Special Edition - February 2026
The Behr Paintings (A Humble Take on the Benjamin Moore Paintings)
I’m not sure when I first got interested in Frank Stella’s Benjamin Moore Paintings. I’ve certainly had a long-standing fascination with them. It’s likely that I’ve seen images in exhibition catalogs over the years, but it was most probably the sale of the Benjamin Moore Paintings at Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale in New York in 2020 that crystallized my fixation. Regrettably, I didn’t get to see those works firsthand, and so my connection, like so many things these days, was a virtual one established while scrolling through the auction preview images. Ever since then, the thought of replicating the Benjamin Moore Paintings has been on my mind.
A Concise History of the Benjamin Moore Series
The first Benjamin Moore Paintings consisted of a set of six large canvases painted in 1961, each measuring 6.5 by 6.5 feet. The series takes its name from the brand of paint used by Stella, a commercial Benjamin Moore flat alkyd house paint straight out of the can. Each work showcased one of six distinct geometric patterns and was painted in one of six colours (red, blue, green, yellow, orange or purple). The titling of each work (as opposed to the series) was inspired by Civil War and American Revolution references: Delaware Crossing (painted in red), Hampton Roads (blue), Island No.10 (green), New Madrid (orange), Palmito Ranch (yellow) and Sabine Pass (purple).
Stella believed that the colours and geometric patterns were interchangeable and that any combination would work side-by-side. To prove his point, in the same year and into 1962, he completed thirty-six smaller versions (affectionately known as the miniatures), each measuring 12 x 12 inches, whereby he mixed and matched the colours and patterns. Each geometric pattern was painted in each colour and six groupings were created.
The large-scale Benjamin Moore Paintings debuted in Stella’s first European one-man show at Galerie Lawrence in Paris in 1961 as did thirty-five of the smaller versions. The last of the miniatures and, perhaps the most famous, was commissioned by Andy Warhol and painted in 1962.
The Behr Spin
The Behr Paintings are inspired by the entirety of Benjamin Moore Series, but more specifically, the set of six miniatures that was sold at Christie’s in 2020. It is that particular colour/pattern combination that is replicated in the Behr Paintings.
Frank Stella’s Benjamin Moore Paintings (six works), 1961, alkyd on canvas (each 12 x 12 in.), auctioned at Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale on October 6, 2020 in New York. Estimate: USD $8,000,000 - $10,000,000. Price Realized: USD $8,830,000.
While numerous obviosities and many nuances exist relative to the Benjamin Moore Paintings, the hope was that the Behr Paintings would evoke a similar visual connection and vibe.
The actual Benjamin Moore color codes used by Stella are not known. That opened the door for a bit of improvisation. Behr paint happens to be a personal favorite, and given that it is relatively more affordable, particularly in economical tester jars, using Behr brand acrylic latex paint in a flat finish seemed like an appropriate proxy, and hence, the Behr Paintings. The colours selected were consistent with Stella’s palette and reflect the purest of such colours as per Behr’s website recommendations. The red is Flirt Alert (P150-7); green, Park Picnic (P390-7); blue, Beacon Blue (P510-7); yellow, Buzz In (P300-6); purple, Just A Fairy Tale (P560-6); and, orange, Tart Orange (HDC-MD-27).
Stella executed the works freehand with remarkable precision whereas tape was used to provide the pattern guidelines for the Behr Paintings. Also, burlap was the chosen surface medium instead of canvas to compensate for the many accidents d’ateliers in the painting process and to project a less rigid feel, the idea being that the roughness of the weave might result in a fuzziness more akin to the feathered touch in Stella’s earlier works.
Three sets of Behr Paintings exist. The proof of concept (POC) version is a collection of the first attempts along with a few do overs; the next set, the official first version, reflects some improvements thereon, nuances really; and, the last one (V#2) is distinctive by a variation in one of the works, the yellow one, where the spacing of the diagonals is a more accurate rendition of Stella’s originals, an inconsistency noticed only after the first two sets were completed. Specific titling of each work was dropped in favour of the series name (Behr Paintings) and the generic colour of the work (red, blue, green, yellow, orange or purple). POC and V#2 nomenclatures referring to the different sets are also included in the titling when applicable.
The Three Coincidences
The story of the Behr Paintings would not be complete without mention of the three coincidences that occurred at and around the time of painting.
The first and probably the eeriest was while outlining the diagonals in the yellow work of the POC set, I received an Armory Fair preview by a local gallery featuring pieces by Canadian artist Tammi Campbell. One of the highlights was her take on the very Benjamin Moore miniature I was working on at that time - same pattern, same colour. It could have been any of six patterns and any of six colours, and that’s even before considering the randomness of her working on the series at all.
The second coincidence was while researching Stella in September 2025, I came across a catalog of earlier works, the Black Paintings, which were seminal in his career and important building blocks for the Benjamin Moore Paintings. I was so captivated by the body of work that I took a picture of the catalog cover as a reminder to do a deeper dive at some point in the future. A month later, I was in Los Angeles for a wedding. With some spare time, I visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) where I unexpectedly came face-to-face with the actual painting on the catalog cover.
The third relates to the provenance of the Benjamin Moore Paintings. Stella’s catalogue raisonné, Paintings 1958 to 1965, is a book that compiles all the artist’s oeuvre spanning that period, including detailed descriptions and a record of who owned the works since they left the artist’s studio. The large Benjamin Moore Paintings and the thirty-six smaller versions are included therein. At the time of publication of the compendium in 1986, the owner of the specific set of Benjamin Moore Paintings that was the source inspiration for the Behr Paintings resided in Thousand Oaks, California. While at the previously mentioned wedding, I happened to be staying in Thousand Oaks.
As at this time, Behr Paintings hang above fireplaces in London, UK and Montréal, Québec, with a pending installation slated for a similar spot in Toronto, Ontario.
On the subject of Hogtown, it’s kind of amazing that notwithstanding some horrible performances, the Dinos find themselves in fifth place in the East. That’s perhaps more a statement about their in-conference competition than the strength of the team, but we’ll take it. With the pinnacle of the East not ridiculously far out of reach, the anticipation was that the team brass would make a splash before the trading deadline. Names like Ja, Giannis, and Domantas were bandied about, tantalizing and teasing fans. Well, the deadline came and went without much fanfare. The Ochai Enigma was shipped out in a deal that landed CP3, a future Hall of Famer, only to find out in the same breath that the aging former superstar would not report for duty. The manoeuvre, however, did pave the way for the follow-on acquisition of Trayce Jackson-Davis, a 6’9” big who can hopefully provide some paint presence. At the end of the day, the ultimate winners were the players on the current roster as management clearly decided to run with them. We’ll see how that goes.
For more information on Frank Stella or the Benjamin Moore Paintings, and the fate of the Dinos in the next stretch of the season, “Just Google It”.
There you have it Sportsfans,
MC Giggers
(https://mcgiggers.tumblr.com) Reporter’s Certification
I, MC Giggers, hereby certify that the views expressed in this report accurately reflect my personal views and that no part of my compensation was or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific views expressed herein.
I also certify that I may or may not own, directly or indirectly, works of artists mentioned in this report and that I may or may not have a strong bias for such artists and, more generally, for “Pictures of Nothing”.











