The Shift Toward Abstraction

Washington D.C. provides the starting point for Benjamin F. Berlin, born in 1887. The trajectory of his life changes in 1914 when he moves to Los Angeles. He begins his career rooted in the tradition of portrait painting, working with a realistic style that seeks to capture the physical likeness of his subjects. This period of representational work defines his early years in the California art scene, but the stability of realism soon gives way to something more fractured and experimental.

By the 1920s, the focus of his canvas shifts. The recognizable forms of his early portraits dissolve into the geometric language of Cubism and the fragmented planes of Abstraction. This transition marks a departure from the literal toward the structural. He moves away from the surface of the subject to explore the underlying architecture of the image.

Training and Artistic Evolution

His technical foundation is built through rigorous study at several institutions. He refines his craft at the Cannon Art School and the University of Southern California. His development is further shaped by a brief, intense period of study under John H. Rich and William V. Cahill. These influences coalesce as he moves into the more radical territories of modernism.

The evolution of his style is marked by several key developments:

• A transition from realistic portraiture to Cubist structures.
• The adoption of Surrealist elements in his later compositions.
• Participation in the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project.
• A move toward increasingly abstract and non-objective forms.

The Modernist Legacy

Berlin becomes a figure within the early Los Angeles modernist movement. His work begins to lean into the surreal, blending figures with abstract views that defy simple classification. This period of his life is characterized by a push toward the non-objective, a direction that some observers suggest was influenced by his personal struggles. His output during these years reflects a tension between the human form and the void of abstraction.

His presence in the art community is cemented by his inclusion in significant collections and exhibitions. His work resides in the Long Beach Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Even as his life reaches its end in 1939, the shift he helped lead in the Los Angeles scene remains visible in the works he left behind, particularly in his surrealist and abstract compositions.