"Honolulu Watercolor" by Billy Al Bengston

Patti and Coop Cooprider attended multiple art events as they immersed themselves into living in the San Diego, CA community, to include the Annual "Gingerbread City" Celebration sponsored by Sally and John Thornton, who supported the Epilepsy Society of San Diego. In 1997 the Coopriders acquired the "Honolulu Watercolor" signed and authenticated by Billy Al Bengston himself. From the same "The Cool School" which Bengston was a proud member of (see article) Patti and Coop happened also to acquire a Craig Kauffman work they admired for many years.

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Billy Al Bengston is a contemporary American artist perhaps best known for his radical use of the aesthetics of Californian “Kustom Kar” and motorcycle culture of the late 1950s. Working in both painting and sculpture, his psychedelically colorful works feature mandala-like shapes with imagery derived from symbols, chevrons, and iris flowers. Bengston has often used the industrial tools of custom car makers, particularly spray paint and lacquer applied to sheets of aluminum. Born on June 7, 1934 in Dodge City, KA, the artist studied under Richard Diebenkorn and Saburo Hasegawa at the California College of Arts and Crafts before moving to Los Angeles. There, Bengston began showing at the famed Ferus Gallery and established himself as part of a group that rejected the stereotype of the artist as a tormented individual, alongside famed Californian artists like John McCracken, Robert Irwin, and Ed Ruscha. Today, his works can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, among others. Bengston lives and works in Venice, CA