Hugh Reskymer 'Kym' Bonython AC DFC AFC (1920-2011), company director, art dealer, jazz authority, music promoter and speedway entrepreneur, was one of the most significant collectors and dealers of contemporary Australian art in the postwar period. Raised in Adelaide, where his grandfather and father had been leading philanthropists, he served in the RAAF during World War II before returning to the ABC as a broadcaster. His jazz program ran from 1937 to the mid-1970s. As a music promoter, Bonython brought scores of international jazz and rock acts to Australia. At the same time, he was a speedway impresario in Adelaide from 1954 to 1973 and won the Australian speedway championship in 1956. He owned galleries in Sydney from 1965 to 1976, and Adelaide from 1961 to 1983. Director of Austereo Ltd from 1979 to 1991, he sat on a host of arts-related boards and committees. Bonython wrote six books on Australian painting and an autobiography, published in 1979.
John Brack painted Kym Bonython on commission in 1963. When the work was completed, Bonython asked the artist to alter it to show him wearing his racing cap. Brack protested that it would upset the balance of the painting, and instead suggested a separate canvas depicting the cap. The two paintings are now considered to be a single work. Portrait of Kym Bonython was rescued from the flames as the Bonython family home burned to the ground on Ash Wednesday in February 1983.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Kym Bonython AC DFC AFC 2007
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
© Helen Brack
This is a two-part oil on canvas portrait of art dealer and speedway entrepreneur, Kym Bonython. One canvas is titled Portrait of Kim Bonython and dated 1963 and the other is titled Portrait of Mr. Bonython's speedway cap dated 1966.
The portrait of Bonython is a broad rectangle 94 cm high and 84 cm wide whereas the speedway cap is a thinner rectangle 62cm high and 42cm wide. Both works are set within deep wooden frames that have thin 8mm wood edges. The speedway cap frame is a darker brown than Bonython’s frame.
On our left the larger portrait of Bonython, then slightly higher on the right, the smaller portrait of his cap.
Bonython’s portrait has uncluttered simplicity, a restrained palette and strong geometric design. Bonython’s distorted body shape is striking for being squeezed into the bottom half of the canvas.In the background broad brushstrokes of layers of beige and slightly green and yellow tinged paint, the overall effect is of a gold surface with a flush of lighter white yellow across the top perhaps suggestive of a light source on the left. Very feint pencil marks divide the space into a wide grid.
Bonython’s plump oval head faces forward, with his head tilted on a 45 degree angle to his right shoulder. His short, brown hair frames the top half of his head, is neatly combed behind his ears and his low left parting, sweeps a wave across his high forehead. Individual strands of red, blue and yellow give texture and energy to the wave.
His features are pale and small within the scale of his yellow/biege face; he has sunken oval blue eyes that look downwards without an exact focus. His thin, framing eyebrows continue down and outline the shape of his narrow nose. His mouth is closed; his thin upper lip has a downward curve mirroring the larger curved lines of his triple chins, below.
Bonython is wearing a tight at-the-collar, off-white shirt and a skinny brown tie. His extra- large, ill-fitting jacket sits awkwardly on his shoulders; on his left side it is bunched up by his neck and exposes the black lining beneath.
The jacket has small checks of off-white and grey green. The outline of the jacket, its collar and folds are marked by thin red and dark blue brushstrokes. He has short upper arms, bent elbows and his forearms meet in the middle where his large hands are clasped, fingers interlocking with his thumbs pointing to the sky. The jacket sleeves stop short of his wrists revealing, his shirt cuffs. On his right wrist he wears a watch with a brown and gold interlocking band and on his left, a brown leather braided bracelet. His tie, watch and bracelet are the same brown.
There is a thin uneven horizontal line about 9cms from the base of the canvas, suggesting a table. The artist’s signature John Brack, 63’ is below Bonython’s left elbow in the bottom right corner of the painting.
The painting of Bonython’s speedway cap is also depicted on an empty field of colour, here the background is a warmer beige ochre paint with narrower brushstrokes circling the cap and areas of smooth paint at the top. About 8cms from the top, a thin pencil like line travels across the width of the canvas. On the far left of the line, unusual as it’s at the top the artist has signed John Brack, 66. A grey brown thumbtack is painted pressed off- centre into the line. From the thumb tack a long slightly stiff and wobbly wire, hanging down approximately 17cms, where it loops through a metal hook and winds back tightly around itself, from it, a short piece of wire is pointing out to the right. The S-shaped metal hook is black and brown and hangs from the loop in the wire disappearing behind the top of the speedway cap about half way down the painting.
The cap is oval, approximately 20cms wide and 25 cm long like a suspended balloon with the narrow end at the top. The cap is a glossy black-and-white check pattern, check pattern ripples and crumples to suggest form in an otherwise flat shape.
Audio description written by Annette Twyman and voiced by Carol Wellman Kelly
Kym Bonython (1 portrait)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
Australian Galleries Director Stuart Purves tells the story of two portraits by John Brack.
Former National Portrait Gallery Director, Andrew Sayers, describes John Brack's portrait of Kym Bonython.
