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Olivier Masmonteil

In 1996, Olivier Masmonteil joined the Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux where his desire for figurative painting met the opposition of some of his teachers who, like many at the time, advocated the death of figurative painting. Far from making him give up, these confrontations push him to question the origin of this controversy. He goes back through art history in search of the first appearance of the question and discovers that this debate is far from contemporary. 

From Pline the Elder to Raphael, the death of painting has been declared many times. However, each time, it resists and transforms itself, drawing from these quarrels the seeds of its renewal. The young artist began to explore the history of art, visiting libraries to discover ancient and contemporary painters. At the same time, he was inspired by the works of Gérard Gasiorowski and Markus Lüpertz and built his own personal mythology. The latter is built around three subjects that will never leave him: landscape, art history, and the fantasy of horizon, of travel.

Today, Olivier Masmonteil’s works – which leave a place for abstraction by confronting it with the figuration of landscapes – testify to the same visual passion that has guided him since his beginnings and that devours his pictorial compositions.

Biography

Born in 1973 in Romilly-sur-Seine, Olivier Masmonteil is a painter based in Paris but whose activity is spread through numerous trips.

FORMATION 

  • 1990-1996 Academy of Fine Arts Jacques Gabriel Chevalier, Brives, France
  • 1996-1999 National School of Fine Arts of Bordeaux, France 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS – SELECTION 

  • 2021 / «La peinture dévoilée», Maison des Arts, Châtillon, France
  • 2020 / «Sérial Couleurs», L’Artothèque, Caen, France
  • «Masmonteil, des horizons si grands», Suquet des artistes, Cannes, France
  • 2019 / «Paysage», Galerie Thomas Bernard, Cortex Athletico, Paris, France
  • «De la ligne à l’horizon», Scène ouverte, Paris, France
  • 2018 / «L’espace des métamorphoses», Cité des Arts, Chambéry, France
  • 2017 / «Diane à la chasse», Schloss Gabelhofen, Fohnsdorf, Autriche
  • «Les Baigneuses», Les Rencontres d’art contemporain, Cahors, France
  • «De Gimel à Ushuaïa», Château de Sédières, Clergoux, France
  • 2016 / «Portrait», Galerie Dukan, Saint-Ouen, France
  • 2015 / «Diana bathing», André Simoens Galery, Knokke, Belgique
  • «Olivier Masmonteil. Peintures», Chapelle Saint-Libéral, Brive, France
  • «What a wonderful world», Galerie Dukan, Leipzig, Germany Memories, 
  • Fonds cultuel de l’Ermitage, Garches, France
  • 2014 / «A week and a day in Prague», Dvorak Sec Contemporary, Prague, République Tchèque
  • «Les courtisanes», Galerie DX, Bordeaux, France
  • «La mémoire du passé», Galerie Dukan, Paris, France 
  • 2012 / «Intimate suites», Andre Simoens Gallery, Knokke, Belgium
  • «Chapitre II : le plaisir de peindre», Galerie Dukan, Paris, France
  • «D’un horizon à l’autre», Château de Jau, France
  • «Place», la galerie du Nouvel-Ontario, Ontario, Canada 
  • 2010 / «Olivier Masmonteil», Klare Ferne, Institut Français, Berlin, Allemagne 
  • «Olivier Masmonteil», Centre d’art contemporain, Abbaye Saint-André, Meymac, France

GROUP EXHIBITIONS – SELECTION

  • 2021 / «ONN#6, ouiouinonon», 24Beaubourg, Paris, France
  • 2020 / «Over the rainbow», Red Bull Hangar 7, Salzbourg, Autriche
  • 2019 / «Penser le Paysage», Galerie Albert Bourgeois, Fougères, France
  • 2018 / Galerie Provost Hacker, Lille, France
  • 2017 / «Parfums de femmes», FIAC, Chambres à part 13, Grand Musée du Parfum, Paris, France
  • 2016 / «Peindre», Galerie des jours de lune, Metz, France 
  • 2012 / «Plaisirs de France», Baku, Azerbadjian and Almaty, Kazakhstan
  • 2010 / «Des Paysages et des Figures», Station 7, Marseille, France
  • 2009 / «Le murex et l’araignée», Hôtel de ville, Aubusson, France 
  • 2008 / «Délicatesse des couleurs», Hangar 7, Salzburg, Austria
Artists