Artists and Poets in <i> Pas de Deux</i> of Creativity : People who haven’t met before collaborate on monoprints, and the results are on display at a small Santa Monica gallery

As a master printmaker, John Greco is used to collaborating with artists. As a painter, he once participated in an exhibition that juxtaposed the work of visual artists and poets. And for a show called “f/m,” now at the Christopher John Gallery, Greco has sought to push collaboration further--to see what would happen if he challenged pairs of artists and poets to work together on the same monoprint image and theme.

Last November, Greco opened the Christopher John Gallery, which is tucked away on the bottom floor of a small apartment building beside a Santa Monica car dealership. His intention was to provide an additional forum for the many artists he has met through the Josephine Press, his printmaking shop just blocks away. He also wanted to establish a memorial to his late son, Christopher John.

Greco picked writer Paul Vangelisti to collaborate and be co-curator of the present show. Together they chose 22 Los Angeles artists and poets and the broad theme “f/m”--which stands for feminine/masculine. They then teamed a poet and a visual artist of each sex and “just kind of turned them loose” to produce two monoprints together, Greco said. Many had never met before.

“What inspired what was up to them--whether the words inspired the image or the other way around,” Greco said. Along the way, he admitted, there were inevitable creative conflicts. “But we wanted all that--we wanted to work off contrast and similarity, and to get as much diversity as possible.”

They unquestionably got it. On the wall of the gallery are very different collaborations by artist/poet teams including Lorrie Madden and Robert Crosson, Don Suggs and Martha Ronk, Nancy Riegelman and Todd Baron. The works may include a single word or elaborate stretches of free-form verse. As monotypes--one-of-a-kind prints that can incorporate many of the techniques of painting--they feature techniques that run the gamut from embellished pastel to collage and photo-transfer.

The gallery is also offering a limited-edition folio volume titled “f/m,” which includes a separate set of 11 poems and 11 etchings by the same artistic teams that are paired in the monoprint show.

“f/m (feminine/masculine)” through July 7 at the Christopher John Gallery, 2928 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica; (213) 453-4418. Open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

BEYOND THE MASTER: People have been stopping by when they see Francoise Gilot’s name in the gallery window. “They’re not always sure they’ve heard of the artist, but they know the name,” said Gail Feingarten, owner of the Feingarten Galleries on Melrose Avenue.

In fact, the name Francoise Gilot most often conjures up a much more famous moniker: Picasso. Gilot, a French-born painter and author, was romantically involved with the renowned artist from 1942 to 1954; Paloma Picasso, the jewelry designer, and her brother, Claude, are the children of that union. (Later, in the 1970s, Gilot was married to another well-known man, Jonas Salk.)

But the premise of the Feingarten show is that Gilot was a consistently productive, even experimental, artist in her own right. The exhibition presents a sampling of her paintings, watercolors and monotypes from 1940 through the present.

In a printed quotation next to the paintings that were done during her years with Pablo Picasso--works that definitely reflect his presence--Gilot said, “In the course of that strange courtship, the whole field of art history became the theme of our debates, or rather a battlefield where we confronted each other with bombastic statements and radical opinions.”

All too often Gilot is represented in exhibitions by works from that period--”which gives her the bad rap of just painting like Picasso,” said Feingarten, who met Gilot at a dinner party and felt her work would fit in well with the gallery’s modern-master thrust. “We wanted to start from the beginning, show the progression--show that she wasn’t just a fly-by-night artist.”

In fact, Feingarten noted, Gilot--who has studios in Paris, New York and La Jolla--still works every day. She also is writing a book titled “Matisse and Picasso: An Artistic Dialogue,” which will be published this fall. However one chooses to look at Gilot and her oeuvre, Feingarten said, “She’s a part of history.”

“Francoise Gilot: Selected works from 1940 to the Present” through July at the Feingarten Galleries, 8380 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 655-4840. Open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.

INTIMATE BENTON: The Louis Newman Gallery in Beverly Hills is extending through June its compact exhibition of paintings and drawings by Thomas Hart Benton.

“It’s the first time in 14 years that I’ve ever extended a show for a whole month--and it’s because of the response,” said Louis Newman. He added that artists, museum folk, students and members of the extended Benton family have sought out the show in the gallery’s smaller back room. Most have gone to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art show first, Newman said, “which focuses on very large works on canvas and murals. This is a chance to see more intimate works.”

In fact, several of the paintings and drawings are studies for larger works in the LACMA show. A small oil titled “Two Construction Workers” may be a study for Benton’s 1923 “Construction”; the oil-on-paper “Black Man Pulling” of 1924 is a study for the mural “American Historical Epic” of 1924 to 1926; and “Chilmark” is a smaller version of the painting of the same title hung at the museum.

The works are offered for sale from two private collections, one in the Midwest and one on the East Coast.

For years, Benton’s works were underappreciated by the art market. “You couldn’t give them away,” Newman said. “But now that we’re approaching the end of a century--in fact, the end of a millennium--collectors are looking back to see who they’ve overlooked.” Because of both the social content and aesthetics of Benton’s work, he is one such artist worthy of reevaluation, Newman said.

In his own view, he added, “Just because something is well-painted doesn’t give it longevity. That requires some insight about who we are and where we came from.”

The Benton show is part of an occasional series on American masters at the Newman gallery. It has already presented exhibitions of works by Edward Hopper and Reginald Marsh.

Thomas Hart Benton paintings and drawings, through June at the Louis Newman Galleries, 322 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills ; (213) 278-6311. Open 10 a.m to 6:30 p.m. Sunday and Monday and 10 a.m to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday .