Biography 

1927  Philippe Bonnet, born in Paris 1931  At the early age of 3 in Paris, in his pushchair, Philippe Bonnet was fascinated by the water running in the gutters near the creamery, watching how the mixture of black fat, milk and water changed; this was the start of painting in his mind. 1946  Académie Colarossi, rue de la Grande Charnière at Montparnasse, he works as massier (assistant responsible for hiring the models and managing the everyday problems).

1949 

Start of a long friendship with Tristan Tzara, who he met at Saint Germain des Près.
Tristan Tzara, of Romanian origin, invented the Dada movement in literature.

1953 

He meets Zervos (http://www.fondationzervos.com), historian and art critic.
In 1926, he creates the review Cahiers d'Art, whose last issue was to be published in 1961.

Picasso's complete works of art were published in a descriptive catalogue produced by C. Zervos from 1929 until his death.

1956  Two-year contract in the Gallery of Heinz Berggruen, an art dealer of German origin, at 70 rue de l'Université, Paris. 1963  Galerie Coard until 1998 1981  Return to Paris after several years spent in Auvergne 1994  Exhibition at Galerie Coard

Poster of the exhibition at Berggruen The painter in front of a painting entitled "Les toits de Paris" 1957

1996 

Last exhibition at Galerie Coard

2007 

Exhibition at Galerie Nabokov

To Philippe Bonnet

« Without each individual's desire for expression, life would be hardly conceivable. This natural need is, generally, related to the means to fulfil it. When unfulfilled, however, it may lead to madness. The delusion of the insane and the activity of creators, painters and poets both lie in the disproportion between the desire for expression and the possibilities of liberation.

To express themselves, the artists must mark out the world where the exciting and the overflowing will be transposed, on a stable surface, according to rules created as needs arise. In the immensity of the universe, a window must be opened enclosing this portion which, with all its attributes, contains the use you make of it. Man speaks and expresses himself; but, while rhetorics describes and exalts, the share left to intimate expression of the personality is fleeting. It cannot be contained in moulds prepared in advance. The tone is to speaking what the softness of a blade of grass adds to the forest. It is the world of invented gestures which hold in a smile, that of nascent movements. They signify more than their significance. While they escape from literal translation, they nevertheless specify the special truth of things and beings.

Fixing one of these moments using descriptive reason is doomed to failure. Trapped in the body of time and light, with everything they include of transient and deeply anchored in the movement binding them, all these moments have in common is their need for continual transformation. Thus the relation between words and language, like the representation of nature faced with its intrinsic quality. »

Tristan Tzara
Editions BERGGRUEN

Discover Philippe Bonnet's bibliography