Beni Bufano

Beniamino Bufano
San Francisco 1923
Born	Beniamino Benevento Bufano October 15, 1890? San Fele, Italy
Died	August 18, 1970 San Francisco, CA
Resting place	Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, CA
Nationality	Italian-American
Other names	Bene Bufano, Benny Bufano, Ben Bufano, Benvenuto Bufano
Occupation	Artist, Sculptor
Children	Aloha M. Bufano, Erskine Scott Bufano

Beniamino Bufano (October 15, 1890? – August 18, 1970) was a California-based Italian American sculptor, best known for his large-scale 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 and 11 siblings 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."

Another biography was published by his ex-wife Virginia Howard ten years after his death and includes many stories she would have heard from him. As she wrote, "Benny revived lying, made it an art and a way of life, a way to get along in a cockeyed world. Yet lying is a misleading word to explain the thought processes of the little artist. If he lied, he was not aware of being dishonest—he was nonmoral, like a child."

The only biography with footnotes is the limited-edition volume by Lois Rather published in 1975 and focusing on Bufano's dealings with the federal government.

He evidently studied at the Art Students League of New York during 1913–15 with the famous sculptors Herbert Adams, Paul Manship, and James Earle Fraser and assisted them with their work. He also assisted Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney at her home studio in Roslyn, New York in about 1913.