Painting Flesh

Since 1985, Isabelle Bonzom's painting has been exploring the representation of the flesh. Indeed, flesh is one of the main concerns of the artist. For her, flesh is a metaphor of painting as the body of the image.

After a crucial series of dolls, "Games of slaughter" painted in 1987, Isabelle Bonzom has expanded her research, dedicating many years to painting the iconographic themes of the meat, the smile and the male nude. These three series reveal the precariousness and the preciousness of life.

Isabelle Bonzom has been painting the character of the French World War I soldier known as the “Poilu” since 2012. The Poilu is an emblematic image of the common man drawn into war whose statue often ornates city plazas and squares in France to commemorate fallen soldiers. This series of paintings is a tribute to all human beings affected by war and reflects on the place that a conflict such as World War I occupies today, not only in the urban landscape but also in people’s consciousness. The artist also views the statue that she paints as vivid and poignant in the neighboring cityscape. Through this subject, she breathes new life into the generic theme of the flesh which is so important for her.

Read and listen Isabelle Bonzom talking about flesh and painting during her lectures Delicious Gravity and Off with their heads!