Leonardo’s Wind I, 2017
Leonardo’s Wind I, 2017
burnished stainless steel
7.5’ x 8’ x 2’
Provenance:
13th Street Winery Permanent Collection since 2017
Literature:
By incorporating culture and academic studies, Bentham creates metaphors that develop into themes; this sculpture explores the use of linear rhythm. Inspired by Picasso, and influenced by landscape, architecture, urban spaces and light, Bentham’s abstracted, geometric components and pieces create provoking thoughts. Beyond exploring the material, this sculpture is about movement, space and time. The artist’s direct goal is to capture his ideas, emotions and his spirituality into these inert materials and to somehow create a spirit within the artwork.
Artist Statements:
“I produce public-scaled sculpture as an ongoing component of my discipline. My belief is that public sculpture can only be defined as such if it meaningfully engages both its setting and the people who inhibit that setting.”
“I apply a holistic approach to my art making in which juxtapositions of self-similar forms create – like metaphors – a tension composed of similarities and differences between the terms of the sculpture. The more dynamic this tension, the greater the possibility that my sculpture can provoke the brain into wonder and awe, and a sense of unexpected truth or beauty.”
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About Douglas Bentham
Canadian sculptor Douglas Bentham (b. 1947) produces abstract sculpture in various mediums, primarily in steel, stainless steel, bronze/brass and wood. He creates his unique objects in scales ranging from monumental pieces to works that can be held in the hand. Bentham’s sculptures are represented in the collections of numerous public institutions across Canada. His process of working is rooted in the Modernist tradition, embracing growth and transformation.
Douglas Bentham has maintained an international reputation as a major practitioner of abstract, constructivist sculpture for over forty years graduating with a BA Advanced degree in painting from the University of Saskatchewan in 1969. He received an MFA in sculpture from that institution in 1989, working alongside eminent artists/teachers Eli Bornstein and Otto Rogers. He has contributed to many international artists’ workshops throughout his career, including the Emma Lake Artists’ Workshop, Saskatchewan, Canada; the Triangle Artists’ Workshop, New York, US; and the Hardingham Sculpture Workshop, Norfolk, UK. He has presented over fifty solo exhibitions across Canada, notably a nationally travelling exhibition organized by the Art Gallery of York University, Toronto, ON, in 1975, and a ten-year survey exhibition at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK, in 1980.
“I’m only satisfied with a work of art when the original concept becomes transformed by its making. I enter into a kind of prayer with the material with the goal of creating a rhythm that will carry me through many days in the studio. I address several pieces simultaneously, always on the edge of seeing the art in unexpected ways, allowing it to assert itself by my presence. Collage lends itself best to this process by being so open-ended, so agreeable to rapid change.”
