Maurice "Toastman" Bennett (25 April 1957 – 6 June 2016) was a New Zealand artist who used
toast
Toast most commonly refers to:
* Toast (food), bread browned with dry heat
* Toast (honor), a ritual in which a drink is taken
Toast may also refer to:
Places
* Toast, North Carolina, a census-designated place in the United States
Books
* '' ...
as an artistic medium. Beginning in 2000, his billboard-sized toast mosaic images of well-known personalities including
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
,
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
,
Jonah Lomu
Jonah Tali Lomu (12 May 1975 – 18 November 2015) was a New Zealand professional rugby union player. Lomu is considered to have been the first true global superstar of rugby, and consequently had a huge impact on the game. He is widely regarde ...
, the ''
Mona Lisa
The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known ...
'',
Dame Edna
Dame Edna Everage, often known simply as Dame Edna, is a character created and performed by Australian comedian Barry Humphries, known for her lilac-coloured ("wisteria hue") hair and cat eye glasses ("face furniture"); her favourite flower, th ...
and
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
, were exhibited widely and received a great deal of media interest in New Zealand and internationally. From 2000 to 2005 he held the world record for the largest toast portrait, and he also held the world record for the largest portrait made out of candy for a portrait of
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...
in
M&M's
M&M's (stylized as m&m's) are multi-colored button-shaped chocolates, each of which has the letter "m" printed in lower case in white on one side, consisting of a candy shell surrounding a filling which varies depending upon the variety of M&M ...
.
Bennett developed cancer in 2000, shortly after he began experimenting with toast artworks, and although given a prognosis of 5 years to live, survived for 16 years. In addition to his artwork he and his wife ran a supermarket and a brewery in
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
, until he became a full-time artist in 2009. He died at his home in
Island Bay
Island Bay is a coastal suburb of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, situated south of the city centre.
Island Bay lies on the bay which shares its name, one of numerous small bays off Cook Strait and west of Lyall Bay. 500m offshore in ...
, Wellington, at age 59.
Early life and career
Bennett was born on 25 April 1957 in
Paeroa
Paeroa is a town in the Hauraki District of the Waikato Region in the North Island of New Zealand. Located at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula, it is close to the junction of the Waihou River and Ohinemuri River, and is approximately 20 kilo ...
, New Zealand. He attended high school in
Whakatāne
Whakatāne ( , ) is the seat of the Bay of Plenty region in the North Island of New Zealand, east of Tauranga and north-east of Rotorua, at the mouth of the Whakatāne River. Whakatāne District is the encompassing territorial authority, whi ...
, completed a certificate in civil engineering at
Auckland Technical Institute
Auckland University of Technology (AUT) ( mi, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT ...
and began (but did not complete) a bachelor of architecture at
Auckland University
The University of Auckland is a public university, public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest, most comprehensive and highest-ranked university in New Zealand and consistently places among the top 100 universit ...
.
He married his wife Carolyn in 1987, having met her while working at a supermarket, and they had two daughters. Outside of his artwork, he and his wife ran a
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...
supermarket in
Island Bay
Island Bay is a coastal suburb of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, situated south of the city centre.
Island Bay lies on the bay which shares its name, one of numerous small bays off Cook Strait and west of Lyall Bay. 500m offshore in ...
, Wellington, and (from 2004) a brewing company, and he became a fulltime artist in 2009.
He was a collector of New Zealand
ceramics
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
, and curated an exhibition of ceramics called ''Tectonic Clay'' at a Wellington gallery in 2014.
Bennett's early artwork was conventional painting, sculpture and installation art.
The 1998
New Zealand Fringe Festival
The New Zealand Fringe Festival is an open access arts festival in Wellington, New Zealand held over several weeks in February and March each year. The 2020 programme marked the festival's 30th anniversary.
Background
The festival was establish ...
featured his exhibition ''Burning Desire'', in which he set fire to a pile of miscellaneous objects and exhibited the remains.
He received the festival's "off-the-edge" award for this work. He began working in toast in 1999, experimenting first with a trial 940-slice piece outside his supermarket.
He has said he was inspired to make toast artworks during a family
barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke t ...
,
and after seeing a picture in a magazine by
Chuck Close
Charles Thomas Close (July 5, 1940 – August 19, 2021) was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits using a very l ...
that on first glance looked like it was made out of pieces of toast.
Toast artworks
Bennett created billboard-size images made up of toast in mosaic form. He used computer software to convert photographs into a grid of
pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device.
In most digital display devices, pixels are the smal ...
-like blocks,
and would then toast the bread to the correct shade, using either a commercial oven,
an
oxy-acetylene
Principle of burn cutting
Oxy-fuel welding (commonly called oxyacetylene welding, oxy welding, or gas welding in the United States) and oxy-fuel cutting are processes that use fuel gases (or liquid fuels such as gasoline or petrol, diesel, ...
torch,
and even occasionally a household toaster.
He preferred the
Tip Top brand of bread and usually used white bread although said in 2002 that he was experimenting with multi-grain.
His first large artwork, a 2,724-slice mosaic of former Wellington mayor
Mark Blumsky
Mark Herbert Blumsky (born 29 August 1957) is a former New Zealand politician and diplomat. He was Mayor of Wellington from 1995 to 2001, and a Member of Parliament for the National Party from 2005 to 2008. Blumsky was New Zealand's High Comm ...
created for the 2000 New Zealand Fringe Festival, was destroyed by weather and seagulls after two days; he subsequently used
polyurethane
Polyurethane (; often abbreviated PUR and PU) refers to a class of polymers composed of organic chemistry, organic units joined by carbamate (urethane) links. In contrast to other common polymers such as polyethylene and polystyrene, polyurethan ...
to preserve his artworks.
Blumsky said he was impressed with the work but that he felt the eyebrows were "a bit light".
It held the world record for the largest toast mosaic until 2005. In 2001 he creatd a 2,124 slice, tall, portrait of the ''
Mona Lisa
The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known ...
'', featured on a central Wellington building.
In 2002 he spent a month creating a 2,378-slice portrait of rugby player
Jonah Lomu
Jonah Tali Lomu (12 May 1975 – 18 November 2015) was a New Zealand professional rugby union player. Lomu is considered to have been the first true global superstar of rugby, and consequently had a huge impact on the game. He is widely regarde ...
, displayed at Wellington's Café Brava.
Lomu's manager was unhappy about the image, and said Lomu's image was copyrighted; Bennett said in response that "it would be a very dull world if a person can't go out and make or draw a picture of a person".
Lomu's manager subsequently consented to the artwork remaining on display.
In 2002 he was commissioned by an Australian bread company to create a tall 2,989-slice toast portrait of
Dame Edna
Dame Edna Everage, often known simply as Dame Edna, is a character created and performed by Australian comedian Barry Humphries, known for her lilac-coloured ("wisteria hue") hair and cat eye glasses ("face furniture"); her favourite flower, th ...
, exhibited on a billboard in
La Trobe Street
La Trobe Street (also Latrobe Street) is a major street and thoroughfare in the city centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs roughly east–west and forms the northern boundary of Melbourne's central business district. The street wa ...
in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
.
In the same year he also created a toast portrait of
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
to mark the 25th anniversary of his death.
The portrait of Presley attracted international media interest, and he was featured on
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
, on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
and in ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine.
In 2003 he created a square 3,024-slice portrait of then prime minister
Helen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...
wearing a fruit bowl for the Edible Arts Festival in
Napier.
The portrait was vandalised shortly after it was installed, resulting in Bennett agreeing to, as reported by ''
The Dominion Post'', "toast a new nose for the portrait".
A 2003 article about Bennett's work in tabloid newspaper ''
The Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' was headlined, "Forget the Old Masters such as Remburnt, Pain Gogh and Buttercelli ... Meet Michelangeloaf".
In 2010 he created a square 4,234-slice portrait of American president
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
,
and a 4,204-slice portrait of New Zealand prime minister
John Key
Sir John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th prime minister of New Zealand, Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 2006 to ...
. The US ambassador,
David Huebner
David Huebner (born 1960) is an international arbitrator based in Southern California. He previously served as the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. He was the first openly gay ambassador in the Obama administration and the third ...
, said he believed it to be the first time Obama had been depicted in toast. His portrait of
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...
out of 5,040
M&M's
M&M's (stylized as m&m's) are multi-colored button-shaped chocolates, each of which has the letter "m" printed in lower case in white on one side, consisting of a candy shell surrounding a filling which varies depending upon the variety of M&M ...
featured in the
Guinness Book of World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
as the largest picture made from candy.
His portrait of rugby player
Richie McCaw
Richard Hugh McCaw (born 31 December 1980) is a retired New Zealand professional rugby union player. He captained the national team, the All Blacks, in 110 out of his 148 test matches, and won two Rugby World Cups. He has won the World Rugby ...
is exhibited at the
New Zealand Rugby Museum
The New Zealand Rugby Museum, based in Palmerston North, New Zealand, is a museum dedicated to the sport of Rugby union. Founded by John Sinclair and modeled after the Trophy Room in Cardiff Arms Park in Wales, the museum's collections include eq ...
in
Palmerston North
Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...
. Bennett's other toast portrait subjects included
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
, rugby player
Gareth Edwards
Sir Gareth Owen Edwards CBE (born 12 July 1947) is a Welsh former rugby union player who played scrum-half and has been described by the BBC as "arguably the greatest player ever to don a Welsh jersey".
In 2003, in a poll of international ru ...
and beer critic
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
.
His work was featured on television shows including ''
Ripley's Believe It or Not
''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' fea ...
'' in the United States, ''Amazing Stories'' in Japan, and ''
Holmes
Holmes may refer to:
Name
* Holmes (surname)
* Holmes (given name)
* Baron Holmes, noble title created twice in the Peerage of Ireland
* Chris Holmes, Baron Holmes of Richmond (born 1971), British former swimmer and life peer
Places
In the ...
'' and ''
Campbell Live
''Campbell Live'' is a half-hour-long New Zealand current affairs programme that aired at 7pm (following 3 News) on TV3 and was hosted by John Campbell. ''Campbell Live'' conducted interviews of various notable personalities, including Al Go ...
'' in New Zealand.
It has been exhibited internationally including in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
and
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
.
Later life and death
In later years Bennett began creating collage works in addition to portraits, including works inspired by Māori carvings and traditional designs.
He noted that he found interpreting indigenous art to be more of a challenge than portrait works.
Bennett was diagnosed with
chronic lymphoid leukemia
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a type of cancer in which the bone marrow makes too many lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). Early on, there are typically no symptoms. Later, non-painful lymph node swelling, feeling tired, fever, nigh ...
in 2000 and given an estimated 5 years to live.
In 2014 he donated a toast artwork titled ''Care, Hope and Love'' to the cancer ward at
Wellington Hospital, following an exhibition at Wellington's Deluxe Café.
He died from his illness on 6 June 2016 at his home in Island Bay, Wellington, with his wife by his side.
A memorial service was held at St Mark's Church in
Carterton, where Bennett had designed a stained glass window.
Selected exhibitions
* 2014: ''Hope on Toast'', Deluxe Café, Wellington.
* 2011: ''The Five Greatest Rugby Players of All Time'', part of the ''A Game of Two Halves'' exhibition at the
New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts
The New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts (also referred to as the Wellington Art Society) was founded in Wellington in July 1882 as The Fine Arts Association of New Zealand. Founding artists included painters William Beetham (first president of the Ass ...
, Wellington.
* 2011: Portrait of
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
,
Xintiandi
Xintiandi (, Shanghainese: ''Shinthidi'' lit. "New Heaven and Earth",Warr, Anne: ''Shanghai Architecture'', The Watermark Press, 2007, fig. "New World") is an affluent pedestrian zone, car-free shopping, eating and entertainment district of Sh ...
, Shanghai.
* 2010: ''Toast Art Picasso'',
K11 Art Mall
K11 Art Mall is a seven-storey shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong located in The Masterpiece, developed by New World Development and completed in December 2009. It is near Tsim Sha Tsui and East Tsim Sha Tsui stations.
Layout
The K1 ...
, Hong Kong.
* 2009: ''Just Toasted'', South Coast Gallery, Wellington.
* 2006: ''The Toastman'', South Coast Gallery, Wellington.
* 2002: ''Toast Art'', Café Brava, Wellington.
* 2001: ''Toast @ Toast'', Toast Bistro Gallery, Wellington.
* 2000: Portrait of
Mark Blumsky
Mark Herbert Blumsky (born 29 August 1957) is a former New Zealand politician and diplomat. He was Mayor of Wellington from 1995 to 2001, and a Member of Parliament for the National Party from 2005 to 2008. Blumsky was New Zealand's High Comm ...
,
New Zealand Fringe Festival
The New Zealand Fringe Festival is an open access arts festival in Wellington, New Zealand held over several weeks in February and March each year. The 2020 programme marked the festival's 30th anniversary.
Background
The festival was establish ...
, Wellington.
* 1998: ''Burning Desire'', New Zealand Fringe Festival, Wellington.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Maurice
1957 births
2016 deaths
People from Paeroa
Auckland University of Technology alumni
Mosaic artists
20th-century New Zealand male artists
21st-century New Zealand male artists
New Zealand installation artists
20th-century New Zealand businesspeople
21st-century New Zealand businesspeople
New Zealand businesspeople in retailing
New Zealand brewers
Deaths from chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Deaths from leukemia in New Zealand