Montana Series
Montana Picasso Two
Montana Picasso Two is a gouache painting that advances the series into deeper abstraction — landscape as felt pressure rather than visible reference.
Original work by Ben Banker
Released through 888
Ben Banker, 2023
Original work · Gouache on 140 lb cold press paper
Available — direct from studioPrivate placement available
Direct from studio
Studio acquisition (current): $4,500 USD
1 of 1 — once acquired, this work is no longer available
Comparable works in gallery contexts: $8,000–$15,000
Placed below comparable gallery valuation.
Placement removes this work from availability
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Studio note — Available — inquiries handled directly with the studio.
Shipping — Delivery arranged individually. Professional art transport begins at $500. Insured shipping typically begins at $300. For higher-value placements, the artist may deliver the work personally.
Montana Picasso Two is the second work in the Montana series, made the following year. Where the first painting holds the tension between figuration and structural decomposition, this piece moves further into abstraction — the landscape reference becomes less explicit, the Picasso-derived spatial logic more dominant.
The shift is intentional. Banker was working in Montana again, and the initial conditions that generated the first painting were now understood. The second work is not a repeat of that experience but a development of its formal consequences: what happens when the method is pushed past the point where the source material remains visible.
What the painting asks of the viewer is attention to structure rather than subject. Pattern and plane hold the surface. The landscape that originated the series is still present as a pressure on the organization of the work — felt rather than seen. This is the point in the series where the formal logic of Montana Picasso becomes fully legible as a system rather than a response to a place.
Works placed in private collections. Selected works acquired internationally.
Part of the ongoing body of work by Ben Banker, a gouache painter based in Madison, WI.
Original work by Ben Banker
Available for private collection and inquiry
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