30 Facts About Beniamino Bufano

Beniamino "Bene" Bufano was an Italian American sculptor, best known for his large-scale monuments representing peace and his modernist work which often featured smoothly rounded animals and relatively simple shapes.

Beniamino Bufano worked in ceramics, stone, stainless steel, and mosaic, sometimes combining two or more of these media; some of his works are cast stone replicas.

Beniamino Bufano used a variety of names used sometimes went by the name Benvenuto Bufano because he admired Benvenuto Cellini.

Beniamino Bufano came to the United States in 1901, with his mother and siblings.

The family eventually settled down in New York when Bufano was still young.

One source says Beniamino Bufano's was one eleven siblings who came the US; another source puts the figure at sixteen; Beniamino Bufano once said he was one of fifteen children.

The relationship ended abruptly as Beniamino Bufano, charged with making maquettes from Mrs Whitney's sketches, consistently altered them to his own design.

Beniamino Bufano rented a room in San Francisco's Chinatown, made some friends there, and became fascinated with Chinese art.

Beniamino Bufano was given additional sculpture projects at the exposition, panels for the Arches of Triumph and a festoon over the main door of the Palace of Fine Arts.

Roosevelt used the occasion to inveigh against cubist art, but singled out "Bennie" Beniamino Bufano's prize-winning sculpture for praise.

Shortly after the United States entered World War I in 1917, Beniamino Bufano accidentally cut off half of his right index finger.

Beniamino Bufano decided to mail the "trigger finger" to President Woodrow Wilson as a protest against the war.

Beniamino Bufano allowed a legend to develop that he had intentionally severed the finger for this purpose.

Beniamino Bufano traveled to China in 1920, encountering the poet Witter Bynner and working on a portrait head of Bynner en route.

Beniamino Bufano apprenticed himself to a master potter to learn about glazes, as planned, but he extended his stay and traveled around the country, meeting Sun Yat-sen and John Dewey.

Beniamino Bufano proceeded to open his art school, the Da Vinci Art School, in the Hawaiian Building on the 1915 exposition grounds, but it closed within months.

In 1925, Beniamino Bufano had a solo show at the Arden Galleries in New York City, he was featured in International Studio magazine, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired his ceramic sculpture Honeymoon Couple.

Beniamino Bufano learned that her husband had earlier had a common-law wife named Marie Jones and a daughter named Aloha M Jones-Bufano.

Beniamino Bufano spent close to four years in France, where he bought a large block of stone and carved a statue of St Francis of Assisi, which he intended as a gift to the city of San Francisco Once it was finished, the Depression was underway, aesthetic objections were raised by San Franciscans who saw photographs of the work, and more than two decades were to pass before enough money was raised to ship it to California.

Beniamino Bufano became a naturalized US citizen in November 1938.

Beniamino Bufano created several animal sculptures for the new Aquatic Park.

Beniamino Bufano made drawings and models for a 156-foot-tall St Francis to sit on top of a high hill.

Beniamino Bufano was commissioned to design a block-long sculptural frieze of athletes for George Washington High School in San Francisco, but then was accused of including likenesses of Joseph Stalin and Harry Bridges.

Beniamino Bufano denied this charge but lost the commission, ostensibly because he was taking too long and kept changing the design.

Beniamino Bufano received another federal job in 1940, head of the art division of the National Youth Administration for San Francisco.

Beniamino Bufano served on the San Francisco Art Commission from 1944 to 1948.

In 1950 Beniamino Bufano created a large mural for Moar's Cafeteria in San Francisco.

Beniamino Bufano worked in North Beach, and later, South of Market, his rent covered by Trader Vic's owner Victor Bergeron, while living at the Press Club in downtown San Francisco.

Beniamino Bufano continued to create art and to be seen locally as a colorful character until his death from heart disease in 1970.

Beniamino Bufano is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California.