Christian Bonnefoi PL 2023 1988 exposition de peintures recentes

Overview

Christian Bonnefoi offers an unusual example of an art theorist who has successfully turned his hand to practice, as evidenced by his 2008 retrospective exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

The Oniris gallery has invited him for the thirteenth time since 1992 for a new solo exhibition of recent paintings during the summer of 2023.

Christian Bonnefoi's work, which uses transparency and supple materials, is an artistic experiment in its own terms. Remaining unconditionally within abstraction, he develops an original and personal pictorial language, mixing forms and materials, disturbing all reference points.

All his series of paintings have a marked graphic aspect. Their base is made up of charcoal "pencilings" on a sheet of plastic brushed with white paint, then covered with a piece of transparent tarlatan on which the artist traces large gestures or colored patches; the canvas is then ripped off several times, as if a fresco were being peeled off: the glued surfaces are in a way removed, and print the reverse side of the tarlatan. Before being finally stretched on a frame, the work goes through a series of slow, complex processes, including gestures, materials, drying times, the possible repetition of certain operations, the tension of the canvas... all of which contribute to the appearance of ever-new, ever-changing works.

This 13^th exhibition at Galerie Oniris focuses on the PL series, in which Christian Bonnefoi works his compositions with broad, colored brushstrokes on both sides of the canvas, against a white or colored background. The "PL - 2023-1998" exhibition features new, highly colorful paintings from the current 2023 PL series, alongside more historical works dating back to the first PL series of 1988.