Charles Benefiel (b. 1967)
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT NEW YORK COLLECTION
Charles Benefiel (b. 1967)

Hygienic Toys 2, 1995

Details
Charles Benefiel (b. 1967)
Hygienic Toys 2, 1995
ink, tea and furniture varnish on paper
60 x 40 in.
Provenance
American Primitive Gallery, New York

Lot Essay

According to Benefiel:
Hygienic Toys #2 is a very autobiographical self-portrait, created during an intense period of personal struggle in my life. It depicts a beautiful, almost sexless little boy whose body is ravaged and broken by others and by time, barely wrapped in rotted linens as he attempts to pose in quiet, isolated dignity. His visage is nothing more than a reference for his true value and meaning found in the numerical records stamped next to his body. There is no prose to his life, and no need for explanatory text; there is only this ambiguous record of his worth to some unknown keepers lost long ago, deep in some forgotten state archive.

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