Biography

Gerrit Benner (*1897 Leeuwarden NL | †1981 Nijmirdum NL) was a Frisian painter who is best known for his brightly colored Frisian landscapes in neo-expressionist and abstract-expressionist style.

Benner was born in Leeuwarden, Friesland, to Hendrikus Jacobus Benner, a carpenter, and his wife Idske Zijlstra. He married Geesje Schaap in 1918 and opened a shop in Gallantries. He additionally worked as a house painter and at this point began to self-learn fine art, where he developed a unique style due to the lack of outside influences. Benner had a difficult relationship with his artwork, and after the bankruptcy of his shop in 1937, burned all of his paintings.

After the Second World War, Benner finally began to focus fully on his artistic practice, and came into contact with artists from the CoBrA group such as Karel Appel and Constant. Despite the growing contact with other artists, Benner’s work remained individualistic in style and he worked in relative isolation.
Benner began to gain international recognition in the 1950s, representing the Netherlands at the São Paulo Art Biennial where he won second prize. He was honored in 1955 by the Foundation for Artists Resistance 1942-1945 and won the Guggenheim Prize for the Low Countries in 1958.

In 1954, he took over the studio of Karel Appel in Amsterdam. Benner’s oeuvre focused on the natural world, a succession of landscapes, flowers, birds and equestrian scenes. He became known in particular for his abstracted, brightly colored Frisian landscapes.

Benner eventually returned to Friesland, and passed away at the age of 84 in Nijmirdum. In 2003, the Provincial Council of the Province of Friesland instituted a Biennial Prize in Benner’s name, concerning an oeuvre prize for an artist whose work has recently undergone significant development. His work can now be found in the Van Abbe Museum, Eindhovern; Frisian Museum, Leeuwarden; Art Museum The Hague; Museum Belvedere, Heerenveen; Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.