HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Margaret Benyon, , was a British artist. Trained as a painter, she was one of the first artists to use
holography Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other Holography#Applications, applic ...
as a medium and had her first solo show of holograms in 1969. She was appointed to the
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in 2000 for her service to art and has been called "the mother of British holography".


Education and early career

Margaret Benyon was born in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, England in 1940 and grew up in
Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...
, where she attended Kenya High School. She studied painting at the
Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...
in London, graduating in 1962. As a working artist in the early 1960s she sought to "question the abstract expressionists' assumption that the criterion of excellence in painting was that it should be treated as a flat surface". She employed techniques including "optical illusions, colour and so on", particularly the
moiré pattern In mathematics, physics, and art, moiré patterns ( , , ) or moiré fringes are large-scale interference patterns that can be produced when an opaque ruled pattern with transparent gaps is overlaid on another similar pattern. For the moiré ...
, "to modulate the picture plane so that it no longer looked flat". She also created anaglyph paintings, which appeared three dimensional when viewed through special glasses with differently coloured lenses.


Career in holography

Benyon became interested in
holography Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other Holography#Applications, applic ...
after reading a newspaper article about it in 1967. From 1968 to 1971 she held a fellowship in fine art at the
University of Nottingham , mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom , established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status , type = Public , chancellor ...
, where she began experimenting with holography as an artistic medium. Building on her already existing knowledge of
photographic processing Photographic processing or photographic development is the chemical means by which photographic film or paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image. Photographic processing transforms the latent image into ...
techniques, she taught herself holography by reading scientific journal articles. She was given after-hours use of a laboratory in the university's mechanical engineering department, where she made her first holograms. In 1969 the University of Nottingham art gallery displayed Benyon's holograms in what has been called the world's "first solo art holography show". She made the holograms for the show in a laboratory of the
British Aircraft Corporation The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 1 ...
in Bristol, England. She later made use of the facilities at the National Physical Laboratory. In February and March 1970 Benyon had a solo show at the
Lisson Gallery Lisson Gallery is a contemporary art gallery with locations in London and New York, founded by Nicholas Logsdail in 1967. The gallery represents over 50 artists such as Art & Language, Ryan Gander, Carmen Herrera, Richard Long, John Latham, S ...
in London. The exhibition poster described it as the "first London expo of holograms and stereoscopic paintings". From 1971 to 1973 was a Leverhulme Senior Art fellow in the Department of Architecture and Building Science at the
University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...
in Glasgow. During this period she had two more exhibitions in Nottingham and one in Edinburgh. Benyon spent the period between 1976 and 1981 in Australia. She taught at the Canberra School of Art and held a creative arts fellowship at the
Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
in
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ...
. Working in laboratories at the university's physics department and the Royal Military College in Duntroon, she continued creating holographic works. Some of her Australian work incorporated other media, such as drawing and painting. After her return to England in 1981 Benyon began working with
pulse laser Pulsed operation of lasers refers to any laser not classified as continuous wave, so that the optical power appears in pulses of some duration at some repetition rate. Silfvast, William T. (1996). ''Laser Fundamentals'', Cambridge University Press. ...
s in collaboration with scientist John Webster at the
Central Electricity Generating Board The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s. It was established on 1 Januar ...
. In 1983 she set up her own holography studio in
Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , Do ...
, England. In the period between 1981 and 1993 she used the human body as the sole subject matter for her work, combining holography with techniques such as
underpainting In art, an underpainting is an initial layer of paint applied to a ground, which serves as a base for subsequent layers of paint. Underpaintings are often monochromatic and help to define color values for later painting. Underpainting gets its nam ...
. Margaret Benyon earned a PhD from the
Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It off ...
for a thesis entitled ''How is Holography Art?'' in 1994. She was appointed to the
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in 2000 "for services to art". Benyon has been called "the mother of British holography". Margaret Benyon returned to Australia in 2005. She continued to practice as an artist, while teaching at the College of Fine Arts at the
University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...
in Sydney. She died on 21 October 2016.


References


External links


The Benyon ArchiveMargaret Benyon holograms on YouTube
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benyon, Margaret 1940 births 2016 deaths Alumni of the Royal College of Art Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art British women artists Holography Members of the Order of the British Empire People from Birmingham, West Midlands Academic staff of the University of New South Wales Alumni of Kenya High School British expatriates in Kenya