John Benson (artisan)

John Everett Benson (born 1939), known as Fud, is an American calligrapher, stonecarver and typeface designer who has created inscriptions for monuments including the John F. Kennedy memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, the National Gallery of Art, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC.

Work

John Everett Benson was born in Newport, Rhode Island. He began working for his father, John Howard Benson, at the age of fifteen at The John Stevens Shop. He studied sculpture at Rhode Island School of Design.[1] In 1964, Benson and John Hegnauer were commissioned to design and carve the inscriptions on the John F. Kennedy memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. In Rhode Island, Benson carved a number of inscriptions at the University of Rhode Island's Robert L. Carothers Library and Learning Commons.[2][3]

Hand-carved gravestone at Kennedy memorial, Arlington National Cemetery

He has designed and carved gravestones for Tennessee Williams, Lillian Hellman, and George Balanchine.

He has created monumental architectural inscriptions for famous buildings such as the Prudential Center in Boston, the National Gallery of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, Rockefeller Center, Chicago Mercantile Exchange Center, and the Armand Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles. He lettered the date stones of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC, the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, DC and the Federal Courthouse in Boston. He designed the National Geographic Society headquarters lintel, West Point's MacArthur Monument, and the reverse of a medal for the National Gallery of Art.[4]

He has drawn various photo-typefaces for architectural applications and a titling typeface, called Aardvark, for The Font Bureau in Boston, Alexa, Balzano, and Caliban.[5]

In 1993, he left the direction of The John Stevens Shop to his son, Nicholas "Nick" Benson and returned to sculpting full-time.[6]

Benson is currently doing portrait and figurative work in clay and bronze at his studio in Newport, Rhode Island.[7]

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References
  1. "Font Designer - John Benson". Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  2. "University Libraries". web.uri.edu. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  3. "The Library Inscriptions – Nippenowantawem". web.uri.edu. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  4. Kopper, Philip (March–April 1977). "Life in Stone: A Young Master's Antique Art". Quest. 1 (1): 13–18.
  5. "John Benson - Font Designer of Alexa, Balzano, Caliban". LinoType. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  6. "Written in Stone: Master Stone Carver and Letterer Nick Benson". Smithsonian Folklife. Archived from the original on 18 December 2015. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  7. "The John Stevens Shop". Retrieved 29 September 2010.
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