Beniamino Bufano

Beniamino Bufano was a Californiabased Italian American sculptor, best known for his largescale monuments representing peace. His modernist work often featured smoothly rounded animals and relatively simple shapes. He worked in ceramics, stone, stainless steel, and mosaic, and sometimes combined two or more of these media. Some of his works are cast stone replicas. He sometimes went by the name Benvenuto Bufano because he admired Benvenuto Cellini. His youthful nickname was Bene, which was often anglicized into Benny. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in November 1938.

Bufano was born in San Fele, Italy. He came to New York with his mother andsiblings in 1902. There is considerable question about his date of birth. In fact, it is difficult to establish the truth about many of the stories about his life. A 1972 biography by Sonia Brown and Howard Wilkening is based on interviews with the artist and extensive research but is not conclusive. As the artist admitted, I just told each person not only what I thought he wanted to hear, but I related it in the way I thought appropriate for him.

Source: Wikipedia