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2025/05/17
How to Navigate the Legacy Blog of Henri van Bentum, 1929 - 2022
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2025/05/15
"What The Critics Say" -- about the work of the late Henri van Bentum, Artist
Henri van Bentum at work on a "Spatial Rhythm" watercolour, Arizona, 2015
“His microscopic attention to detail comes out most strongly in evocations of coral seen through the luminous waters of tropical seas, and in the textures of rock and ice caught in the suffused light of underground caverns.” TIME Magazine
“The best one-man show of abstract art I have seen in a long time is that of watercolours by Henri van Bentum. While too many artists seem to torture watercolour for expression, van Bentum exploits the natural delight of the medium so that it serves his most exacting thought.” Globe & Mail
“Henri van Bentum’s series of work, “Spatial Rhythms”, reflects his development into a controlled, simple interpretation of inner feelings; this series of paintings interprets the elements of music such as volume, mood and rhythm and are translated into tonality, colour and composition." Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Alberta
"When he marshals his colour into circles, then places them like water drops on the white canvas, van Bentum gets a rich intricacy of light and depth. Some have jewel facets, while others contain the subtleties of earth, leaves and bark". Globe & Mail
“Viewing a painting by Henri van Bentum is a stimulus to the imagination. Perhaps his background as a diamond-faceter’s son is responsible for the almost crystalline aspect of his work. The single most extraordinary quality in all his paintings is an incredible luminosity, a radiance that emanates from within.
Completely introspective in his work, van Bentum is probably a born abstract painter. J.W.G. ("Jock") Macdonald, with whom he studied, was one of the first to encourage van Bentum to develop his individuality, and it is certainly under Macdonald’s influence that he achieved his present independence. van Bentum uses blank space as a positive.
The missing element is essential to the whole. While none of his current work depicts any recognizable object, it immediately conjures up a mental word picture of a time, space, melody or situation”. Canadian Interiors
2024/11/14
Works by the late Henri van Bentum from our Private Collection. Now available to purchase for the first time.
Acrylic and Chinese Ink on Paper, width 30" x height 24", framed under glass
$12,000 (canvas requires re-stretching)
What the Critics Say about the Work
of Artist Henri van Bentum
van Bentum uses blank space as a positive. The missing element is essential to the whole. While none of his current work depicts any recognizable object, it immediately conjures up a mental word picture of a time, space, melody or situation”. Canadian Interiors
2024/04/23
Celebrating the International Day of Light 2024 - "Fruit Gathering" / "Organiverse"
Fruit Gathering: A Journey Into the "Organiverse" of
Henri van Bentum, with Rabindranath Tagore - Part Two
With a focus on Light this contemplative online exhibit features a series of ten sequential video and audio chapters embracing one hundred mandalas ("Organiverse" Starry Night edition, created by artist Henri van Bentum) with the eighty-six poems, "Fruit Gathering" by Tagore, exploring themes of light and life. Read by producer Brian W.E. Johnson.
Mandala #25 from #100 set, Organiverse, Henri van Bentum, 1972
Join us as we explore Rabindranath’s epic work “Fruit Gathering”, comprised of eighty-six poems, paired with the 100 mandalas of Henri van Bentum’s “Organiverse – Starry Night edition”.
Each poem is read by producer Brian W.E. Johnson.
Just as Rabindranath Tagore uses light as a symbol for hope and freedom, and to represent divine love, Henri van Bentum’s Organiverse series is a glimpse into the multi-layered beauty of all that is life and light, a dance of colour, form and contemplation.
Link to the full playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLimVRC0ywrmjNrYPJkFNqLRqim15PMpK0
This project is a sequel to the "Gitanjali/Organiverse" exhibit, described in our post of January 5, 2022. For full details click here.
More about Organiverse, both the Original and Starry Night editions, can be found here.
For a link to the special issue of "Gitanjali and Beyond", Issue #7. published by the Scottish Centre of Tagore Studies, click here.
2024/04/01
Remembering With Joy, Artist Henri van Bentum (1929-2022), and the healing power of Art
On the Healing Power of Art
"Henri, the 'Maestro',
lives on in our hearts and minds
every day." Natasha van Bentum
≈≈≈
What is a Creative Person Like? (written by Henri many years ago)
Are observant of the world
about them
Are aware of the feel and
touch of things
Listen to the sound of
life around them
Are sensitive to smell
Are aware of the taste of
things
THEY LIKE TO ‘BUILD’ THEIR IDEAS
Like to construct things
in material
Prefer to rearrange old
ideas into new relationships
Like to experiment with
various approaches and media
Like to try out new
methods and techniques
Prefer to manipulate their
ideas in various ways
Have to solve problems set
by themselves
Seek to push beyond the
boundaries of their thinking
THEY LIKE TO EXPLORE NEW IDEAS
Are original in their
thoughts about things
Like to invent new ways of
saying and telling
Like to dream up new
possibilities
Like to imagine and
pretend
THEY ARE CONFIDENT IN THEMSELVES
Flexible in approaches to
situations
Like to be independent and
on their own
Are outwardly expressive
of what they have to say
Are not afraid of
emotional feelings and show them
THEY LIKE TO INVESTIGATE THE NATURE OF THINGS
Like to search for the meaning of things
Question available data
and information
Like to inquire into
unknown quantities
Discover new relationships
Desire to uncover new
meanings
THEY RESPOND TO AESTHETIC STIMULI
Are sensitive to the
beauty of nature
Appreciate beauty man has
made and
Which nature abundantly
provides
Have feeling for harmony
and rhythm
Love to sing, write,
explore, cook,
act, sculpt, draw, paint
or dance.
2023/05/27
The Deployment of Henri's Reef off the coast of Vancouver Island - Artist Henri van Bentum, 1929-2022
2023/05/26
More photos from the deployment of Henri's Reef
Here are some screen captures from a video by Living Reef Memorial of the deployment of Henri's Reef exactly two weeks ago, on May 27th.
More details about the Living Reef can be found in the earlier post, published on the same day (scroll below).