Signed, dated, and inscribed on reverse: 'With All Our Might 2004 Jason Benjamin'

Ruminating on Jason Benjamin’s landscapes, the art critic John McDonald wrote: “The prevalent mood in Benjamin’s paintings is one of melancholy, or loneliness. We look at a picture postcard view and feel an unexpected twinge of Sehnsucht – to use that untranslatable German word that stands for longing, nostalgia and desire. These are not images of pleasure but of lost pleasures remembered and regretted… Look closely and one can see the painstaking labour that goes into every picture, but Benjamin wants us to engage with the complete image, not just one aspect of its making. The labour and the loneliness do not detract from our pleasure in these paintings, they add both depth and nuance.”

With all our might transports the viewer into the western reaches of New South Wales, the site of the artist’s numerous trips. The solitary tree trunk rises defiantly and majestically above the grass field. The low vantage point and the sheer expanse of the sky impart a sense of pathos and monumentality to its darkened silhouette. The ominous clouds portent a storm, but the azure skies and the glimpse of sunrays piercing through bring a promise of clarity and renewal. The pigment application echoes the notes of cautious optimism: the permanence of the blue sky is indicated with thick coatings of the canvas, but the ephemerality of the darkened clouds is applied in thinner glazes revealing deeper blues underneath.

With all our might features one of Jason’s favoured compositional idioms: the low horizon with the vast expanse of sky. It aims to capture his fascination with vastness, isolation, and the unknown history of Australian terrain as well as the efforts of the first and settler nations to survive within it. The cinematic quality of the piece reflects the artist’s interest in films by Ridley Scott and David Lynch: as the result, his paintings are always filled with the poignant moment of emotional anticipation. The title of the work, which was frequently arrived upon before the completion of the painting, imbues the canvas with a deeper emotional gravitas.

The Melbourne-born Jason Benjamin (1971-2021), a graduate of the Pratt Institute in New York, had held numerous solo exhibitions from the early 1990s onwards, in Australia (in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide) as well as abroad (in Dallas TX, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Rome, Beijing, Berlin).

A monograph on the Benjamin’s works, ‘What Binds Us’, with an essay by Ken McGregor and interviews between the artist and Jack Marx, was published by Macmillan in 2007. A survey exhibition of the artist’s works, ‘Everyone is here’, curated by Gavin Wilson, was held at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, touring nationally 2013-2014.

Benjamin’s paintings were included in curated group exhibitions, including ‘Ten Australian Artists’ at the Australian High Commission in Singapore (2000); ‘William Creek and Beyond’ (Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, and touring nationally 2003-2004); as well as in art fair presentations, most notably with Rebecca Hossack Gallery at Art London (2001, 2002) and Art Miami (2003).

The artist’s works had been selected as finalists in numerous prestigious art awards and prizes including, most notably, the Archibald Prize (the winner, Packing Room Prize, 2005), Wynne Prize, the Doug Moran Portrait Prize, and the Mosman Art Prize.

Benjamin’s works reside in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Artbank, the Parliament House Art Collection, National Portrait Gallery, regional galleries in Bendigo, Ballarat, Shepparton, Mornington Peninsula, Castlemaine, Goulburn, Rockhampton, Tweed River, ArtSpace Makay, and HOTA.