Benjamin Kopman was born in Vitebsk, one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe in 1900 with a Jewish population of 34,420. In New York Kopman was tutored by Abel Pan, who had studied at the Yehdua Penn's Vitebsk Academy.  In 1905 Kopman enrolled at the National Academy of Art where he remained for 6 semesters.  In 1913 Kopman became a US citizen and he lived on East 14th Street in Manhattan during and after WWI. His first prestigious exhibition was at the annual exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1914. Kopman worked for the WPA as an artist during the Depression. He enjoyed solo exhibitions at the New Art Circle in 1937, ACA Galleries in 1945, Phillips Memorial gallery in Washington D.C. in the same year, and several others venues in future years.

In 1958 Kopman himself wrote, in an apparent defense against abstract expressionism, "Because we live in an age of speed, some people who never cared for art turned away from my work using the excuse that it has not moved fast enough.  They do not realize that the very speed they so admire will fly by them, and they will remain wondering what has happened."

Kopman's work is held in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and many others.