Artist Info
Roloff Beny
Roloff Beny (1924-1984, b. Medicine Hat, Alberta – d. Rome)
Born Wilfred Roy Beny in Medicine Hat, Roloff Beny was an artist based in Rome known for photographic travels throughout the world. He adopted the first name Roloff, which was his mother’s maiden name. Beny studied at Trinity College in the University of Toronto, the Banff Centre for the Arts, and the University of Iowa. Throughout his life he maintained a studio in Lethbridge, Alberta that was utilized while visiting his relatives. Beny is known largely for his photographic works, but he was also a prolific painter, sculptor, writer, and printmaker recognized as an early advocate of abstract art within Canada.
While his initial interest in photography stemmed from its ability to let him remember locations for later painting them, Beny turned this fascination into a celebrated career that saw him travelling across Europe and Asia, while also creating photo portraits for the rich and influential figures he called friends. Beny published 18 books of his aesthetically pleasing travel photography, and his photographs also appeared in such magazines as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Chatelaine.
Beny’s work is collected and shown in international spaces. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lethbridge in 1972, the same year he was made an officer of the Order of Canada. The University of Lethbridge is where Beny’s collection of more than a thousand artworks were donated following his death, joining the works of modern masters he had donated to the institution during his lifetime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roloff_Beny
https://magazine.trinity.utoronto.ca/artist-nevertheless/
https://www.artsandartists.org/exhibitions/roloff-beny/
https://artgallery.uleth.ca/?tag=roloff-beny
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/roloff-beny
https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1976/5/17/roloff-and-the-king-of-iran
