Ben Webb

Benedict (Ben) Webb (1977 – 22 September 2014) was a Dunedin, New Zealand-born artist, dividing his time between working in New Zealand and Germany. He was the son of New Zealand artist Marilynn Webb, and grew up surrounded by many of the top New Zealand artists of that country's "golden era" of modern art; among his godparents was Ralph Hotere.

Working largely with a mixture of oil and metallic pigments, Webb's work took old photographs as its starting-point. His images are frequently portraits from Weimar Germany in the years preceding World War II, although he has also employed still lifes as subject matter. These photographic images are recreated in large format, then distressed by the addition of pigment to form works which evoke strong reactions of melancholy or nostalgia, both in terms of their subject matter and their treatment. His work has been compared to the "gaudily tragic" Neue Sachlichkeit expressionist art of the Weimar era, with portraits of " figures whose faces seem to express the unbearable heaviness of a past trapped behind their eyes."

His earlier hand painted works are now very collectable but are very hard to find. Webb died on 22 September 2014, aged 37.