Bernard Dufour

Bernard Dufour (born 1922 in Paris) is a French painter. He was notable for abstract painting after the Second World War, and later for portraits and human figures.

Life

Dufour originally studied agricultural engineering. During the Occupation, he was pressed into war labour. He was sent to Germany with Alain Robbe-Grillet and there they met Claude Ollier. In the winter of 1944–45 he went to the University of Heidelberg and studied Eugène Delacroix and Stéphane Mallarmé. After the war he copied works of Michelangelo and Tintoretto in the Louvre.

His first solo exhibition was at the Galerie Maeght in 1948, followed by exhibitions in the Jeanne Bucher gallery between 1951 and 1953. Motivated by these successes he soon signed an exclusive contract with the art dealer Pierre Loeb. He collaborated with many writers, including René de Solier, André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Georges Lambrichs, Paule Thévenin and Alain Jouffroy. In the later fifties, he began to attract attention outside France; in 1959, he participated in the second documenta exhibition in Kassel.

From 1960 he turned from abstract to figurative painting; initially self-portraits and mournful figures, later scandalous nudes. In 1961 he opened a studio in an old mill on the Aveyron River in Foissac, where he also lived. He took part in the Venice Biennale in 1964. From this time he formed lasting friendships with other writers of the literary avant-garde, such as Pierre Guyotat, Denis Roche, Catherine Millet and Jacques Henric. Since the 1970s he worked in photography as well as painting, and written several volumes of artistic notes and memoirs.

"La Belle Noiseuse", Jacques Rivette's 1991 film about an eldely artist, was partly inspired by Dufour, who was credited as "the hand of the artist" painting the picture at the heart of the film. In 1995, Dufour's wife Martine died of cancer. Dufour lives in Villeneuve and continues to work.

Work

Dufour's representational art has often erotic components. The models in his paintings are often in the company of the painter. This visible relationship with the model brings the viewer of his pictures into a voyeur position. The blending of love and death has been a theme, as in a large (2.76 × 5.05 m) 1975 canvas depicting the autopsied body of Red Army Faction militant Holger Meins juxtaposed with Dufour's nude wife Martine defecating.

References

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Bibliography

* Catalogue for the exhibition Documenta II (1959) in Kassel: II.documenta'59. Art after 1945; catalogue: Volume 1: Painting, Volume 2: Sculpture; Volume 3: printmaking; Text; Kassel / Cologne 1959
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*cite book |first=Bernard |last=Dufour |authorlink=Bernard Dufour |date=2001-04-23 |title=Les clichés-verre |language=French |isbn=2914172206 |publisher=Léo Scheer
*cite book |first=Bernard |last=Dufour |authorlink=Bernard Dufour |date=2004 |title=Mes laissées |language=French |isbn=2-90246-299-9 |publisher=Les presses du réel
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External sites

* [http://www.findartinfo.com/search/listprices.asp?keyword=35096&sort=title Art auction result for Bernard Dufour]