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Marie-Paule Benoit-Basset’s
creatures have no eyes, no ears, and no mouths but they are not speechless, lifeless
bodies. They communicate through their fused limbs, intertwined bodies, and antennas
reminiscent of umbilical cords.
The communion implicit in the
physical exchange, together with the translucent, almost vulnerable aspect of the
characters, are some of the features that make the art of MP Benoit-Basset an
enigmatic, yet far from threatening proposition.
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Born in Innsbruck, Austria, now living in Vichy, Auvergne, MP Benoit-Basset claims to
have been painting as long ago as she can remember. Her art, however, and the media
she employs, have evolved considerably over time.
The Creatures, part of the
artist’s latest series of oil canvases, are closer to the surrealistic
inventions of her student youth, spent in the Auvergne’s metropolis,
Clermont-Ferrand, than to the subdued watercolour landscapes of a decade ago.
Through the changes in techniques
and subject matters - the ubiquitous dead tree is the only remnant of her watercolour
days - MP Benoit-Basset has nonetheless retained a distinctive style. All of her
paintings are permeated with a subtle, quiet sense of mystery.
“I use a lot of browns and
what I call “dirty” whites, because nothing is ever really black or white,
says MP Benoit-Basset, whose art, featuring such recurrent themes as the sun, the
moon, stars, and wheat fields, is brimming with symbolism.
Although she declines to offer
“reading keys” to her images, leaving it to the observer to decipher them
at their own pace, she does describe herself as painter of the “fragile and the
transient”.
Vulnerability is a thread that runs
across her art, old and new. The women in the eponymous series are timid, almost
reluctant, nudes while her nocturnal Cities, with their thousand illuminated windows,
are a celebration of humanity’s smallness.
“The women in my paintings
are expressionless, often even faceless, which some people find oppressive. I think
they are the opposite. They may appear silent on the surface but they reach out with
their tentacles and antennas. They seek contact with each other and with us.”
The art of MP Benoit-Basset is not
of the kind that needs to scream at the viewer or shock to grab attention. Instead, it
gently hums beside its strangely serene façade, rewarding the patient and
unhurried observer.
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