PEDAGOGICAL ACTIVITY
Artist Isabelle Bonzom is also an art eductor and an art historian. She is a writer, professor and lecturer in art history and painting. She is an ICOM member.
Fresco painter and teacher, Isabelle Bonzom is a specialist in buon fresco, the art to paint on a wet lime coat. She is the author of an unprecedented in-depth study of the relationships between the fresco painting and the iconography. Her book deals with the history, aesthetics and technique of buon fresco painting :
(Buon fresco, art and technique)
Eyrolles publishing house, Paris
CURRENT TEACHING ASSIGNMENTS
Since 2019
HISTORY AND AESTHETICS ON MURAL ART, Paris
Seminars on mural art: theory, history and aesthetics, Cours d'Adultes de Paris
Public: professionals and students
Since 2005
ÉCOLE SUPÉRIEURE DES ARTS APPLIQUÉS DUPERRÉ, Paris
Seminars on buon fresco: theory, history and practice, training for buon fresco in workshop
Public: professionals and students
Since 1989
MUSÉE NATIONAL D'ART MODERNE (MNAM), National Museum of Modern Art, Pompidou Center, Paris
Lecturer attached to the education division of MNAM. Talks in French and English
Public: students and adults
MAIN TEACHING EXPERIENCES
2020
THE ART OF BUON FRESCO, Les Amis des Musées de Rouen, France
A series of lectures by Isabelle Bonzom dealing with the history, the technique and the iconography of fresco painting from Antiquity to the XXth Century
2020
MURAL ART, Amis du Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, France
Isabelle Bonzom gave two lectures : one about an history of the different techniques of mural art, the second lecture tackles the art of buon fresco from Antiquity untill the Renaissance
2004 - 2019
INSTITUT D’ÉTUDES SUPÉRIEURES DES ARTS (IESA), Paris
Seminars on modern art and contemporary art. Lectures on mural art
Public: students
2018
GOYA AFFRESCO, College Art Association annual conference, Los Angeles, USA
A talk by frescoist and art hsitorian Isabelle Bonzom, during the panel "Working out of medium" curated by David Pullins (The Frick Collection). Isabelle Bonzom was awarded a grant from the Kress Foundation in support of her talk, as part of the « Working out of medium » panel.
2013
SYMPOSIUM : AMERICAN PAINTING. HOPPER, POLLOCK AND THEIR LEGACY, IESA, Paris
Isabelle Bonzom organized this interdisciplinary and international colloquium with the art school IESA.
Among the lecturers were Gail Levin, expert extraordinaire of Edward Hopper and curators Ann Hindry and Fabrice Hergott who is also the director of the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Vile de Paris.
Isabelle Bonzom gave two lectures, one focused on a comparative study between Hopper and Fischl, the other was about the American landscape.
2012
PAINTING AS ADVENTURE, New York Academy of Art, NY, USA
Lecture given by Isabelle Bonzom at the New York Academy of Art about the artistic knowledge, the art in process and the art in progress
MAKING ART, THE BUSINESS OF A PAINTER, Lecture at the Baruch College, The City University of New York, invited by art historian and Distinguished Professor, Gail Levin
HORS CADRE ( OUT OF BOUNDS), Brussels, Belgium
Isabelle Bonzom participated in the international symposium "Hors Cadre" ( out-of-frame, out-of-bounds), that took place at the arts research center, Iselp, in Brussels. This symposium dealt with art in the public space, it was about mural art. She talked about her experience as a mural painter and fresquist
2010
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF ART, NY, USA
- Lecture "Off with their heads!" about fragmentation of the body and the image
Public: art students, artists, large public
- Talk at the Matisse exhibition at the MoMA
Public: art students and artists ÉCOLE D'AVIGNON, Centre of resources on heritage building, Avignon
Lecture about Buon Fresco
2003-2008
ÉCOLE SUPÉRIEURE D’ARTS GRAPHIQUES ET D’ARCHITECTURE, Paris
Preparatory classes for competitive entrance exams to the Grandes Écoles of Arts
Public: students
2006-2007
ÉCOLE SUPÉRIEURE D’ARTS GRAPHIQUES ET D’ARCHITECTURE, Paris
Course of chromatology : theory, history and practice of colour
Public: students
1993-2003
CENTRE INTERNATIONAL D'ART MURAL ( International Center of Mural Art), Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, Poitou, France
- Workshops, seminars, lectures about mural art and buon fresco
- Scientific coordination of the CIAM VIIIth symposium on twentieth-century mural art
Public: artists, students, curators, scholars, teachers and lecturers
2000
JAILHOUSE OF SAINT-MALO, Brittany, France
While doing murals commissioned by the Ministries of Culture and Justice (see below),
introduction to mural art for inmates through a workshop
1998
HIRSHHORN MUSEUM, Washington, USA
Lectures
Public: adults
1996-1997
FACULTÉ DES SCIENCES HUMAINES ET DES ARTS, University of Poitiers, Poitou, France
Lectures about mural art
Public: students
1990-1994
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, Washington, USA
Lectures for the education division
Public: adults, guides
1989-1991
MUSÉE DU PETIT PALAIS, Paris
Lecturer attached to the education division
Public: students and adults
EDUCATION
1998
UNIVERSITÉ PARIS I, SORBONNE
Licence d’Histoire de l'Art, equivalent of a BA in Art History
Architecture, techniques of painting and sculpture, painting of the XVIIth century, modern and contemporary art, etc.
1990-1991
CENTRE INTERNATIONAL D'ART MURAL, Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, Poitou, France
Seminars at this Unesco World Heritage Centre: iconography and restoration of mural painting
1988-1991
ÉCOLE NATIONALE SUPÉRIEURE DES BEAUX ARTS, Paris
Post doctorate studies:
Fresco studio directed by Bernard Delamarche and painting studio directed by the artist Henri Cueco
History of modern and contemporary art, psychology of art and philosophy of art ( aesthetics)
1983-1988
ÉCOLE RÉGIONALE DES BEAUX ARTS, Rennes, Brittany, France
Diplôme National Supérieur d'Expression Plastique – Graduate level: Doctorate
Painting, art and art history
PUBLICATIONS
2017
Video about the lecture given, at the Los Angeles College Art Association annual conference, by frescoist and art hsitorian Isabelle Bonzom, during the panel "Working out of medium" curated by David Pullins (The Frick Collection)
2015
In her book "Collector" published in Seoul, journalist and curator Eunju Park dedicates a long chapter to the impact of art on life. She bases her analysis on the painting of Isabelle Bonzom in which Eunju Park discerns a vital force and a creative abundance
An essay by Isabelle Bonzom published in the proceedings of the symposium "Hors Cadre" (Out of the borders), Iselp, Belgium
HOWARD HODGKIN – HENRI MATISSE, Cristallisations et débordements selon Matisse et Hodgkin
2014
Catalog about Isabelle Bonzom's painting including essays by artist Eric Fischl and art critic Colin Lemoine
2002-2012
ARCHEOLOGICAL DRAWINGS
Isabelle Bonzom created some drawings for archeologist, iconologist and Maya expert, Claude F. Baudez
Collaborations with Claude Baudez, CNRS iconologist and mayanist, notably
- Drawings in « Une histoire de la religion des Mayas » 2002, Ed. Albin Michel, and in the art magazine « Religions et histoire », #7, 2006.
- Drawings by Isabelle Bonzom for an essay by Claude Baudez "Pretium Doloris, or the value of pain in Mesoamerica", p.269-290, in "Blood and beauty. Organized violence in the art and architecture of Mesoamerica and Central America" Ed. Heather Orr and Rex Koontz
2011
THE SUPPORT AS AESTHETIC CHOICE
An essay by Isabelle Bonzom first published by the professional Blog d'Elisa. “The pictorial adventure starts with the choice of the support,” states Isabelle Bonzom. “The matter, the tonality of the background, its texture, even its resistance are key to the final result,” she explains.
A lecture in French by Isabelle Bonzom at the Musée National d'Art Moderne. This lecture was published on the Pompidou Center website. Isabelle Bonzom writes “the landscape is an initiatory and mystic experience not only for the painter but also for the viewer, for it allows them to go beyond the limits of the object.”
2010
LA FRESQUE, art et technique ( Buon fresco, art and technique) Order online
Published by the French publishing house Eyrolles and written by Isabelle Bonzom, this book was awarded a grant from the National Center of the Book (Centre National du Livre). It is a study of the history, aesthetics and technique of fresco art.
TO THE LIMIT, The Painting of Howard Hodgkin
An article by Isabelle Bonzom
2009
A CONVERSATION WITH ERIC FISCHL
She is the author of a long conversation with American artist Eric Fischl. Read excerpts of this talk published in May 2009 by the website Culture&Cie. The first part of the conversation is entitled The breath and the touch. The second part deals with shadows in "Ten Breaths". Isabelle Bonzom has written an essay about the Ten Breaths installation: “Ten Breaths,” a place for experiment and a return to the origins Read and see Writings by Isabelle Bonzom.
2006
LE VIF DU SUJET / THE HEART OF MATTER
Bilingual catalogue about Isabelle Bonzom’s painting, including a conversation between Isabelle Bonzom and art critic Pierre Sterckx
2003
CORPS À CORPS, TERRE À TERRE
Catalogue about Isabelle Bonzom’s painting
Articles by Isabelle Bonzom, philosophers Baldine Saint-Girons and Martine Méheut, art critic Eurydice Trichon-Milsani, etc.
MURALS BY ISABELLE BONZOM
Art and literature review ÉPONYME
2001
PEINTURES MURALES À LA PRISON DE SAINT-MALO ( Mural paintings in a jailhouse)
A French Ministries of Justice and Culture publication about I. Bonzom’s murals
at the jailhouse of Saint-Malo, Brittany
Texts by I.Bonzom and a conversation between I.Bonzom and Paola Cocchi, art critic and ethnopsychotherapist
1991
L’ART ET SA MÉTHODE N°59 on Fresco Painting
Contribution to this special issue about fresco
Isabelle Bonzom was born on the 31st of December, 1964
She is a member of Horizon Paysage, a philosophy-literature-visual arts association (University of Paris X). Her subject matters in lectures are often transversal and in a multidisciplinary approach. She studies and stresses the links between the artistic language and the iconography
She has interviewed British artist Howard Hodgkin twice in 2005 and is a French expert of his painting