Paul Benney (born London, 30 May 1959) is a British artist who rose to international prominence as a contemporary artist whilst living and working in New York in the 1980s and 1990s in the UK as an award-winning portraitist. Benney's work is held in the 20th century collection of

The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 F ...

The Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, The National Portrait Gallery, London, The National Gallery of Australia, and many prominent corporate and private collections around the world. Paul Benney's portraiture and contemporary work have been featured in news, radio and documentaries on the BBC and Channel 4. Paul Benney exhibited his multimedia installation, 'Speaking in Tongues' during the 57th

Venice Art Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 2017. As of 2019 Benney had been collaborating with the award-winning multi-instrumentalist

Nitin Sawhney Nitin Sawhney , D.Mus (; born 1964) is a British musician, producer and composer. A recipient of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award in 2017, among multiple international awards throughout his career. Sawhney's work combines Asian ...

to compose and produce individual soundscapes for the digital artworks that Benney has recently released with online digital gallery Sedition. The works are a digital hybrid.

Career

Paul Benney is a self-taught painter. He moved to New York in 1982 and was a member of the N.Y. downtown

Neo-Expressionist Neo-expressionism is a style of late modernist or early-postmodern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s. Neo-expressionists were sometimes called ''Transavantgarde'', ''Junge Wilde'' or ''Neue Wilden'' ('The new wild ones'; 'New ...

group in the 1980s. He was first taken by the P.P.O.W. Gallery in 1984 where he created immense monochromatic painting depicting mysterious dream imagery with surfaces built up of layers feather twigs, dirt and gel. Benney's East village contemporaries while living in New York included

Kiki Smith Kiki Smith (born January 18, 1954) is a West German-born American artist whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. Her figurative work of the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted subjects such as AIDS and gender, whil ...

David Wojnarowicz David Michael Wojnarowicz ( (September 14, 1954 – July 22, 1992) was an American painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, songwriter/recording artist, and AIDS activist prominent in the East Village art scene. He incorp ...

Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al ...

Ross Bleckner Ross Bleckner (born May 12, 1949) is an American artist. He currently lives and works in New York City. His artistic focus is on painting, and he held his first solo exhibition in 1975. Some of his art work reflected on the AIDS epidemic. Earl ...

Richard Hambleton Richard Art Hambleton (June 23, 1952 – October 29, 2017) was a Canadian artist known for his work as a street artist A street artist is a person who makes art in public places. Street artists include portrait artists, caricaturists, graffiti ...

Adam Fuss Adam Fuss (born 1961) is a British photographer. Early life Adam Fuss was born in England in 1961. His father manufactured women's coats and his mother was an Australian fashion model. Fuss's father suffered a stroke in 1963 and required cons ...

and Craig Coleman. Paul Benney moved back to the United Kingdom in 1988 where his portrait practice grew rapidly by word of mouth. He has since exhibited in eight

BP Portrait Award The BP Portrait Award is an annual portraiture competition held at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England. It is the successor to the John Player Portrait Award. It is the most important portrait prize in the world, and is reputedly ...

Exhibitions and twice won the BP Visitors’ Choice Award in 1996 and 1997 and received a commendation for the portrait ‘My Daughters' in 1999. In 2003 Benney was commissioned by the Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery to paint

Jack Dellal Jack Dellal (2 October 1923 – 28 October 2012) was a British property investor, nicknamed "Black Jack". His company, the property group Allied Commercial Holdings, financed the purchase of Shell Mex House in 2002 and sold it in 2007. Dellal ha ...

in recognition of his support of the gallery. He exhibited at the Birch & Conran in 1988, the Nigel Greenwood Gallery in 1991, the Long & Ryle Gallery in 1995. In 2013 he was asked to judge of the Threadneedle Prize at the Mall Galleries, UK. Benney's portrait subjects have included

HM Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

Sir Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. Jagger–Richards, His ongoing song ...

John Paul Getty III John Paul Getty III (; born Eugene Paul Getty II; November 4, 1956February 5, 2011) was the grandson of American oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, who was once the richest man in the world. While living in Rome in 1973, he was kidnapped by the 'Ndrangh ...

Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath Alexander George Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath (6 May 1932 – 4 April 2020), styled Viscount Weymouth between 1946 and 1992, was an English peer and landowner, owner of the Longleat estate, who sat in the House of Lords from 1992 until 1999, an ...

Lord Weidenfeld George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld, (13 September 1919 – 20 January 2016) was a British publisher, philanthropist, and newspaper columnist. He was also a lifelong Zionist and renowned as a master networker. He was on good terms with popes, ...

Baroness Amos Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher th ...

, The State Portrait for Israel,

Lord Rothschild Baron Rothschild, of Tring in the County of Hertfordshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1885 for Sir Nathan Rothschild, 2nd Baronet, a member of the Rothschild banking family. He was the first Jewish mem ...

, Ben Barnes (for the portrait in the feature film ''

Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical '' Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''The Picture of Dorian G ...

'' in 2009)

Fergus Henderson Fergus Henderson (born 31 July 1963) is an English chef who founded the restaurant St John (restaurant), St John on St John Street in London. He is often noted for his use of offal and other neglected cuts of meat as a consequence of his philo ...

Justice Stephen Breyer Stephen Gerald Breyer ( ; born August 15, 1938) is a retired American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1994 until his retirement in 2022. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton, and repl ...

Sarah Lucas Sarah Lucas (born 1962) is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s. Her works frequently employ visual puns and bawdy humour by incorporating photography, collage and found objects. ...

, The Duchess of Bedford,

Jerry Hall Jerry Faye Hall (born July 2, 1956) is an American model and actress. She began modelling in the 1970s and became one of the most sought after models in the world. She transitioned into acting, appearing in the 1989 film ''Batman''. Hall was th ...

, The Viscountess of Weymouth, Sir

Paul Hamlyn Paul Hamlyn, Baron Hamlyn, (12 February 1926 – 31 August 2001) was a German-born British publisher and philanthropist, who established the Paul Hamlyn Foundation in 1987. Early life He was born Paul Bertrand Wolfgang Hamburger in Berlin, Ger ...

, and

Lord Sainsbury Baron Sainsbury was created in 1962 for Alan Sainsbury in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. There have been two other peers with the surname "Sainsbury" who included their surname as part of their titles; all are from the Sainsbury family, names ...

. In 2015 Benney was commissioned by

HRH Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

to paint WWII veteran Brian Stewart for the

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...

. Benney was invited to be a resident artist at

Somerset House Somerset House is a large Neoclassical complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle was built on the site of a Tudor palace ("O ...

in 2010. During his five year residency he held the show ‘Night Paintings’ in 2012 which explored themes that deal more with the subconscious and metaphysical world and drew over 15,000 visitors. In 2017 Paul Benney exhibited his multimedia installation 'Speaking in Tongues' in the Church of San Gallo during the 57th Venice Art Biennale.

Early life and family

Benney was born in Chelsea but spent the majority of his childhood in Beenham in West Berkshire. His father,

Gerald Benney Gerald Adrian Sallis Benney CBE (21 April 1930 – 26 June 2008) was a British silver and goldsmith who along with David Mellor and Robert Welch popularised stainless steel designs in post-war British homes. Like Mellor and Welch he was influence ...

930 – 2008 was a notable silversmith who created gold and silver flatware and jewelry for private and public collections around the world including for the British Royal family.

Notable Exhibitions

* 57th VENICE ART BIENNALE. 'Speaking in Tongues'. Curated by James Putnam and Flora Fairbairn. 2017. * SOMERSET HOUSE. London. ‘Night Paintings’. Curated by Flora Fairbairn. 2012. * THE MALL GALLERIES. London. ‘Retrospective of 20 years work: Just Looking’. 2001. * CHRISTIE’S Exhibition & Auction. London. ‘Baby 2000’. Curated by Kay Saatchi. 2000. * NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. London. ‘State Portrait for Israel: Group Portrait with Associated Sketches’. 1995. * NIGEL GREENWOOD GALLERY. London. 1992. * P.P.O.W. GALLERY N.Y. 1985.

Selected Public and Corporate Collections

* BP. UK. * BROOKLYN MUSEUM, Brooklyn, USA. * CHRIST COLLEGE. Oxford, UK. * ELI BROAD FOUNDATION. Los Angeles, USA. * JESUS COLLEGE. Oxford, UK. * HOUSE OF CONGRESS. Washington DC, USA. * HOUSE OF LORDS. UK. * HOUSE OF COMMONS. UK. * METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, 20th Century Wing. N.Y, USA. * MUSEUM OF MODERN ART. Catanzaro, Italy. * NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. London, UK. * NATIONAL GALLERY. CANBERRA, Australia. * ROTHSCHILD FOUNDATION. UK. Israel. * ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND. UK. * SUPREME COURT. Boston, USA. * SUPREME COURT. Jerusalem. Israel. * WORLD BANK. Washington DC, US. * ZIMMERLI MUSEUM OF ART. New Jersey, USA.

References

External links

www.paulbenney.com

www.benneystudios.com

Somerset House, London.

National Portrait Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benney, Paul British portrait painters Living people 1959 births