JOHANNA BENOIT

From: LeGrace Benson:

The paintings of Johanna Benoit, who just received an M.F.A. from Cornell University, are currently shown at the Women's Community Building in downtown Ithaca, New York. The collection deserves a wider public. Benoit's close-knit family life is a source for many of the images, and, deeper than that, appears to be the foundation upon which this strong work rests. There is nothing sentimental here, however. Benoit is an acute and sensitive observer of relationships between and among people. She reports with a line just so, a patch of color exactly of such tone; and a viewer can grasp relationships as surely as if they had been acted out on stage. The lines are free, the color expressive, right to the edge of abandonment. But not truly abandoned: for Benoit disciplines her medium in the spirited service of telling how it is amongst these particular people, right now.

If I could scan in some of the pieces, you could see for yourselves the delicate power of Benoit's works. I have no notion of what she learned at Cornell, but she brings to light what she has learned as a Haitian in America. This is a young artist to watch.

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