Kerry Stokes AC (b. 1940), businessman and philanthropist, grew up in humble circumstances in Melbourne and left school at fourteen to find work. He got his first regular job in Perth, installing television antennas. In his twenties he became involved in property development and construction, and in 1969 he and a business partner invested in GWN, a regional Western Australian television station. From 1979 onwards he acquired TV and radio stations in Canberra, Adelaide and Perth, and in 1996 he secured a nineteen percent stake in the Seven Network. Since 2006, the Seven Network has formed one arm of the Seven Media Group, and Stokes' other business interests are held under the umbrella of his private company Australian Capital Equity. All the while, he has built an extraordinary private collection of art, maps and rare books and donated generously to institutions including the Australian War Memorial and the National Gallery of Australia. The Stokes Collection is one of the world’s finest private museums, and is particularly rich in collecting areas such as Australian and Antarctic exploration, illuminated manuscripts, Indigenous art, European Impressionism and international modernism. In 2008 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for his services to business, the arts and the community.
This portrait of Stokes by leading Australian portrait photographer Peter Bew-Bevan was commissioned by the sitter and coincided with the release of the biography Kerry Stokes: A Boy from Nowhere in 2014.
Gift of the artist 2021
© Peter Brew-Bevan
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