Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art presents an exhibition by the French artist Alain Bonnefoit who has devoted a substantial part of his creative career to celebrating the female nude
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A deliberate departure from sheer naturalism towards a fantasy world directly linked to the immediate sensation
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Admiration for the harmony of the female form accentuated by purposefully unfinished backgrounds
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Paintings based not on the painterly colour fields but on lines in a manner evoking drawings
The exhibition features Bonnefoit’s paintings based not on the painterly colour fields but, much like drawings, on lines – a device borrowed by the artist from the traditional Japanese inkwash painting technique he has been practicing for nearly half a century, ever since his first visit to Japan. This practice seems to contain a performative element – just like tea ceremony or the wielding of a katana sword. Alain Bonnefoit’s art is a confluence of two traditions: one stemming from meditative discipline, another rooted in action – the spontaneity of a line and the expressiveness afforded to it by gesture. His paintings are born out of sessions with posing models and trancelike communion with his subject matter. A glimpse of Bonnefoit’s works gives one the impression that it is the line that guides the artist and not vice versa. He seems to be driven by an urgent desire to grasp his subject – not just capture it, but truly appropriate. The artist does not waste his energies on detailing the hands, feet or knee joints for the sake of plain naturalism. Quite the contrary, he deliberately tampers with proportions, immersing himself in a world of fantasy directly linked to the immediate sensation. This could be due to a kind of surrealistic automatism invariably related to sensuality. It might seem that Bonnefoit’s models, just like the swan-necked ladies of Modigliani, are reclining in affected and uncomfortable poses. However, this is neither a direct quote from the classical works nor a mannerism, but rather the natural state of being for his female protagonists. The bright lines of thighs and buttocks traverse a colourful haze, recalling the shapes of continents washed by the World Ocean. Although one might accuse the artist of being more interested in the model than in her surroundings and argue that these artworks lack integrity, the unfinished quality of backgrounds is actually a token of admiration for the harmony of the female form. The flesh in Alain Bonnefoit’s paintings is akin to the Cosmos – the beautiful natural order that literally drives away chaos, blurring it into a shimmering multicoloured painted matter.
The French artist Alain Bonnefoit was born in Montmartre in 1937. After graduating from the École des Arts Appliqués and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he moved to Brussels and enrolled at the Engraving and Sculpture Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Since the latter half of the 20th century, Bonnefoit has been actively exhibiting his art across museums and galleries worldwide, including France, Italy, Germany, UK, Belgium, Switzerland, Russia, China, Japan, Tahiti, and the United States.
