Alain Bonnefoit 1937 | French Sumi-e style painter

Alain Bonnefoit 1937 | French Sumi-e style painter
In his forty year career Alain Bonnefoit has experimented with the most varied means of expression: mixed techniques on canvas paper, oil painting, original lithography and engraving, his elegant sumi-e and sculpture. Since the end of the 80′s he has held important exhibitions in Paris, Vichy, Angers, Toulouse, Sion, Le Havre, Bièvres, Metz, Juan-les-Pins, Venice, Pisa, Florence, Milan, Siena, Lille, Grenoble, Nantes, Marseille, Strasbourg, Reims and Brion. The real artistic explosion began in the early 90′s: requests for solo exhibitions increased rapidly, together with critical and public success. The outstanding shows were in Tokyo, Rome, Paris, Lausanne, Osaka, Orléans, Los Angeles, Luxembourg, Martigny, Florence, Cannes, Brussels, Kyoto, Chaumont, Lyon, Certaldo, Bordeaux, Seoul, Ludwigshafen, Siena, Pietrasanta, Tahiti, New York, Kwangju, Naples etc. His works have been acquired by public bodies in Japan, Korea and France. He still lives between France and Italy which he now considers his second country.
Painter, engraver and sculptor, Bonnefoit was born in Montmartre, Paris, in 1937. From 1953 he attended the École des Arts Appliqués, from 1956 the École des Beaux Arts in Paris and from 1959 also the École des Beaux Arts in Brussels Engraving and Sculpture Department. In 1961 he began a two year period in the studio of the sculptor Volti who would become his maestro in both art and life. In 1964 he arrived at the form of expression that later made him famous: the female nude. In 1965 he moved to Tuscany but kept on his studio in Paris. In 1973 he made his first trip to Japan, an experience that affected him deeply, where he discovered and studied the technique of sumi-e. He made repeated visits to the East for further in-depth study and is now a master of the technique.