Gerrit Benner

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Gerrit Benner (born July 31, 1897 in Leeuwarden , † November 15, 1981 in Nijemirdum) was a Dutch painter and graphic artist. He is one of the most important artists of his generation and is considered to be one of the few expressionists in the Netherlands, even if his work, which is known today, was mainly created in the second half of the 20th century.

Benner's autodidactic painting corresponds less to the art-theoretical demand of the Dutch Expressionists for a spiritual renewal of the world that overcomes materialism, but aims solely at expression and is thus closer to the works of German Expressionism. His themes are dramatically designed landscapes, abstract compositions and, in his later work, the dissolution of representationalism and the transition to constructive painting.

life and work

Gerrit Benner was born on July 31, 1897 in Leeuwarden, the provincial capital of Friesland, as the only son of his parents. After primary school, he attended vocational school from 1910 to be trained as a carpenter. He learned 'marble drawing' from Hendrik Wadman and later also attended an evening drawing course. From 1917 to 1918 he was obliged to do military service for a year before he and his newly wedded wife Geesje, nee. Schaap went into business for himself as a 'flying trader' to sell leather goods. Even when he opened his own shop at Pijlsteeg 3 in Leeuwarden in 1921, customers could also have portrait sketches made for him. In 1923 son Henk was born, who was very committed to his father throughout his life and enabled the framework conditions for artistic creation, in 1924 son Pieter. On excursions across the Frisian seas, Benner drew the sailing boats, the water, the sky, the red horses. As far as the early surviving works show, the artist followed in the early years a dark and melancholy color palette inspired by Vincent van Gogh , which was also used by Flemish Expressionists such as Gustave de Smet , Frits van den Berghe or Constant Permeke .

From 1933 on, Benner offered refugees from Germany shelter from the immigration police. The economic crisis hit him himself, he had to close his shop in 1937 and go into hiding himself in the early 1940s. This and the lack of success as an artist led to a depressive crisis in which he destroyed almost all of his early paintings. It wasn't until 1945 that Benner was able to start over as an artist in Leeuwarden and now he has received the recognition he had always hoped for. In 1946 he had his first exhibition in Groningen, in 1947 Mart Stam (designer, architect and guest lecturer for urban development at the Bauhaus in Dessau in the late 1920s) opened his first exhibition in Amsterdam at van Lier, and from the encounter with Willem Sandberg, director since 1945 of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, a lifelong friendship grew. Karel Appel and Corneille, who later appeared as members of the CoBrA group, met several times. However, the abandonment of academic and social norms aimed at by the CoBrA artists was not an issue for Benner, as he withdrew from the art business per se, such as membership in the artists' association 'De Ploeg', which is characterized by Fauvist colors.

In 1950/51 Benner visited Chamonix on a state scholarship . Karl Appel tried to persuade him to move to Paris, but due to his nature, his health and the language, Benner stayed in Amsterdam, where his son Henk rented Karel Appel's studio for him from 1952. In 1953 and two years later Benner took part in the Sao Paulo Biennale and won third prize in 1955 for his work “Vogels en Bloemen”.

In 1954 he had his first solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and was awarded the 'Prijs van de Stichting Kunstenaarsverzet 1942-45'. This prize was awarded to artists who not only contributed to the development of art in the Netherlands through their outstanding artistic work, but who also made a contribution by taking on social responsibility. Benner's fame increased and the press spoke of the ABC of Dutch painting: Appel, Benner, Corneille. In 1958 he won the International Guggenheim Prize for the Netherlands with his painting “Paysan”. Heinz Keller wrote: “Last year America awarded two international art prizes which, similar to the one at the Venice Biennale, have a strong impact on judgment in modern art life: the Carnegie Institute Prize (Pittsburgh) and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Prize Foundation (New York). […] The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation's Prize has only existed since 1956. It is to be distributed every two years for paintings that have been created within the last three years and that have also been publicly exhibited in the past two years. […] It is these top candidates who give the most informative overview of the recognized trends. ”With this award, Gerrit Benner was on par with other award winners such as Emil Schumacher for Germany, André Masson for France, Alberto Giacometti for Switzerland and Mark Rothko for the USA. This was followed by participation in exhibitions in England, America, Curacao, Argentina, Finland, France, Yugoslavia and Italy. In Bochum, Bielefeld and Münster he was honored with monographic work reviews. In 1961 he received the "Order of the Knights of Orange Nassau" for his services to the Dutch fine arts.

The death of the daughter-in-law Bertie in 1962 was a hard blow for the family, which was also reflected in Benner's painting of that time with the heavy and impasto-applied colors. After his son Henk bought a holiday home in the north of the country in the middle of the vast landscape in 1963, Benner was able to relax here. In the mid-1960s, numerous exhibitions followed in Munich, Augsburg, Silkeborg, Turin, Brussels, New York, Australia and New Zealand, Pittsburgh and Canada, in Curacao, Buenos Aires, Helsinki and Nancy. In 1967, on the occasion of the painter's 70th birthday, a monograph was published on his work.

Son Henk met his second wife Barbara Bellaar Spruyt and in 1971 their daughter was born, who spent a lot of time in her grandfather's studio. Due to health problems, the artist withdrew in the early 1970s to paint exclusively. Apart from Willem Sandberg, he received hardly anyone, even if he was still represented at various exhibitions. Above all, the Galerie Collection d´Art in Amsterdam showed him more than ten times between 1974 and 2004. In 1981 Gerrit Benner died of heart failure at the age of 84. Posthumously he was u. a. 1997 at Palazzo Grassi in Venice represented in 'Della Flandre e Paesi Bassi' (curated by Rudi Fuchs and Jan Hoet, who Benner considered one of the best Dutch painters throughout his life), 2001 in 'De Voorstelling. Nederlandse Kunst in het Stedelijk Paleis' (a selection made by the then Queen Beatrix from the collection of the Stedelijk Museum), in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg in 'Dutch art after 1945' and in 2009 in Sydney in the Art Gallery of New South Wales in the exhibition 'Intensely Dutch'. Since 2003 the province of Friesland has set up the “Gerrit Benner Prize”, an award worth 5,000 euros that is awarded alternately for a work and for a work development. In 2014-15, the Belvédère Museum in Heerenveen-Oranjewoud and the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden honored Gerrit Benner's life's work in a monographic parallel exhibition, each of which achieved record visitor numbers.

Awards (selection)

  • 1954: Prijs van de Stichting Kunstenaarsverzet 1942-45 '
  • 1955: Third Prize (Prêmio Aquisição / Pintura) of the Bienal de São Paulo
  • 1958: Guggenheim International Award 1958 (National Section Award Netherlands)
  • 1961: Order of the Knights of Orange Nassau

Works in collections (selection)

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions (selection):

  • 1954: Gerrit Benner (Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam)
  • 1955: Gerrit Benner (Stedlijk Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven)
  • 1956: Gerrit Benner (Gemeentemuseum Den Haag)
  • 1959: Benner (Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam)
  • 1960: Benner (Bochum Municipal Art Gallery)
  • 1961: Benner (Westfälischer Kunstverein Münster, Städtisches Kunsthaus Bielefeld)
  • 1970: G. Benner (Cultureel Centrum Venlo)
  • 1971: Gerrit Benner - work uit de jaren 1965-1971 (Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam)
  • 1977: Gerrit Benner (Collection d´Art Amsterdam, also in the following years)
  • 1989: In de ban van Benner (Singer Museum Laren and Fries Museum Leeuwarden)
  • 2010: Gerrit Benner (Gemeentemuseum Den Haag)
  • 2014: Gerrit Benner (Fries Museum Leeuwarden, Museum Belvédère Heerenveen-Oranjewoud)

Exhibition participation (selection):

  • 1953: Bienal de São Paulo (Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo, BR)
  • 1955: Bienal de São Paulo (Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo, BR)
  • 1955: Exhibition for the Premio Lissone, Milan (I)
  • 1958: Venice Biennale - Dutch Pavilion (I)
  • 1961: Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture (USA)
  • 1964: Appel, Lataster, Benner (Museum Fodor Amsterdam, NL)
  • 1968: Exhibition on the Premio Marzotto - European Prize for Painting, Valdagio (I)
  • 1984: De Nederlandse identiteit in de kunst na 1945 (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam)
  • 1997: Della Flandre e Paesi Bassi (Palazzo Grassi Venice, I)
  • 2001: Dutch Art after 1945 (Hermitage, St. Petersburg, RU)
  • 2009: Intensely Dutch (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sidney, AU)
  • 2012: Naar Zee (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, NL)

literature

  • Exhibition catalog: Overzichttentoonstelling Gerrit Benner 1945-´55 (W. Jos. De Gruyter), Museum voor Stad en Ommelanden Groningen / Gemeentemuseum Den Haag 1955-56, Eindhoven 1955
  • Exhibition catalog: Gerrit Benner (Hans LC Jaffé), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1959-60
  • Exhibition catalog: Gerrit Benner (Peter Leo), Städtische Kunstgalerie, Bochum 1960
  • Exhibition catalog: Gerrit Benner of: De zin van het schilderij (Lambert Tegenbosch), Cultureel Centrum Venlo, De Waag Nijmegen, De Vaart Hilversum 1970-71
  • Exhibition catalog: Gerrit Benner - Werk uit de jaren 1965–1971 (Willem Sandberg, Jos de Gruyter, Hans Redeker et al.), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 1971
  • Exhibition catalog: Gerrit Benner uit Fries bezit, Princessehof, Leeuwarden 1976
  • Exhibition catalog: In de ban van Benner (Loek Brons), Laren and Leeuwarden 1989
  • Exhibition catalog: Gerrit Benner (Sijens Doeke, Han Steenbruggen, Judith Spijksma, Saskia Bak), Fries Museum Leeuwarden and Museum Belvédère te Heerenveen-Oranjewoud 2014/15
  • Hans Redeker: Gerrit Benner, Amsterdam 1967 (in German, English, French and Dutch and Spanish)
  • Elmyra van Dooren: Gerrit Benner, Harlingen 2005

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hendrik Wadman Documentatie van Beeldende Art in Friesland
  2. ↑ The International Guggenheim Prize 1958, doi : 10.5169 / seals-35946
personal data
SURNAME Benner, Gerrit
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch painter and printmaker
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Leeuwarden
DATE OF DEATH November 15, 1981
Place of death Nijemirdum