Players Dracula Segundo
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View on museum website →Medium
lithograph (stone) in black on Magnani Italia paper
Dimensions
sheet: 13.8 x 13.3 cm (5 7/16 x 5 1/4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Dorothy J. and Benjamin B. Smith
Accession Number
1983.18.272
Art Historical Context
Billy Al Bengston's *Players Dracula Segundo* (1968) is a striking black lithograph on premium Magnani Italia paper, measuring a intimate 13.8 x 13.3 cm. Created using traditional stone lithography—a 19th-century technique where greasy crayon drawings on Bavarian limestone are inked and printed, allowing for rich tonal gradations—this print exemplifies Bengston's exploration of precise, graphic forms during the vibrant Los Angeles art scene of the late 1960s. Bengston, a key figure in California's "Cool School" and Finish Fetish movement, blended surf culture, automotive aesthetics, and pop i...
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 ...