photo by Julie Denesha/Flatland
A creative catalyst in Kansas City’s art scene for half a century
“Philomene Bennett was a dear friend to me and countless artists in Kansas City. As a friend and teacher, she encouraged and applauded authentic expression; as an artist, she demanded it of herself. Philomene lived a long, productive life. She was many things to many people, but most of all she was an artist who explored what it is to be human in this mysterious and magnificent world” (October 29, 2024) — Janet Simpson, Kansas City Artists Coalition executive director emeritus, 1989–2019
Philomene Dosek Bennett, renowned artist and creative force in Kansas City, died Sept. 25, 2024. Widely known for her majestic, lyrical and often spiritual paintings, Bennett was a creative catalyst in Kansas City’s art scene for half a century, including her pivotal role as co-founder of the Kansas City Artists Coalition (KCAC) in 1976. She inspired generations of artists in and beyond Kansas City.
“Philomene always thought bigger,” Janet Simpson said recently, describing Bennett’s expansive vision of what KCAC could be. As the second president, Bennett established KCAC as a vibrant artist-run organization and contextualized it as a part of the national and international art scene.
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1935, Bennett was the youngest of six children in a Catholic family. She studied art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, earning her BFA in 1956. She married her first husband, Richard Bennett, soon after graduating, and moved to Kansas City. During the 1960s, Bennett juggled being a young wife and mother of five children and establishing herself as an artist.
The year 1976 was life changing. Bennett co-founded KCAC, and, following her divorce from Bennett, married artist and fellow co-founding member, Louis Marak. Their blended family included 11 children — five Bennetts and six Maraks. That same year, her 17-year-old youngest son, Brad, was the passenger in a tragic car accident resulting in a nearly yearlong coma. He died in 1977.
Bennett channeled her grief into developing a powerful series of paintings including “Majestic Mountain,” “Mystical Valley,” “Red River to Heaven” and “Eighth Day.” She spoke about this series in a 1984 article by Don Lambert, shared by Bennett’s close friend, Jane Booth. “These ethereal landscapes became my private way of dealing with grief… I was painting where Brad may be. Or where we might all be some day.”
Bennett’s art encompassed painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking and assemblage. As a gifted and generous teacher at the Kansas City Art Institute, she drew in students, including Booth, who studied with her in the mid-1990s. Booth spoke about Bennett’s “incessant creation,” how she didn’t limit herself to any medium or style, and her innate ability to look deeply into the world. “She saw beauty where it
was taken for granted,” Booth said.
Bennett was an iconic figure on her own and alongside Marak, who died in 2020. “Our life has been wild, complicated … full,” she wrote in an essay accompanying their exhibition, “Philomene Bennett and Lou Marak,” at the KCAC’s Mallin and Charno Galleries from Oct. 13 to Nov. 17, 2006.
“People often ask us where we get our ideas, what inspires us, how do we do it? All I can say is I draw from the life around me. I’ve always said it’s somewhat like osmosis, I absorb everything and it comes out in the work. Nothing else makes sense to me. In the end I guess I would say we make art because we’re artists and that’s what we do.”
Bennett’s work can be found in museum and corporate art collections nationwide, including Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.; Daum Museum in Sedalia, Missouri; Prudential Life Insurance in New York, New York; United Missouri Bank in Kansas City and Blue Springs, Missouri; Mutual Benefit Life in Kansas City, Missouri; Odyssian Technology in South Bend, Indiana; American Express in Salt Lake City, Utah, and many more.
