Social History Gallery Display: Pip Benveniste (1921-2010)

Born at Myrtle Cottage, Newlyn in 1921, Pip Benveniste was a post-war British modernist artist whose wide-ranging creative output included watercolour, oil, acrylic, etching, film and rug design over her 60-year career.

Benveniste was the eldest daughter of Bohemian artists Alec Walker and Kay Earle, who established Crysede Silks in Newlyn in 1920. Allowed to roam freely across the Cornish landscape as a child, the rolling fields, farms and hedges, granite formations, craggy coastlines and the mysterious Cornish light and skies were themes that would later influence her eye as an artist.

Throughout the 1950s and 60s Benveniste was immersed in the rapidly developing art world with close affiliation to figures like the writer James Baldwin in Paris, film-maker Terry Southern in New York, artist Tess Jaray in London, as well as being part of Yoko Ono’s early experimental films.

In addition to painting across various locations in the UK, Benveniste travelled and worked in Mexico, America, France, Morocco, Holland and Tunisia, all the while absorbing colours, culture, light and landscapes, and always returning to Cornwall for visits to draw and paint. She exhibited widely in solo and joint exhibitions throughout her career.

For further information about Benveniste’s art legacy, contact:

Mark Vaughan OBE

Email: [email protected]

The display will run from Saturday, 9 August until Wednesday, 10 September 2025.