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Recent Paintings for sale...... #1....
FRANCISCO BENITEZ.... (born in Taos, New Mexico in 1967) currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he creates his painted Caravaggesque narratives.
His life and work have been shaped by his varied background--Catalan, Castillian, Puerto Rican, and Native American, and by his varied places of residence--Campania (Italy), Southern France, Spain, and New Mexico.
Benítez studied Philosophy at St. John's College in Santa Fe, and then pursued art studies at the Art Student's League (New York City), NYU, the Facultad de Bellas Artes in Granada, Spain, and the University of New Mexico (BFA).
Before returning to Santa Fe, Benítez spent four years in Southern France working and studying the methods of the Old Masters on his own. He builds up his work using 17th century Italian and French methods of glazing semi-transparent colors over a monochromatic "grisaille", using historic pigments and mediums such as the Maroger Medium (used by Rubens and many Baroque artists), to achieve paintings possessing the optical resonance of the Old Masters, yet which speak to today's issues and concerns.
Benítez main inspiration comes from Caravaggio, who revolutionized painting by dramatizing the pictorial narrative tradition with the spotlight device, and by giving greater psychological presence and complexity to his subjects. By continuing this tradition into present times, Benítez pursues his belief that paint is still capable of expressing the pathos of his subjects and the human condition through depictions of the ever-changing and ephemeral qualities of the flesh.
