PAINTING AS SPACE OF MEDITATION

- PIERRE BONNEFILLE'S BRONZE SERIES IN KALPA

Imagine the unceasing and hypnotising motion of waves and the shimmering reflection upon the surface of water, and enter the terrain of art’s secret geography unheeding of borders and distances as here presented in Pierre Bonnefille’s series The Bronze Paintings. In perfect harmony with the conceptual core and philosophy of KALPA Galleries, the invitation to meditation and reconnection with Nature expressed by these abstract and vibrant paintings is key to understanding the emotional language of Bonnefille.

Through these works, the French artist expresses a feeling of “liquid awareness”, transposing memories of waterscapes, and exploring the millenary art theme of the moon reflected on water. Alongside the references to the important role that this natural phenomenon has in Japanese art and society, Bonnefille’s art vision is nourished by a vast system of echoes including the XX-century Western pictorial movements, ukiyo-e style and works, and traditional Chinese ink landscape paintings.

The selection of paintings exhibited at KALPA embodies the sacred dimension of art in a living space. These silent and meditative canvases are both humble and rich. Exhibited in the piano nobile (first floor) of the just-restored Palazzo Bonomini, these textural paintings capture and cast back the sun's light entering through the tall windows creating a constant dance of light, inviting contemplation and the abandoning of oneself to their mysterious beauty. The viewer is invited to enter a state of being, a moment of flow and connection, united in this sense with the artist’s creative experience.

“While water itself represents divine generosity, a purifier of the soul and a personification of healing and change, the Bronze Paintings invite the viewer to enter a state of meditation and self-consciousness and to immerse themselves into the artist’s poetic environment.”

Taking inspiration from various elements observed in nature, the paintings capture the fleeting impressions of the incontrovertible and the unpredictable breath of light, enclosed within the canvases through a succession of Eastern calligraphy-inspired gestures and approaches. As an expression of the encounter between Euro-American abstraction and East Asian art and philosophy, The Bronze Paintings are imbued with an impressionist ethos, reproducing the subject according to its perception, foreshortening asymmetry, and invoking movement within a three-dimensional space.

Moving away from purely figurative painting, Bonnefille represents on canvas the essential, the purest Platonic idea of his chosen subject, the moonlight. Ancient Chinese landscape painting values perception, the ability of the artist to offer an interpretation of an object despite its realistic manifestation in natural forms. In classical Taoism, Nature cannot be seen through physical eyes, as art is not intended as a representation of Nature, but rather the direct outcome of Nature interacting with an idea. 

Sounding similar chords, Bonnefille asks his viewer to look beyond the form and be embraced by the energy of the overall composition, perceiving the modulation of the light. In his creative process, the painter looks for an effect of evanescence and mist arising directly from the imagination in his memory.

Selection of Oriental contemporary and ancient drawings and paintings, exploring the themes of water, moon and light. In the images above are two paintings from the series Ei (Full Moon), 2024, by Japanese painter Ken Matsubara (b. 1948), and one black and white drawing from the volumes Hamonshū (1903) by Mori Yūzan and Yamada Geisōdō.  The first image on the top left and the one below are reproductions from the series Sweet Studies on Water (二十水圖) by Chinese painter Ma Yuan (馬遠/马远, 1160–1225).

“When your consciousness has become ripe in true zazen-pure like clear water, like a serene mountain lake, not moved by any wind-then anything may serve as a medium for realization.” - Matsuo Bashō, haiku master

In Bonnefille's Bronze Paintings series, the scintillating effects of the texture follow from the use of key mineral pigments like bronze powder and silver and gold foils, which liquefy and freeze in evanescent patterns under the artist's hand. As an expert alchemist, he pursues a scrupulous study of the materials he uses: natural pigments, minerals, limestone, lava, and marble powders are carefully distilled and selected during his travels around the world, from the Bahamas to Hong Kong, from Japan to Italy. The artist applies the pigment alternating between the substance and bold light and shadow, according to the changing reflections in what is reminiscent of the visual effect of daguerreotypes and ferrotypes.

“This persistent research by the painter inevitably evokes that of the poet for whom the goal of poetry is not to write 'it’s raining'; rather, to 'see to it that it rains within the words'.”

A graduate of École Boulle and then of l’École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Pierre Bonnefille pursues a multidisciplinary vision and practice, including design objects, drawings and paintings. As part of his creative vision, in 2015/2016 Bonnefille started the Bronze Paintings series, an exploratory research around the material of bronze that led him to the creation of the art installation The Meditation Room presented for the first time at PAD London in 2016 and then at the Museum Guimet in Paris in 2021. 

In 2010, the artist was appointed Maître d’Art by Frédéric Mitterrand, who was the then French Minister of Culture back in the time, and in 2020, the prestigious Academy of Architecture awarded him the Médaille des Métiers d’Arts from the Paul Sédille Foundation, rewarding a career spanning 35 years as an artist-explorer. He now collaborates with luxury brands such as Aman, Cartier, Hermès and Loro Piana among others, engaging in projects across Europe, Asia and the US.

Photography of the artworks: Daniel Civetta for KALPA

Photography of the studio and creative process: Luca Bonnefille, courtesy of the Artist

Images of inspiration: Ei (Full Moon) series, 2024, by Ken Matsubara; drawing from the volumes Hamonshū, 1903, by Mori Yūzan and Yamada Geisōdō; series Sweet Studies on Water (二十水圖) by Ma Yuan (馬遠/马远, 1160–1225).

Quotes by: Eleonora Raspi, Matsuo Bashō and Thierry Grillet

KALPA INSTAGRAM