Painter, engraver and sculptor, Alain Bonnefoit was born in Montmartre, Paris, in 1937. Beginning in 1953, he attended the École des Arts Appliqués. In  1956, he began studying at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, and in 1959, he joined the École des Beaux Arts in Brussels (Engraving and Sculpture Department). In 1961, he began a two-year apprenticeship in the studio of sculptor Volti who would become his mentor in both art and life. In 1964, he arrived at the form of expression that later made him famous: the female nude. Thereafter, in 1965, Bonnefoit moved to Tuscany but kept his studio in Paris. In 1973, he made his first trip to Japan, an experience that affected him deeply.  It was there that he discovered and studied the technique of sumi-e. He made repeated visits to the East for further in-depth study of the art.  Bonnefoit is now a master of the technique. In his forty-year career, Bonnefoit has experimentated with the varied means of expression: mixed media on canvas and paper, oil painting, original lithography, engraving, sumi-e, and sculpture. Since the end of the 1980’s, he has held exhibitions in Paris, Vichy, Angers, Toulouse, Sion, Le Havre, Bièvre, Metz, Juan-les-Pins, Venice, Pisa, Florence, Milan, Siena, Lille, Grenoble, Nantes, Marseille, Strasbourg, Reims, and Brion.

The real artistic explosion for Bonnefoit began in the early 1990’s. Requests for solo exhibitions increased rapidly, together with critical and public success. He held outstanding shows in Tokyo, Rome, Paris, Losanna, Osaka, Orléans, Los Angeles, Luxembourg, Martigny, Florence, Cannes, Bruxelles, Kyoto, Chaumont, Lyon, Certaldo, Bordeaux, Seoul, Ludwigshafen, Siena, Pietrasanta, Tahiti, New York, Kwangju, and Naples. 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.

EXHIBITIONS

Grand Opening