Galerie Claude Lemand

ABDALLAH BENANTEUR, WORKS OF LIGHT. Paintings, 1953-2003.

For the 500 anniver­sary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, the city of Amboise opened a new center for con­tem­po­rary Art, called ‘Le Garage’. An exhi­bi­tion will begin on September 27, which will pay tribute to the Algerian and French artist Abdallah Benanteur (Algeria, 1931-France, 2017), with a selec­tion of out­standing paint­ings, rep­re­senting the first fifty years of his œuvre, from his arrival to Paris in 1953 until 2003.

These paint­ings are from the Collection of Claude & France Lemand and from the Donation they did in October 2018 to the Museum of Institut du monde arabe, Paris.

Contact :

Ludivine Petit, direc­trice artis­tique
l.petit@ville-amboise.fr
LE GARAGE centre d’art
1 rue du Général Foy - 37400 AMBOISE

Presentation by Claude Lemand

Born in 1931 in Mostaghanem, Abdallah Benanteur was brought up in an Algerian family and cul­tural envi­ron­ment, specif­i­cally enthralled by writing and illu­mi­nated manuscripts, by mystic Muslim poetry, by Andalusian music and songs. After com­pleting his studies at the School of Fine Arts in Oran and his mil­i­tary ser­vice, he set­tled down in Paris in 1953, which he trans­formed into his own cap­ital of life and cre­ativity. Abdallah Benanteur passed away on December 31, 2017, at Ivry-sur-Seine, France.

Impregnated by the Arab cul­ture from his native Algeria, by the great European painting in museums across France and Europe, by the graphic arts and manuscripts from Europe, the East and the Far East, inspired by the poets from around the world - having become a true expert in that field thanks to his wife Monique Boucher - he man­aged to create his own per­sonal and sub­lime works, pro­ducing lyrical land­scapes infused with the light of his Mediterranean home­land and that of his adopted Brittany, as well as a tran­scen­dental light that trans­forms the memory’s land­scapes in a par­adise peo­pled by his beloved ‘chosen ones’.

Abdallah Benanteur’s true light is in his oeuvre and varies depending on dif­ferent periods. This light is from here and from else­where, « nei­ther Oriental nor Western”, illu­mi­nating those whose gaze is in har­mony with it.

Available Publications :

 Abdallah BENANTEUR, The Song of the Earth. Retrospective-Tribute. Introduction by Claude Lemand. Text by Emmanuel Daydé. Catalogue 112 pages, 21 x 29,7 cm. Museum de l’Hospice Saint-Roch, Issoudun, France, 2018.

 BENANTEUR, Paintings. Monograph pre­pared and pub­lished by Claude Lemand, 224 pages, 25 x 33 cm. Texts in French and English. Paris, 2002. ISBN 2-910263-00-2.

 BENANTEUR, Graphic Works. Monograph pre­pared and pub­lished by Claude Lemand, 288 pages, 25 x 33 cm. Texts in French and English. Paris, 2005. ISBN 2-910263-02-9.