Interview
Franck Benoualid
Born in 1959, Franck Benoualid has been a painter by passion since the end of the 1980s. Self-taught, he quickly found a personal style that allowed him to exhibit his works after barely three years. He has integrated various influences into his work over a number of years: thus, if the iconography of his works is essentially devoted to women, a woman often of triumphant femininity, the memory of Francis Bacon and his visions nightmare seems more and more present in his paintings. Tortured portraits, cruel tortures, silent screams. The relationship between the sculptural but expressive figures and the colored backgrounds which often present no solution of continuity with them also seems characteristic.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I was born in Toulouse in 1959 and when I was14 years old, my family settled down in Paris. I draw a lot, but I still do not know if this appetite will ever stop growing over the years. I am completely self-taught, I was introduced to painting in 1988, while continuing to draw. It is my weft. I work in the former by making sketches, searches and them I put ideas or sensations on the paper. I prefer to work quietly at the house; never outside. In 35 years, my work was already the object of about thirty exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, Singapore and New York.”
What inspires you?
“I am fascinated by the body and its movements and actively explore the classic subject of figurative art. I am fascinated by the alive. Then, the nude stood out as an obvious fact. I began with the academic nude, according to models and photos. Then, without model, I tried to appropriate the body differently; then I deformed it while keeping its sensual, erotic and alive side. This mania of the deformation and distortion comes after. I have a fascination for the individual, the alive. It is my subject and I try to accentuate it. When there is a vein, I exploit it. I have been turning to portraiture for a few years now. I attempt to explore the expression and feeling of the human figure. I try to surprise myself and break the codes.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“I have been turning to portraiture for a few years now. I attempt to explore the expression and feeling of the human figure. I try to surprise myself and break the codes. The deformation allows me to support the force of the expression in fact, I paint in a very selfish way; I paint especially for me! What urges me to continue in this artistic way, is the essence of the art; this propensity which has a work to call out to those who look at it. I crowd and I hope to push aside the public. What interests me, is if it is affected, in the point sometimes to want to possess a painting what establishes for me a supreme act which calls out to me every time. I have no message, no approach, no line of conduct and no lesson to be given to nobody.”
“I am fascinated by the body and its movements and actively explore the classic subject of figurative art.”
How would you describe your work?
“I can tell that my work is expressionistic. I like to provoke and bring out feelings. This implies a completely personal and individual reading. I am aware that my work can be disturbing but it is the feeling it gives that touches me. I distort without distorting. These compositions, shifted from different angles, allow several possible readings. Painting is for me a revealer of instinct.”
Which artists influence you most?
“I am influenced by the pictural genius of Pablo Picasso, the light of Carravaggio and the pain of Francis Bacon.”
What is your creative process like?
“I draw a lot, I throw ideas on paper before confronting myself with the canvas. It is a dialogue; nothing is fixed. The unexpected or the error is part of the game and I gladly accept it.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“I said that painting is a revealer of instinct, and for me the artist is also a revealer of the moment, whether social, cultural or personal. Everyone will find their link there.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“There are two exhibitions that marked me. My first personal exhibition in New York in 1991 with Opera Gallery just before the first war in Iraq. It was a public success but which was boycotted because of a political context linked to my French nationality. And the second, in Paris 2020, at Vincent Thiercin Gallery for the first presentation of my "deformed" portraits. We had the two extreme reactions: fascination and detestation. I loved it!”
