Welcome Light”
Lithograph
1987
14 x 19 1/4 in.
Edition: 100
Signed, titled and dated in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $300
William Behnken
“Art and Illusion”
Aquatint
2002
21 ¾ x 22 ¾ in.
Edition: 50
Signed, titled and dated in pencil.
This print is included in the permanent collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Condition: Mint
Price: $700
William Behnken
“Bronx Crossing”
Aquatint
1991
17 ¾ x 23 ¾ in.
Edition: 50
Signed, titled and dated in pencil. Condition: Mint
Price: $950
William Behnken
“Counterpoint”
Mezzotint
1999
8 x 11 ¾ in.
Edition: 40
Signed, titled and dated in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $500
William Behnken
“Fibonaccis Chamber”
Aquatint
2000
Paper size: 27 ¾ x 21 7/8 in.
Edition: 50
Signed, titled and dated in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $600
William Behnken
“From Kingsbridge Heights”
Aquatint
1989
17 5/8 x 23 5/8 in.
Edition: 50,
A.P.’s X
Signed, titled and dated in pencil.
This print is included in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum.
Condition: Mint
Price: $1,100
William Behnken
“Gift of Light”
Aquatint
1994
11 x 23 3/4 in.
Edition: 50
Signed, titled and dated in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $450
William Behnken
“Going Home”
Aquatint
2006
17 3/4 x 23 3/4 in.
Edition: 50
Signed, titled and dated in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $950
William Behnken
“Harlem River Nocturne: Light and Steel”
Aquatint
2008
17 3/4 x 23 3/4 in.
Edition: 50
Signed, titled and dated in pencil.
Received the Ralph Fabre and Leo Meissner prizes and Charles Loring Elliott medal for graphics at the 184th Annual Exhibition from the National Academy of Design.
Condition: Mint
Price: $950
William Behnken
“Heat (Bradford Street, Provincetown, MA)”
Etching
2009
14 x 16 13/16 in.
Edition: 30
Signed, titled and dated in pencil.
Condition: Mint
Price: $550