Benjamin Bonjour Swiss nationality Born in Fresnières-sur-Bex on October 19th, 1917

Although he was born in the Rhône valley, Benjamin Bonjour was forced to leave after his mother’s death. At the age of eighteen, he comes down with meningitis, which will affect him for the rest of his life. His brother who had become his caretaker dies in a car accident. Benjamin offers to sing for ill people and becomes a peddler selling to the farmers small wares for they everyday use: threads, needles, wool, aprons... Cared for by his two sisters, he decides to devote all his time to painting and singing after the age of sixty. Benjamin Bonjour uses pencils and felt tip colored pens and all sorts of collected materials: leaflets, envelopes, empty chocolate boxes, computer paper.

In order to try and keep control over his nervous trembling, he traces “squares” which open up for him whole series of simple themes: flowers, trees, landscapes, mountains, churches. Benjamin Bonjour draws his own life, his wanderings form village to village. He gives a new expression and inventiveness to what could be simply fresh and naive. The entire surface of the sheet of paper vibrates under the repetition of his motifs, the division of space into small colored units and the shakiness of his lines.

SEE ALSO: Publications de la Collection de l’Art Brut, fascicule 16, Lausanne, 1990.

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