1. Roloff Beny studied at the University of Toronto and took art classes at the Banff Centre for the Arts and the University of Iowa.
14 Facts About Roloff Beny
1. 2.
Roloff Beny began photographing in the 1950s simply as a way to capture scenes for his paintings before growing more interested in the medium.
3.
Roloff Beny maintained a photographic studio in Lethbridge, Alberta throughout his life and used the studio while visiting his relatives.
4.
Roloff Beny had a considerable reputation and exhibition record as the maker of progressive painting, drawing and printmaking in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
5.
Roloff Beny was recognized as one of the leading abstract artists of his day with works of the period exhibited and collected at that time by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the National Gallery of Canada, among others.
6.
Roloff Beny's book To Every Thing There is a Season was presented to visiting heads of state during Canada's 1967 centennial celebration.
7.
Roloff Beny was in early days a protege of Peggy Guggenheim and Herbert Read.
8.
Roloff Beny's books have been published in America, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iran, and Japan.
9.
Roloff Beny has been called "a poetic photographer" and he was a passionate aesthete.
10.
Roloff Beny's work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Yale University Art Gallery.
11.
Roloff Beny died March 16,1984, of a heart attack, aged 60, in his Roman studio overlooking the Tiber.
12.
Roloff Beny donated his artwork including collections of Canadian and international art, together with his papers, to the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery.
13.
Roloff Beny's books won awards throughout a long career, beginning with The Thrones of Earth and Heaven in 1958.
14.
Roloff Beny was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.