WATERCOLOUR, GILLES BENSIMON

Posted on February 12, 2013 by admin

Gilles Bensimon, born in 1944, is a very well known French photographer and International Creative Director of Elle Magazine. He joined Elle in 1967 and helped in making it a success all over the world.  Gilles comes from a family of art dealers and artists and it was somehow natural he was going to follow his family’s steps sooner or later. Last January he got an exhibition at Hamiltons Gallery in London that was all about flowers. To pre-announce Spring, to keep you warm with the idea of the upcoming renovation of next season and enchant you with some vivid colors, we have decided to share a couple of photos from the exhibition. Bensimon clearly is in love with flowers  and always make them a crucial element in his body of work.

‘As soon as the flower is cut, it dies — even though it retains its inherently life-like characteristics. But when I plunge them into the water, they are briefly reborn. It is as if I am bringing them back to life; the water helps me capture the essence of their living beauty one last time before they wilt and fade.’

On “Watercolour” exibithion, Hamiltons Gallery wrote:

‘Blurring the lines of abstraction and representation, these pictures gave a new perspective on the traditional notions associated with the depiction of the flower in art. Whether portrayed in the precision of Dutch still-life manner, the broad brushstrokes of the impressionists, or the formalist lenses of modern masters of the genre like Penn and Mapplethorpe, the flower has maintained and even enhanced its reputation as a marker for the transience and beauty of human existence’.

http://www.hamiltonsgallery.com/