Born in Melbourne, Kerry Stokes AC (b. 1940), businessman and philanthropist, was adopted as an infant. He left school at fourteen, eventually ending up in Perth where he got his first regular job: installing television antennas. By the time he was in his twenties he had become involved in property development and construction during the Perth real estate boom of the 1960s. Starting in 1979, he began acquiring local television stations in Canberra, Adelaide and Perth, and in 1996 secured a nineteen per cent stake in the Seven Network and its free-to-air television stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Since 2006, the Seven Network has formed one arm of Seven West Media, which incorporates West Australian Newspapers and various other online and publishing concerns. His diverse business interests also include property, construction, mining and petroleum exploration. Over forty years Stokes has built an extraordinary collection of art, maps, rare books and artefacts and donated generously to institutions including the Australian War Memorial and the National Gallery of Australia. The Stokes Collection, housed in Perth, is one of the world's finest private museums.
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
The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the
Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a
Reproduction request. For further information please contact
NPG Copyright.
