| Billy Benn Perrurle, Artetyerr, 2006, synthetic polymer paint on plywood, 48.4 x 243.5cm board. Collection AGNSW. |
Winner of the 34th Alice Prize 2006, the Anmatyerre artist Billy Benn was taught painting by his older sisters, Utopia artists Ally and Gladdy Kemarre, known for their colourful paintings often depicting flowers and women’s ceremonies.
Born around 1943 on his father’s country of Artetyerre (Harts Range) in Central Australia, his work has risen to prominence through his beautifully rendered small landscape paintings.
The gentleness of his paintings give little hint of the difficult life of the artist, who began work in mica mines at age 10, and whose experiences include accusations of murder of a man in 1967 – for which he was later acquitted on the grounds of insanity. He spent years working as a sheet metal worker, painting on wooden boards, often discarded by the Alice Springs Timber Mill.
His effective depiction of landscape, described by Cath Bowdler as ‘wonderful and intimate renditions of a remembered and loved country. Fresh, moving and raw’, is the result of his meditative focus on his land, his knowledge of its dreamings, which include antenhe (possum) and corroborees, combined with an artistic talent inherited from his father, who was a skilled carver.
In their depiction of the unique and stunningly beautiful mountain ranges and eucalypts of Central Australia, Benn’s landscapes recall the paintings of master landscape painter Albert Namatjira, yet are also very much his own. Especially notable is his ability to encapsulate a great depth of field on small surface (most of Benn’s canvases average between 20-30 centimetres). A founding member of Mwerre Anthurre Artists (Bindi Inc.), an Alice Springs arts centre established to provide employment and artistic expression for disabled Aboriginal people, Benn’s work first came to attention in 2000 in exhibitions in Alice Springs, in particular the annual Desert Mob exhibition at Araluen. His work has also been exhibited in Darwin at Karen Brown Gallery; in Melbourne at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Alcaston Gallery and Alison Kelly Gallery; and Alice Springs, at Gallery Gondwana. Leading public exhibitions in which his work has been seen include 2004: Australian Culture Now, National Gallery of Victoria Australia, 2004; and From Little Things Big Things Grow, NGA, 2004.