【Taipei·DunRen】François Bonnel ：Lyrical Painting 2024.5.11-6.30

Exhibition

Trailer

展場照片 Installation View

Press Day

François Bonnel: Lyrical Painting
Taipei·DunRen

François Bonnel (France, b.1968) is a French abstract artist currently based in Toulouse, France. Bonnel approaches art creation in an improvisational manner, infusing musicality into his work. Throughout his artistic journey, he continuously explores various techniques and media, including digital media, photography, and collage. With different musical styles serving as inspiration, his artworks are characterized by straightforward lines, shapes, and colors, exuding a high level of recognition and releasing his passion for art freely and purely. His works are permanently collected by the Harvard Art Museums in the United States and are also featured in international luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton in New York, L'Oréal and Longchamp in Paris, as well as numerous private collections.

Inspired by music, Bonnel believes that "a painting must harmonize with its surroundings, just like a perfume or music." He begins his mornings with soul music, followed by folk, rock, and more, using painting on weekends to awaken his mind and calm himself, making it a necessary balance in life. He finds energy in curves and bright colors, while shadows bring contrast and depth. Naming each artwork after songs he listens to during the creative process, Bonnel likens each painting to a piece of music with its corresponding track.

Bonnel's mother, a painting teacher, introduced him to art during his childhood, where he naturally developed a liking for art through finger painting, mixing colors, and drawing shapes. Painting became his path to seeking positive energy. Inspired by the music he listens to, he incorporates musicality into his works, forming a unique personal creative vocabulary to express emotional memories through elements such as shapes, colors, lines, and space. The geometric blocks of color and rich hues in his works also reveal the artist's inner emotional world. Delicate lines and color blocks create sharp contrasts, transforming into pleasant and joyful emotions through the overlap of colors and lines.

The pioneer of abstract art, Wassily Kandinsky, possessed synesthesia, enabling him to perceive the connection between colors and sounds. In his book "Concerning the Spiritual in Art," he compared colors in the spectrum to the sounds of specific musical instruments, such as yellow with trumpets and red with deep bassoons, and proposed the emotional significance of colors. He believed that painting's colors and lines could express emotions, much like music can convey the highs and lows of emotions through sound. American abstract artist Ellsworth Kelly, on the other hand, shifted away from emotion to explore the dynamic relationship between shapes, space, and colors, expanding the boundaries of abstract art. Bonnel believes that "painting is pure pleasure, not for conveying messages or philosophy, but simply immersing oneself in it." His works are natural and unpretentious, reminiscent of the comfortable warmth of southern France dried in the sun. This feeling seamlessly integrates into his use of curves, asymmetrical circles, and bright colors, as well as the rhythmic structure and graphic elements in his paintings.

In 2024, Bluerider ART Taipei·DunRen presents the debut solo exhibition of François Bonnel in Asia, titled "François Bonnel: Lyrical Painting." The exhibition will showcase a series of new creations by Bonnel, accompanied by a diverse array of music, including blues, folk, and more, allowing visitors to experience how the artist transforms abstract works with vivid colors and dynamic lines. The new piece "Stay High," inspired by The Black Keys' "Beautiful People (Stay High)," features organic, irregular circles and neutral tones on linen canvas, evoking a retro blues rock atmosphere. "Have A Nice Day" draws inspiration from the classic tracks of the British band Stereophonics, with flowing curves and precise color block compositions creating a three-dimensional visual effect. "Meilleur" (French for "the best") spans the canvas with lines of different colors, forming dynamic and vivid geometric patterns through the arrangement and intersection of colored lines, sparking viewers' exploration and imagination.

François Bonnel ：Lyrical Painting 

Press Day：2024.5.9 Thur.  2:30pm- 4:30pm（Artist will be present）
Opening Day: May 11, 2024, Sat. (Artist will be present)
VIP：2:30pm– 4:30pm（Invitation only）
4:30 pm-6:30 pm (Open to Public)

Exhibition Dates: May 11 – June 30, 2024
Venue: Bluerider ART Taipei-DunRen
No. 10, Lane 101, Section 1, Da'an Road, Da'an District, Taipei City
Tue.-Sun., 10am – 7pm
info@blueriderart.com
T: +886 2 27527778