Artist : Paul Benney (b. 1959)
Title : Pieta
Medium : oil on canvas
Size : 220 x 250 cm


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The semiotics of public and religious signage : “My specific interest in religious painting from the renaissance up until the withering of church patronage is concomitant with my interest in the symbolism of our age. The dominant symbology of this past was firmly set within the Church’s iconography. The stories told to us from that time through their imagery were presented with an aim to guide us towards a universally desired and morally respectable life. The dominant symbology of our age (if you consider the acreage of signage in our modern landscape) is quite literally overwhelming, but mostly overlooked in its ubiquity. With the decline in acceptance of convincing moral and ethical guidance from religious bodies we have allowed other authorities to fill the vacuum. The current proliferation of symbolic signage would not, I suggest, be understood by an ancestor as the iconography of socially benign guidance but evidence of a universal adherence to a cult centred on the car, transport and health and safety in the urban environment that has been foisted upon us by a omnipotent force that sees itself as responsible for our apparent well being, in much the same way that the clergy felt responsible for us in the days of the church’s hegemony. I aim to show the underlying connections and intentions between these different forms of iconography and hope to open up some discussion about how we allow ourselves to be manipulated and ‘guided’ by the powers that be.” - Paul Benney, 2021

Paul Benney was born in London and currently lives and works in Suffolk. He rose to international prominence as a member of the Soho and East Village Neo-Expressionist group, whilst living and working in New York City in the 1980s where he worked and exhibited alongside peers Marylyn Minter, Jean-Michel Basquiat and David Wojnarovicz among the many other others who made up the exploding NY art scene. Despite living and working in this extraordinary creative environment Benney’s painting maintained a uniquely English sensibility. Collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Brooklyn Museum, The National Gallery of Australia and The National Portrait Gallery in London, The Royal Collection and The Eli Broad Foundation own works. He has exhibited in eight BP Portrait Award Exhibitions and twice won the BP Visitors’ Choice Award. Benney’s portrait subjects have included HM Queen Elizabeth II, Sir Mick Jagger, John Paul Getty III, 7th Marquess of Bath, The State Portrait for Israel, Lord Rothschild, as well as Ben Barnes for the portrait in the feature film ‘A Portrait of Dorian Grey’. Benney was invited to be resident artist at Somerset House in 2010. During his five year residency he held the exhibition ‘Night Paintings’ in 2012 and drew over 15,000 visitors. In 2017 his epic painting and holosonic sound installation ‘Speaking in Tongues’ was a prominent feature of the Venice Biennale.



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