Artist: Billy Perrurle Benn | Title: Artetyerre | Year: 2007 | Medium: Synthetic Polymer Paint on Belgian Linen | Dimensions: 120 x 20 cm
PROVENANCE
Bindi Mwerre Anthurre Artists, NT Cat No. bb071107
Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
EXHIBITED
Paris Outsider Art Fair June 2015
Visions of Utopia, Coo-ee Gallery, 2011
Artetyerre, NG Gallery, 2010.
Artist Profile
COMMUNITY/ REGION
Harts Range, NT
LANGUAGE
Alyawarre
BIOGRAPHY
Billy Benn Perrurle was born circa 1943 in Artetyerre (Harts Range) and passed away in 2012.
He began working as a young boy, aged approximately 10, in the mica mines of Harts Range. He was not paid for his work, instead receiving tucker and clothes. Later he began pumping water for cattle, again being paid in flour, sugar and tea. He spent most of his working life in the North Eastern area of Central Australia, droving sheep and cattle for Pastoralists.
He began creating artworks in 1981, with a disability service in Alice Springs. During his time constructing metal boxes in the Brown Street workshop, he identified a space which became his corner to paint in. He began to visually map out his father’s country via the painted image, using old boards discarded by the Alice Springs Timber Mill. Working as many outsider artists do, with second rate materials, on any surface that appealed, Billy painted using his fingers, cloth, glue and varnish. Despite the brilliant landscapes being created, they were only shown once prior to 2000 in an exhibition of artworks done by people with a disability in the ‘Beyond Passions’ exhibition in Alice Springs. All his work sold, and yet, the low profile of the exhibition, meant that his work had still not been viewed by the wider market. The Mwerre Anthurre Artist collective was founded around his talent in 2000.
It was many years before Billy was able to return to his homeland. Meanwhile he continued to paint primarily Harts Range, his father’s country. His images were found from memory and feeling. Only when he had painted every hill from his country, would he stop and return home. Bill’s paintings cover a wide scope of style, born of his own lack of preciousness, his vivid imagination and colour, texture and material experimentation strategies, rather than the study of other painterly influences.
During his lifetime Billy Benn's paintings celebrated the land and his knowledge of it. At the time he began painting he no longer lived there, so he painted it from memory, keeping his home close to his heart by devotedly painting every part of it. He intended to paint every hill from his country before stopping, and returning home to die.
© Adrian Newstead
PROVENANCE
Bindi Mwerre Anthurre Artists, NT Cat No. bb071107
Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
EXHIBITED
Paris Outsider Art Fair June 2015
Visions of Utopia, Coo-ee Gallery, 2011
Artetyerre, NG Gallery, 2010.
Artist Profile
COMMUNITY/ REGION
Harts Range, NT
LANGUAGE
Alyawarre
BIOGRAPHY
Billy Benn Perrurle was born circa 1943 in Artetyerre (Harts Range) and passed away in 2012.
He began working as a young boy, aged approximately 10, in the mica mines of Harts Range. He was not paid for his work, instead receiving tucker and clothes. Later he began pumping water for cattle, again being paid in flour, sugar and tea. He spent most of his working life in the North Eastern area of Central Australia, droving sheep and cattle for Pastoralists.
He began creating artworks in 1981, with a disability service in Alice Springs. During his time constructing metal boxes in the Brown Street workshop, he identified a space which became his corner to paint in. He began to visually map out his father’s country via the painted image, using old boards discarded by the Alice Springs Timber Mill. Working as many outsider artists do, with second rate materials, on any surface that appealed, Billy painted using his fingers, cloth, glue and varnish. Despite the brilliant landscapes being created, they were only shown once prior to 2000 in an exhibition of artworks done by people with a disability in the ‘Beyond Passions’ exhibition in Alice Springs. All his work sold, and yet, the low profile of the exhibition, meant that his work had still not been viewed by the wider market. The Mwerre Anthurre Artist collective was founded around his talent in 2000.
It was many years before Billy was able to return to his homeland. Meanwhile he continued to paint primarily Harts Range, his father’s country. His images were found from memory and feeling. Only when he had painted every hill from his country, would he stop and return home. Bill’s paintings cover a wide scope of style, born of his own lack of preciousness, his vivid imagination and colour, texture and material experimentation strategies, rather than the study of other painterly influences.
During his lifetime Billy Benn's paintings celebrated the land and his knowledge of it. At the time he began painting he no longer lived there, so he painted it from memory, keeping his home close to his heart by devotedly painting every part of it. He intended to paint every hill from his country before stopping, and returning home to die.
© Adrian Newstead
