Artist : Paul Benney
Title : What Dark is This
Medium : textured copper plate etching on archival paper
Dimensions : 105 x 80 cm


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Paul Benney was born in London and currently lives and works in Suffolk, UK. He rose to international prominence as a member of the Soho and East Village Neo-Expressionist group, whilst living and working in NYC in the 1980s where he exhibited alongside peers such as Marilyn Minter, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and David Wojnarowicz, among many other. Despite being immersed in this extraordinary creative environment, Benney’s painting has always maintained a uniquely English sensibility.

His work is held in major collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Royal Collection, and the Eli Broad Foundation. 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, the 7th Marquess of Bath, the State Portrait for Israel, Lord Rothschild, and Ben Barnes for the feature film A Portrait of Dorian Gray. In 2010, Benney was invited to be resident artist at Somerset House, where he held his exhibition Night Paintings in 2012, drawing over 15,000 visitors. In 2017, his epic painting and holosonic sound installation Speaking in Tongues was a prominent feature of the Venice Biennale. Most recently, Benney completed the official state coronation portrait of Queen Camilla, continuing his longstanding role as a leading figure in contemporary British painting ‘What Dark is This’, an important early edition that won a U.S. National Print Prize in the 1980s and is held in the collection of the Zimmerli Museum, USA. Reflecting on the work, Benney notes: “Looking back, I guess I would add that although its meaning is deliberately somewhat ambiguous, my intention was to explore the male sexual drive, territorial aggression and confrontational nature that can exist side by side with the more aspirational human virtues such as courage, virtue and wisdom.”