Henry Thomas Bonli (8 August 1927 – 16 May 2011) was a Canadian painter and interior designer.

Early years

Henry Thomas Bonli was born in

Lashburn Lashburn is a town in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is located 35 km (22 miles) east of Lloydminster and 107 km (66 miles) west of North Battleford on the Yellowhead Highway, on the banks of the Battle River. It was founded in 1903 with the ...

, Saskatchewan, on 8 August 1927, son of Tom and Esther Bonli. He grew up in a large family. He attended Dover rural school and Melfort Collegiate. He obtained a teaching certificate at Saskatoon Normal School (later the

Saskatoon Teachers' College The Saskatoon Teachers' College, originally called the Saskatoon Normal School, was a facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada for training teachers. The school occupied temporary premises at first, then moved to a handsome brick and stone build ...

) in 1947. At this school he was encouraged to paint by Wynona Mulcaster, and made a mural of the prairies named ''Open Spaces''. Bonli taught in a rural school for a short period. He then became a teacher in

Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan Meadow Lake is a city in the boreal forest of northwestern Saskatchewan, Canada. Its location is about northeast of Lloydminster and north of North Battleford. Founded as a trading post in 1799, it became a village in 1931 and a town in 1936 ...

until 1950, when he began to study art. Bonli married Elsa Pederson (born 6 September 1930), daughter of Danish parents who immigrated to Saskatchewan in 1927. She was a registered nurse who worked at Melfort Hospital before their marriage. They had two children, Scott and Jane. Later they divorced and Elsa remarried. Bonli studied with

Illingworth Kerr Illingworth "Buck" Kerr (20 August 1905 – 6 January 1989) was a Canadian painter, illustrator and writer. He is best known for his landscape paintings of the Saskatchewan and Alberta prairies and foothills. Early years Illingworth Holey Kerr w ...

and

Luke Lindoe Luke Orton Lindoe (8 March 1913 – 4 December 2000) was a Canadian potter, painter, sculptor, and businessman who did most of his work in Alberta, Canada. For long periods he was based in Medicine Hat. He had many different jobs, from mineral pros ...

at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Arts in Calgary, Alberta. He then went to the

Art Center School Art Center College of Design (stylized as ArtCenter College of Design) is a private art college in Pasadena, California. History ArtCenter College of Design was founded in 1930 in downtown Los Angeles as the Art Center School. In 1935, Fred R ...

in Los Angeles and the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

, studying water colors and fabric design. While in Los Angeles he had a part-time job with the Bullochs Department Store in their design studio, where he gained practical experience in interior design.

Career

Saskatoon

Bonli returned to Saskatoon and worked at Clark's Interior Furnishings for four years while giving evening classes in art. Bonli participated in the first Emma Lake Artist's Workshop in 1955, and in subsequent workshops in 1956, 1957, 1962, 1963 and 1965. At these workshops he studied with

Jack Shadbolt Jack Leonard Shadbolt, (February 4, 1909 November 22, 1998) was a Canadian painter. Early life Born in Shoeburyness, England, Shadbolt came to Canada with his parents in April 1911. He was raised in Victoria, British Columbia. He studied at t ...

, Joseph Plaskett,

Will Barnet Will Barnet (May 25, 1911November 13, 2012) was an American artist known for his paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints depicting the human figure and animals, both in casual scenes of daily life and in transcendent dreamlike worlds. Biogr ...

Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formal ...

Kenneth Noland Kenneth Noland (April 10, 1924 – January 5, 2010) was an American painter. He was one of the best-known American color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s he was though ...

Jules Olitski Jevel Demikovski (March 27, 1922 – February 4, 2007), known professionally as Jules Olitski, was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Early life Olitski was born Jevel Demikovsky in Snovsk, in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( ...

, and

Lawrence Alloway Lawrence Reginald Alloway (17 September 1926 – 2 January 1990) was an English art critic and curator who worked in the United States from 1961. In the 1950s, he was a leading member of the Independent Group in the UK and in the 1960s was an i ...

. In 1957 he taught the young Joan Anderson at Saskatoon Technical Collegiate. She would later be better known as the singer

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...

. Then aged thirteen, she had planned to take lessons from the well-known landscape and figurative

Ernest Lindner Ernst Friedrich Lindner LL. D. (1 May 1897 – 4 November 1988) was an Austrian-born Canadian painter. He moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1926, where became a self-taught commercial artist. He soon was recognized locally and then nationally a ...

, but he was on sabbatical that year. Bonli found her an argumentative pupil. In 1957 Bonli founded Bonli Interiors in Saskatoon. It first occupied James Art Studio and then moved to premises on the lower floor of the King George Hotel that had been vacated by the Mendel Art Gallery. The firm provided interior design services and the store sold gifts and bath accessories, imported Scandinavian furniture and window coverings. Bonli soon began to also undertake residential and commercial work in Regina, where he had a full-time representative. In 1958 Bonli appeared on a weekly CTV television show with Margaret Dallin, and then on a show with

Sally Merchant Maria Margharita "Sally" Merchant (October 1, 1919 – April 1, 2007) was a Saskatchewan television personality and political figure. She was the only Liberal MLA elected to represent Saskatoon in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan from ...

called ''Here Comes Sally''. He also took summer courses at the

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

in New York City. In New York Henry and his wife Elsa became friends of the critic

. Bonli was an admirer of New York abstract expressionists such as

Barnett Newman Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American artist. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense o ...

. He was encouraged by the art collector Fred Mendel to exhibit his work. He participated in shows at the Mendel Art Centre and the Dunlop Gallery in Regina. Bonli was a member of the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the Saskatchewan Society of Artists. He was vice-president of the Saskatoon Art Centre. He was an art consultant for the Saskatoon School System for three years, and was Assistant Curator at the Coste House art center in Calgary. He held a one-man show at the

Mendel Art Gallery The Mendel Art Gallery was a major creative cultural centre in City Park, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Operating from 1964 to 2015, it housed a permanent collection of more than 7,500 works of art. The gallery was managed by the city-owned Saskatoon G ...

in 1965.

Toronto

Bonli moved with his family to Toronto in 1965 where they opened Bonli Gallery, selling art and furniture. Later he opened two more stores, both called "Henri The Second", which sold factory over-runs and designer furnishings. In 1966–67 Joni Mitchell would often stay rent-free at Bonli's Toronto studio over Rugantino's restaurant on Yonge Street, with her husband Chuck Mitchell, and at times was babysitter for the Bonlis' daughter Jane. The Bonlis considered that Chuck was the better singer of the two, and would be the one to succeed. By this time Bonli had become a reasonably well-known painter. Bonli continued to return to Saskatoon to execute interior design commissions. In 1974 he sold his interior design company and devoted himself to painting. Henry Thomas Bonli died at St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, on 16 May 2011. He was aged 83.

Exhibitions and collections

Bonli's works in acrylic and watercolor began to be exhibited in galleries across Canada in the early 1950s. He held a number of solo exhibitions in Regina, Saskatoon, and Toronto. Bonli's work is held by the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...

in Ottawa, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, University of Saskatchewan, Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina and the

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA; french: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, MBAM) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square ...

References

Sources

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