Billy Al Bengston, influential Los Angeles painter and Ferus Gallery artist, dies at 88

Billy Al Bengston, a prominent artist from Los Angeles whose creations anticipated Finish Fetish and Pop art, passed away in 2022. He was born in 1934 in Dodge City, Kansas, and relocated to Los Angeles during his teenage years. At CalArts in Oakland, he studied under Richard Diebenkorn and Saburo Hasegawa before continuing his education at Otis College. Bengston began showcasing his work at the iconic Ferus Gallery in 1957, where he held five exhibitions until its closure in 1967. His early abstract paintings, influenced by custom-car and motorcycle culture, featured innovative techniques. Notable works include the 1967 piece Big Jim McLain, and later figurative works like Didoufri (1989) and Y Tu Pelo Tambien (2001). His first retrospective was designed by Frank Gehry at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1968, followed by exhibitions in Houston in 1988 and Connecticut in 2017.