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Gerrit Bennerartist • painter • watercolourist • draughtsman • printmakerLeeuwarden 1897-1981 Nijemirdum

biography of Gerrit Benner

The subject of many of Gerrit Benner's paintings is the Frisian countryside with its wide horizon, the farms, the dunes and the cattle on the land. He was not concerned with a pure representation of reality, but with the expression of his deep admiration for nature, in simple forms and four or five solid colours. He worked figuratively but simplified his representations; in his landscapes he took abstraction the furthest. Benner was self-taught. Until 1953 he worked in the culturally rather isolated Friesland; he then moved to Amsterdam where he was included in the post-war renewal movement that dominated the art climate in Amsterdam.

Benner was born in Leeuwarden and trained as a house painter at the craft school. He married Geesje Schaap there and together they opened a gallantry shop. In addition, he remains active as a house painter and in his spare time he can often be found on the water with his boat, from which he sketches the Frisian landscape. During the crisis, the business goes bankrupt and Benner falls into a long-lasting depression. Almost all the work he made until then is destroyed by him.

After the Second World War, at the age of almost 50, Benner definitively chose art and came into contact with recent developments in art when he got to know Siep van den Berg from Groningen and the work of Hendrik Werkman through his daughter Fie. In Groningen, where he regularly stays, he draws and watercolors what he encounters in the area and from his imagination. Besides landscapes, flowers, birds and fabulously depicted riders with horses are recurring motifs in his work. During that time, Benner also regularly visited Terschelling. The dunes and sea he paints there show less and less depth, but are a stack of surfaces and shapes without a horizon.

After the war, Benner became acquainted with the CoBrA painters Karel Appel and Corneille. Under their influence, he uses more and more color and has his first exhibitions in Groningen and Amsterdam. His son rented a studio for him in Amsterdam in the early 1950s and Benner soon moved permanently to the city. There, with his expressive and colorful style, he appears to fit in wonderfully well with the prevailing, experimental climate. He starts to paint more and more with oils on a larger format than he was used to and his compositions become more and more simple. His work is exhibited internationally in the United States, Germany and Switzerland. Willem Sandberg, admirer and friend, purchases his work for the Stedelijk Museum.

From the 1970s, Benner can increasingly be found in the family home in Friesland, where he almost exclusively captures the vastness of the landscape in an expressionist style that never became completely abstract. The landscape would always remain recognizable in his work.


for salepaintings, watercolours, drawings and prints & multiples by Benner G.


Gerrit Benner | A woman in an interior; on the reverse: Composition, watercolour and gouache on paper, 49.5 x 65.5 cm, signed l.l.

Gerrit Benner

watercolour • drawing • for sale

A woman in an interior; on the reverse: Composition


previously for salepaintings, watercolours, drawings and prints & multiples by Benner G.


Gerrit Benner | Composition flowers and leaves, oil on canvas, 99.5 x 59.3 cm, signed on the reverse and painted 1959

Gerrit Benner

painting • previously for sale

Composition flowers and leaves

Gerrit Benner | Two horsemen, oil on canvas, 74.9 x 60.0 cm, signed on the reverse

Gerrit Benner

painting • previously for sale

Two horsemen

Gerrit Benner | Untitled, oil on canvas, 129.5 x 100.0 cm, signed on the reverse and painted ca. 1960

Gerrit Benner

painting • previously for sale

Untitled

Gerrit Benner | Drowned land, oil on canvas, 80.3 x 100.0 cm, painted in 1954

Gerrit Benner

painting • previously for sale

Drowned land

Gerrit Benner | Figures in the forest, acrylic on paper, 75.6 x 55.9 cm, signed l.r. and painted in 1960's

Gerrit Benner

painting • previously for sale

Figures in the forest

Gerrit Benner | Forest, oil on paper laid down on board, 56.3 x 75.7 cm, signed l.r. and painted ca. 1953

Gerrit Benner

painting • previously for sale

Forest

Gerrit Benner | A Dutch polder landscape, oil on canvas, 80.0 x 100.0 cm, painted ca. 1965

Gerrit Benner

painting • previously for sale

A Dutch polder landscape

Gerrit Benner | Forest with birds, oil on canvas, 99.8 x 80.0 cm, signed reverse and painted in 1968-1969

Gerrit Benner

painting • previously for sale

Forest with birds

Gerrit Benner | Landscape in Friesland, screenprint, 41.8 x 52.8 cm, signed l.r. (in pencil) and executed ca. 1980

Gerrit Benner

prints & multiples • previously for sale

Landscape in Friesland

Gerrit Benner | Horseman, gouache on paper, 70.0 x 50.0 cm, signed l.r. and on the reverse and dated circa 1957

Gerrit Benner

watercolour • drawing • previously for sale

Horseman

Gerrit Benner | Sealandscape, gouache on paper, 50.6 x 66.4 cm, executed ca. 1964

Gerrit Benner

watercolour • drawing • previously for sale

Sealandscape

Gerrit Benner | Sunset, watercolour and gouache on paper, 55.6 x 75.4 cm, signed l.r.

Gerrit Benner

watercolour • drawing • previously for sale

Sunset

Gerrit Benner | Kissing chicken, chalk and gouache on paper, 65.0 x 50.0 cm, signed l.r. and ca. 1965

Gerrit Benner

watercolour • drawing • previously for sale

Kissing chicken

Gerrit Benner | Landscape, watercolour on paper, 49.7 x 64.7 cm, signed l.r. and painted 1970

Gerrit Benner

watercolour • drawing • previously for sale

Landscape

Gerrit Benner | Sea and clouds, gouache on paper, 51.0 x 66.0 cm, signed l.r. and painted circa 1951

Gerrit Benner

watercolour • drawing • previously for sale

Sea and clouds

Gerrit Benner | Figure, gouache on paper, 50.0 x 37.1 cm, signed l.r. and painted circa 1956

Gerrit Benner

watercolour • drawing • previously for sale

Figure

Gerrit Benner | Birds, New Year card, gouache on paper, 24.9 x 16.9 cm, signed l.r.

Gerrit Benner

watercolour • drawing • previously for sale

Birds, New Year card

Gerrit Benner | Children at play, gouache on paper, 65.3 x 50.0 cm, signed l.r.

Gerrit Benner

watercolour • drawing • previously for sale

Children at play

Gerrit Benner | Sunset, gouache on paper, 61.5 x 47.4 cm, signed l.r. and painted circa 1954

Gerrit Benner

watercolour • drawing • previously for sale

Sunset

Gerrit Benner | Two birds, gouache on paper, 65.2 x 50.0 cm, signed l.r. and dated between 1956-1958

Gerrit Benner

watercolour • drawing • previously for sale

Two birds

Gerrit Benner | A couple, gouache on paper, 50.0 x 65.5 cm, signed l.r. and dated on the reverse 1967

Gerrit Benner

watercolour • drawing • previously for sale

A couple


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