Thomas Benrimo US, 1887-1958

Born in San Francisco in 1887, Thomas Benrimo began to draw at a young age. But at nineteen, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed his all of this early work.

His family moved to New York, where, despite suffering from tuberculosis, he studied at the Art Students League and worked as as an art director for a theater company.

After seeing the famous 1913 Amory Show, Benrimo renewed his commitment to his own work while also working in advertising. His World War I commission to serve as a ship camouflage designer, following by an invitation to become a lecturer eventually turned him toward teaching.  and lecturer proved to further his teaching career. He then taught at the Pratt Institute from 1935-1939, where he was one of the first in this country to introduce the teaching methods developed at the German Bauhaus School of design.

In addition to his successful career as a stage designer and commercial artist, Benrimo remained committed to painting -- although only a few of this early Cubist paintings of this early period survive.

Benrimo moved to Taos, New Mexico, in 1939, where he was finally able to paint full-time. His work evolved through periods of Cubism and Surrealism and pure abstraction, often showing influences of antiquity, traditional painting and architecture. But it was the wide expanses and supportive art community of Northern New Mexico that truly sung to his heart.