Benjamin Bonjour

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Benjamin Bonjour (born October 19, 1917 in Frenières-sur-Bex ; † May 27, 2000 ibid) was a Swiss painter of Art brut .

Life

Benjamin Bonjour was born into a poor family. His father worked in various factories, in forestry and agriculture and until his death in the Bex salt mine .

Benjamin Bonjour grew up in difficult material conditions and at the age of 18 he developed meningitis , the consequences of which made him disabled throughout his life. He moved jerkily and it remained a mental handicap. After the death of his mother he lived under the care of his brother and after his death under that of his two sisters. He lived with them in a small house in Bex.

He got by as a peddler and went from village to village to sell necessities such as thread, needles, wool and aprons to the farmers. Sometimes he sang for the sick to make extra money.

In the mid-1960s he began to draw after a relative had advised him to do so in the ultimately vain hope of being able to alleviate the twitching. At the age of 60, Bonjour quit all gainful employment to devote himself only to drawing and singing. He lived very withdrawn; Walks and attending church services were his only change.

plant

Benjamin Bonjour started drawing at the age of 50 when he was given coloring books of Russian origin for leisure purposes . Bonjour later took some of the monotonous themes and motifs of his drawings, such as birds, flowers and peaked caps, from these notebooks . The influence of Orthodox architecture, which one often finds in his drawings of churches or church assemblies, will also come from there.

Benjamin Bonjour used all the painting materials that he found or that were given to him from waste paper , cardboard boxes , brochures , envelopes and computer paper as well as the former plans of the motorway. He appreciated the medium formats and if the paper was too big, he would make several drawings side by side or one below the other instead of cutting up the paper. He also used pages from the church calendar or the sheets of a wall calendar to draw rows of flowers on the shiny surfaces. Nor did he hesitate to passionately paint the photographic illustrations with bright colors.

In the first few years he preferred to work with colored pencils , wax crayons and sometimes with ballpoint pens or “néocolors”. He later used   felt-tip pens because, on the one hand, handling the pencil was too cumbersome for him because of his trembling and, on the other hand, his younger sister forbade him to use pastel crayons and "neocolors" because of the excessive dirt they saw. «His moving lines, the repetitive lining up of the same motifs and the intense colors of his work are characteristic. Some of the sheets, with their abstract carpets of color, correspond to the pictorial solutions of Paul Klee. "

He liked to give away his drawings because their possessions were of little importance to him once they were finished.

Exhibitions of his works in the “Collection d'art brut” in Lausanne , the museum in the warehouse in St. Gallen , in the Aracine collection (now in the Lille Métropole Museum ) or in the Musée de la Creation Franche in Bègles had both for him and no meaning to his sisters. All three did not make any profit from various publications, postcards or invitation cards depicting the works of Benjamin Bonjours.

A year before his death, the city of Bex organized a small exhibition and bought some works by Benjamin Bonjour, which he owed to the friendship and reputation of a former lawyer and retired drawing teacher. This was the only official recognition of his work by his hometown. Bonjour's works are also represented in the Museum im Lagerhaus and in the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, as well as in other public and private collections.

Exhibitions

  • «Collection de l'Art Brut. Art in secret ». Aarau, Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2019 (group exhibition).
  • "Art Brut - Swiss made". Museo di Ascona, 2018 (group exhibition).
  • “Architectures”, Lausanne, Collection de l'Art Brut, 2015–2016 (group exhibition).
  • "The Mina and Josef John Collection". Museum in the warehouse. St. Gallen, 2015 (group exhibition).
  • «World collector. International outsider art of the present ». Art Museum of the Canton of Thurgau, Kartause Ittingen / Les Sables d'Olonne, Musée de l'Abbaye Sainte-Croix / Villeneuve d'Ascq, Musée d'art modern Lille Métropole / Kunsthalle Erfurt, 2011–2012 (group exhibition)
  • «3. Anniversary exhibition: Art Brut. The Collection de l'Art Brut meets the Museum im Lagerhaus / La Collection de l'Art Brut rencontre le Museum im Lagerhaus ». Museum im Lagerhaus, St. Gallen, 2008 (group exhibition).
  • «Fire Worlds. ‹Heisse› pictures from the museum collection ». Museum im Lagerhaus, St. Gallen, 2007–2008.
  • "Art brut - Art naif." Paris, Espace Tajan, 2007 (group exhibition).
  • «I would like to be able to stay here forever ‹I›». Herrliberg, Kunsthäuschen, 2007 (group exhibition).
  • “Colorful is my favorite color”. Solothurn, Solothurn Art Museum , 2004 (group exhibition).
  • «Outsider». Eglisau, Galerie am Platz, 2003 (group exhibition).
  • "Dream world horse - the horse in outsider art." St. Gallen, Museum im Lagerhaus, 2003 (group exhibition).
  • Galleria Gottardo, Lugano, 2002.
  • Musée de la Creation Franche, Bègles 2000. (solo exhibition)
  • "Places - Architectures - Puzzles." St. Gallen, Museum im Lagerhaus, 1999 (group exhibition).
  • Bex, 1999. (solo exhibition)
  • «Art Brut. Unknown acquaintances ». Zurich, Ferfanes Works of Art, 1997 (group exhibition).
  • St. Gallen, Museum im Lagerhaus, 1996. (Solo exhibition)
  • «Les Jardniers de la Mém. Bègles », Musée de la Creation Franche, 1994.

literature

  • Daniela Camerin: Benjamin Bonjour, in: Publications de la Collection de l'Art Brut. fascicule 16. Lausanne 1990.
  • General artist lexicon . Addendum Volume 3: Beranek - Briggs. Saur, Munich 2008, p. 275. ISBN 978-3-598-22863-6
  • Art brut - Swiss made , Lausanne de l'art brut, 2018 (exhibition folder)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Benjamin Bonjour on www.outsiderkunst.ch .
personal data
SURNAME Bonjour, Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Frenières-sur-Bex
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 2000
Place of death Frenières-sur-Bex