Alain Bonnefoit
(b. 1937)
Born in Montmartre in 1937, Bonnefoit is one of the most highly acclaimed painters of nudes working today. Bonnefoit entered L'Ecole des Arts Appliqué and L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1953, before enrolling at the L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Brussels to study Engraving and Sculpture. In 1962 he returned to Paris to study with the renowned sculptor Antoniucci Volti. It was while under Volti's influence that Bonnefoit began to dedicate himself to drawing and painting the female nude.
Bonnefoit is a master of the art of Sumi-e: an East-Asian form of ink and wash painting. The practice of Sumi-e, notoriously difficult to master and remarkable for its sinuous and fluid use of line, has given Bonnefoit a unique understanding of the expression of the female nude. This skill and understanding is visible throughout all of Bonnefoit's work.
Bonnefoit's distinctive style, with its characteristically sensuous and elegant depictions of the female form, embraces the use of oils, watercolours, crayon, ink and pencil. For this exhibition he has produced a body of works on paper, card, canvas and linen which together are truly representative of Bonnefoit's varied and unique oeuvre.
Major retrospectives of Bonnefoit's work have been held at the Marino Marini Museum in Florence as well as at museums in Korea and Germany. Examples of his work can be found in the French Government and the City of Paris art collections, the Boccaccio museum in Certaldo and the Kwan Ju Museum in Korea.