Bendel Hydes at the opening of his exhibition Soundings at NGCI, 2003

A Tribute to Bendel Hydes on Behalf of the National Gallery

The National Gallery Board and Staff regret to announce the passing of Bendel Hydes, an artist who is universally celebrated as the founding father of Caymanian visual art.

Bendel’s practice spanned half a century of creativity from his early depictions of traditional Caymanian homes in his beloved West Bay, through experimentation with Surrealism and Expressionism, and ultimately to the purely abstract visual language that Bendel referred to as ‘luminescent abstraction’, evidenced in his career-defining series Circumnavigating the Globe (2008-2010). Bendel’s remarkable paintings sought to capture his personal and collective experiences and distil these down to the essential elements of light and colour: the deep connection to his maritime heritage, the unique light and beauty of his island home, as well as the duality of his personal circumstances, which saw the artist moving between Cayman and the vibrant, urban environment of New York City.

Installation View of Bendel Hydes – A Retrospective at NGCI, 2019

Critically, Bendel’s artistic journey laid the foundation for the development of the Caymanian professional art sector and the thriving cultural climate we now enjoy. When we consider the Cayman Islands of the 1950s, his journey is all the more remarkable. Few outlets were available to a young man of exceptional artistic talent, and the path he chose was an isolated one. Despite this, he would become the second Caymanian to independently enrol and pass, the GCE art examination via correspondence, the first to pursue an art degree abroad, and the first to receive international acclaim for his work. Later, preoccupations with form and colour accelerated artistic debate in our Islands, as he advocated for an official cultural infrastructure, taught classes, and eventually co-founded The Inn Theatre, the Cayman National Cultural Foundation and the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands – serving on their Boards for many years.

Breadfruit (Tropical Plant Series), 1984

Bendel was the first Caymanian artist to receive significant international acclaim representing the Cayman Islands internationally in major exhibitions and biennials around the world, including several seminal surveys of Caribbean art. Importantly, throughout his long career he regularly exhibited and taught at home, helping to inspire the next generation of Caymanian artists. Recent notable exhibitions included his solo exhibition Circumnavigating the Globe, which opened the new National Gallery site in 2012, and his full career retrospective coordinated by the National Gallery in 2019, when Chairperson Susan A Olde, OBE, helped to secure many of his works for the National Gallery’s permanent collection. His artwork also resides in many substantial public collections and in private homes, locally and overseas.

Bendel Hydes attending the opening ceremony of his NGCI Retrospective, 2019

In 2019, NGCI’s Cayman Islands Biennial award was named in his honour, positioning Bendel’s work as the pinnacle of artistic excellence.

With his passing, we have lost an artist of extraordinary skill but his endless spirit of discovery and deep ties to home form the basis of a remarkable legacy that will continue to serve as an inspiration to us all.

Join us onsite at the National Gallery site on 20 July at 2PM for a celebration of life event in honour of Bendel Hydes’ legacy and achievements.

Verity of Opposites (Circumnavigating the Globe No. 9), 2010

About the Artist
Bendel Hydes

1952–2024

Bendel Hydes was universally celebrated as the founding father of Caymanian art, being the first Caymanian to acquire formal fine art training and the first to receive international acclaim for his work, while also helping to cofound both the Cayman National Cultural Foundation and the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands. Hydes studied at Liverpool College of Art and Canterbury College of Art in England and subsequently received his B.A. from Clark University in the United States in 1976.

During the course of his career, he mounted solo exhibitions at the Commonwealth Institute, London and the 23rd International Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil, and his work has been featured in numerous publications, including Caribbean Art (Thames and Hudson: 1998) and A-Z of Caribbean Art (Robert & Christopher Publishers: 2019). Hydes’ work was included in two of the most prestigious surveys of Caribbean art of the past three decades: Carib Art (1995-96) and Caribbean Visions: Contemporary Painting and Sculpture (1995-98), which travelled to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Works by Hydes are held in the collections of the Cayman Islands National Museum and the Cayman Islands National Archive, as well as numerous private collections internationally.

Solo exhibitions at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands include Soundings in Fathoms (2003), Circumnavigating the Globe (2012) and Bendel Hydes- A Retrospective (2019)— the latter a comprehensive survey of the artist’s fifty-year career. Additionally, Hydes work has featured in numerous group exhibitions at NGCI, including: Founded Upon the Seas (2012), Metamorphoses (2014), Upon the Seas (2017), Cross Currents – 1st Cayman Islands Biennial (2019), Tropical Visions (2019), Saltwater in their Veins – A National Gallery Permanent Collection Exhibition (2020), The People’s Collection – A 25-Year Cultural Legacy (2022), The Ties that Bind: A Journey through the National Collection (2022), 81° West: Cartographic Explorations in Contemporary Caymanian Art (2023) and Thatch Roofs & Ironwood Posts: The Art and Artistry of the Caymanian Home (2024).