Bonnefoi Christian

Christian Bonnefoi stands outside the trend, working in the margin to create a clean, pictorial space and an enticingly abstract code. After a degree in Social Sciences from EPHE (Ecole pratique des hautes etudes, Paris), a PhD in Art History from the Sorbonne, and with numerous publications, articles, interviews and erudite studies in art history to his name, Christian Bonnefoi went on to develop a conceptual approach. Founded on both theory and technique, it offers a new view on a painting’s emergence by working from the surface. Studies of the Russian Constructivists and cubist collages offer the foundation of his theoretical approach, for he believes that everything begins with collage. Christian Bonnefoi is first and foremost a theorist, and then a painter, his paintings continuing the theme of his reflections.

He creates his work according to a succession of complex operations that include gesture, material, collage, drying time, the repetition of certain steps, and stretching the canvas.  However, he immediately destroys anything that could resemble a system. His working method relies on a constant dialogue, switching back and forth between front and back, the right side and the wrong side, within a spatial paradox that favours the layout rather than the surface.