Lotus Dracula
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
lithograph (stone) in light pearly-blue on German Etching paper
Dimensions
sheet: 34.4 x 33 cm (13 9/16 x 13 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Dorothy J. and Benjamin B. Smith
Accession Number
1983.18.291
Art Historical Context
Billy Al Bengston's *Lotus Dracula* (1968) is a striking lithograph created on stone and printed in a delicate light pearly-blue on Etching paper. Measuring 34.4 x 33 cm, this intimate print captures the artist's fascination with floral motifs, rendered with the crisp precision of traditional stone lithography—a technique that allows for rich tonal variations and a painterly quality directly transferred from the artist's hand on the limestone slab. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's modern print collection (Department CG-W), it was generously gifted by Dorothy J. and Benjamin B. Smith. B...
About the Artist
Billy Al Bengston
Billy Al Bengston, born on June 7, 1934, in Dodge City, Kansas, embodied the sun-soaked, rebellious spirit of postwar Los Angeles after his family relocated there in 1948. His artistic training began at Los Angeles City College in 1952, where he studied ceramics under Bernard Kester. He then pursued painting under Richard Diebenkorn and Saburo Hasegawa at the California College of Arts and Crafts ...