Claude R. Bentley

Born in New York City, Claude Bentley studied at Northwestern University and at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was a student of Louis Ritman and Max Kahn. Known for his work as an abstract painter, Bentley took inspiration partly from the simplified geometric forms of pre-Columbian, Mexican Indian and primitive African art. The artist served a tour of duty with the armed forces in North Africa during World War II.

Bentley’s work has been exhibited at institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Denver Art Museum, the Corcoran Gallery, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art and is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.