The Sentinal, 2001
The Sentinal, 2001
weathered steel
15’ x 7’ x 5’
Provenance:
13th Street Winery Permanent Collection since 2018
Literature:
Originally from the City of Saskatoon in Saskatchewan now stands majestically on the grounds of 13th Street Winery. Bentham has exhibited his works nationally and internationally with a career expanding over four decades.
From the Essay written by Terry Fenton:
Douglas Bentham works in the constructive tradition. That is, he doesn’t model in clay or carve in wood or stone, but instead arranges and welds together discrete steel parts. This method was more or less invented by Picasso and elaborated upon by many artist since that time, notably Julio Gonzales, David Smith and Anthony Caro – some of them working in materials other than steel.
Steel is a wonderfully flexible material. It can be cut apart and reassembled with relative ease. The welded joins withstand severe stress, making it possible for small attachments to secure heavy parts. But because it can’t be carved, or modeled steel doesn’t readily describe or represent. Because of this it inclines to abstraction.
Abstraction, especially in sculpture, has had to work out a new vocabulary, one that uses constructive materials (often scrape steel) in arrangements which are evocative without looking too much like familiar objects. The constructive sculptor’s job has been to take more-or-less discrete parts (among them manufactured or fabricated shapes found in the industrial scrap pile) and arrange them into configurations which has the unity and expressive power as art.
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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.”
