Five-Star Museum and Sculpture Trail of World-Renowned Artist Benini Open for Free in Texas Hill Country
Oct. 29, 2025 (Marble Falls, TX)—Museo Benini, the five-star museum and sculpture garden of the award-winning Italian artist Benini, is open for free on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and by appointment for group tours in Marble Falls. The 35-acre cultural destination is located less than one hour from Austin.
The museum, established in 2015 to share the evolution of the artist’s work since the 1950s, is one of only 300 single-artist museums in the world. The Benini estate also features a fine arts research library, archives, and an outdoor sculpture trail with works by international artists, including Benini, as well as art events and programs. Benini and his wife Lorraine Benini previously operated a 143-acre museum and sculpture ranch in Johnson City, Texas, on the former mountain estate of President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Since his first show in Milan in 1962, Benini’s art has been featured in 163 solo artist exhibitions in the United States and internationally at renowned universities, museums, and public institutions. On view in the intimate and inviting 6,500-square-foot art museum in Texas Hill Country are 115 of Benini’s works, including the historic Superroses of the ‘70s, the surrealistic works of the ‘80s, the geometrics of the ‘90s, and recent works of a more abstract nature.
Benini, who created “monorealism” in 1962 (one subject, one color), was born in 1941 in Imola, Italy. The artist literally “rose” to fame with his colorful, larger-than-life, and striking paintings of Superroses in the 1970s and ‘80s. On display in his free public galleries, Benini’s roses contain a special significance for the United States, as well as the state of Florida, where Benini lived for several years to be near the libraries of the University of Florida in Gainesville, and where he met Lorraine.
Benini painted L'Ultima Rosa (The Last Rose) in 1987, the same year he became a naturalized U.S. citizen and when President Ronald Reagan officially declared the rose as America's national flower. The painting was created at the request of the three groups who put the proposal through Congress and was ultimately gifted to President Bill Clinton by his mother Virginia Kelley.
Time Seen Through the Inner Eye Turns Black (1985) and Time Seen Through the Inner Eye Turns Red (1985), both 18 feet tall, were publicly unveiled in Orlando, Florida, to commemorate the city’s 110th anniversary. Benini was also formally honored by the Texas House of Representatives in 2001 for his critically-acclaimed career and the Mayor of the city of Ardmore, Oklahoma, proclaimed April 5, 2000 as “Benini Day.”
Benini has lived in numerous locations, including Freeport, Grand Bahama, and Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas, where he spent more than a decade starting in 1988 after becoming enchanted with its famous healing springs. Along with other artists and friends, Benini and Lorraine founded the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in 1991, as well as the Hot Springs Gallery Walk and the Hot Springs Poetry Reading, cultural events that are still active today.
Throughout his career, Benini, known for his colorful paintings and use of rich, highly pigmented, top-of-the-line superior quality acrylics, also assembled small-scale three-dimensional compositions known as “divertimenti” (musings). Varying in size from a few inches to 15 feet, these works are built with different materials such as aluminum, wood, steel, stone, and granite, and reflect the range of the artist across mediums.
Benini has said that because he was born during World War II, his early memories are mainly in black and white, and that this initial lack of color recollection has influenced the colorful path he has chosen to express himself. When reflecting on the experience of his paintings, Benini said, “I seem to remember that in all of Leonardo’s extensive notebooks, not one time did he write about his own paintings or about their meaning. I am of the same mind: I would like for the viewer to participate in the journey of discovery of these works of mine.”
Museo Benini offers a unique benefit for visitors in that Benini himself is frequently present in the galleries on Saturdays when the museum is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; he also often participates in question and answer sessions during group tours.
For more information or to schedule a group tour, visit www.museobenini.com, email info@MuseoBenini.com, or call (830) 693-2147. Museo Benini is a Blue Star Museum and part of the Texas Association of Museums, Texans for the Arts, and the Austin Museum Partnership.
To read more about Benini, view his biography on the Benini website.
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Media Contact:
Kaci Baez
fieldrosecomms@gmail.com