Gerrit Benner is one of the most important Dutch artists of the twentieth century. His brightly colored landscapes are known far beyond the national borders. Those powerful and colorful paintings are for many the highlight of his work.
He searches for his way with a deeply felt passion. This is clearly visible in his dreamy representations on paper and colorful paintings. It is a search for the most striking expression of his own feelings and his love for nature.
gerrit benner, 1954
4 october 2014 t/m 1 march 2015
Gerrit Benner was born on July 31st, 1897 in Leeuwarden. In 1921 he opens a shop in bags and jewelery with his wife. In his spare time he is engaged in drawing and painting, a passion that will occupy him more and more. His work regularly takes him to Amsterdam, where he acquaints himself with contemporary art in local galleries. In the 1930s, Benner suffered a number of setbacks, including the bankruptcy of his store in 1937. Out of desperation, he destroyed almost all of his work.
After the bankruptcy of his shop and a difficult time, Benner decided to fully focus on his artistic activities after the Second World War. In 1945, when Benner is almost fifty, he definitively opts for art. At the invitation of an acquaintance, he regularly stays in Groningen where he has plenty of space to draw. He makes sketches of his surroundings, some of which he elaborates in watercolor. He also paints from his imagination. Horses, forests, carriages and boats are recurring themes and will remain so.
“I kept going because painting was for me—and excuse me for using a big word—because it was such a passionate desire for me. It has everything to do with the fact that I wanted to be myself. I have tried that and I am still trying to do that.”
In the years that followed, Benner became acquainted with other artists, including Karel Appel and Corneille. His horizon broadens. Benner no longer paints dark landscapes, but rather very colorful scenes. This work has not gone unnoticed. The first exhibitions in Groningen and Amsterdam will follow. Benner gets credit for his work.
From 1946 Benner had a patron in the person of Leeuwarden surgeon Hendrik Luitje Straat. This Doctor Straat has a substantial art collection that is known to be of good quality. He gets to know Benner.
"And there I met a very special person, mystical, mild, philosophical, unspoilt and creator of truly beautiful paintings."
In exchange for monthly financial support, Straat is allowed to choose a work of art every now and then. The works of art from this period stand out for their warm colors and fairytale atmosphere.
From the late 1940s, Benner regularly went to Terschelling for the nature. Occasionally he travels abroad. In 1957 he is in Scotland where he is particularly impressed by the landscapes he sees. In a letter from Scotland he writes:
'So between the rain showers I try to make something, a scribble. Wonderfully beautiful, those mountains or hills and there between the lakes. Hope to be able to make something of it when I'm back.'
Benner uses these experiences and sketches in paintings of dunes and mountains. They depict his memory. Benner paints the environment as an accumulation of shapes in which the horizon is missing. The landscape has no depth, it becomes flat.
In 1953 Benner's eldest son rents Karel Appel's studio in Amsterdam for his father. Not long afterwards, Benner moved permanently to the capital, the center of innovation in Dutch art. He already had a number of successful exhibitions to his name.
Benner has a personal expressive style and an original view of the world. This makes it an excellent fit for the experimental climate in Amsterdam. Due to an improved financial situation, Benner starts painting more with oil paint. He also paints on larger formats. The environment visibly has a stimulating influence on him. Several exhibitions followed, including participation in the biennials of São Paulo and Venice. Benner also wins a number of important art prizes.
In the fifties, Benner starts painting differently, his style changes. His performances are increasingly simple in form. Benner also uses other colors.
Two painting styles can be seen in the early works of art. On the one hand, Benner paints the colors through and over each other. The shapes have few contours, for example the leaves of a tree blend into the background. On the other hand, he paints clearly distinguishable areas of color, sometimes bordered by heavy contour lines. He further develops this last painting style in oil paintings.
His painting style, expressive and colorful, is in line with the experiments of his contemporaries. Benner stands out because of his subjects: horses, cows and villages. That he’s relevant is evident from the various international exhibitions in which his work can be seen. Cows in a Landscape (1955) is exhibited in various cities in the US. It was also shown in Münster (Germany) and Bern (Switzerland). Several Dutch museums bought work by Benner during this period. For example, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, at that time led by lifelong friend and admirer Willem Sandberg.
In addition to the familiar cows, horses and landscapes, Benner also paints people. He does this in different styles. In Amsterdam he lives opposite a primary school where Benner sees children walking around with decorated sticks just before Easter. It inspires him to make colorful paintings of children. Occasionally he paints a portrait such as Woman in Garden (1957). It is not a realistic portrait, this figure is not recognizable as a person. Benner paints his impression of the woman in the garden in expressive strokes of colour.
In addition to familiar subjects, Benner increasingly focuses on the vastness of the landscape. From 1971 he often stays in Gaasterland, in a house belonging to the Benner family. Sitting on a dike, he draws and paints the environment. His love for nature culminates in these years: paintings with thin layers of paint in red, yellow, white, blue and green. Spring (1970), is one of those highlights. Horses, cows and figures keep his attention, but it is also the land, the sky and the water that he paints.
Throughout his life, Benner painted the same subjects in different styles and with different types of paint and supports. Searching for the most striking representation of his feeling and his love for nature. Benner has always seen the personal and that 'what is real' as the most important in his work. It is the driving force behind his quest.
“Look, you have to think like this. I'm not painting a case. I don't care about that thing or anything that's in the painting. I don't have to sit on the land to sketch it. I do what I feel. You should always do what is real.”
Gerrit Benner dies in 1981 at the age of 84 due to cardiac arrest.
