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Eric Benetto has never stopped following the most treacherous spiritual paths, from the rigors of monastic life to the ascetic practices of orthodox Hesychasm. His extreme humility nevertheless prevents him from recognizing his uniqueness, for the body of work that he has created is not only marked by an intense, syncretic mysticism, but also by exceptional moderness.

For Eric Benetto, born in 1972 in La Roche-sur-Yon, the discovery – at the age of 17 – of the coal miner Augustin Lesage’s mediumistic work was a veritable epiphany. His encounter with Father Coutant, who became a painter himself thanks to his friend Gaston Chaissac, marked him just as much. Profoundly meditative, fundamentally distrustful, Benetto finally understood that his feeling of exile would find an unexpected outlet in art.

While working in all manner of jobs between two trips to India – railway worker, telephone pollster, chemical plant security guard, and so many others – he began to transcribe what would become his formal grammar in travel journals. Like an uninterrupted prayer, a silent, vertiginous recitation, an obsessive graphic mantra.

Soon, India ink especially, and pencil at times, would come to conquer larger surfaces. Brown paper, at first, before he discovered, thanks to a job in a hospital, the potential of radiographs and other MRI images: simultaneous transparence and darkness in search of light. His pen, overcome by the trance, would take care of the rest.

While the patterns are repeated ad libitum and the serial incantations spread out like a primordial om, the artist gives shape to what Romain Rolland used to call the “oceanic feeling,” this formidable thirst for osmosis with the universe. In the case of Benetto, it stretches from limbo to men. Urbi et orbi. Particularly when his assemblages of magnetic resonance images are studded with the negatives of photographs of those whom he calls his “earthly family.” Or when the memorial peregrination is coupled with a redemptive impulse. And what can we say about the organs, liberated from their condition, reinvented, poeticized, sublimated.

Eric Benetto has never stopped following the most treacherous spiritual paths, from the rigors of monastic life to the ascetic practices of orthodox Hesychasm. His extreme humility nevertheless prevents him from recognizing his uniqueness, for the body of work that he has created is not only marked by an intense, syncretic mysticism, but also by exceptional moderness.

His work especially stood out in 2016 during the exhibition Art Brut in the Technological Era at the Belfort museum and is part of major collections, both of Art Brut and contemporary art.

exhibition view of *éric benetto : in excelsis*, christian berst art brut, paris, 2019. - © christian berst art brut, photo: anais docteur, christian berst — art brut
exhibition view of  *éric benetto : in excelsis*, christian berst art brut, paris, 2019. - © christian berst art brut, photo: anais docteur, christian berst — art brut
exhibition view of  *éric benetto : in excelsis*, christian berst art brut, paris, 2019. - © christian berst art brut, photo: anais docteur, christian berst — art brut
Artworks
Please contact us to inquire about the available works.
Nicolas, en recherche de déification depuis 10 ans - © christian berst — art brut
Eric Benetto Nicolas, en recherche de déification depuis 10 ans, 2018
30.31 x 35.83 in
Ici se joue le drame d’Eden - © christian berst — art brut
Eric Benetto Ici se joue le drame d’Eden, 2010
37.4 x 70.08 in
The meditoration of the nun Antonia - © christian berst — art brut
Eric Benetto The meditoration of the nun Antonia, 2017
46.85 x 41.73 in
Artist
Eric Benetto
portrait of éric benetto - © christian berst — art brut

Deeply impacted by his discovery of Augustin Lesage, Éric Benetto explores the most arduous spiritual paths: monastic life and ascetic practices of the Orthodox hesychasm. His Chinese ink or pencil drawings, on paper, radiographs and other MRI scans are imbued with syncretic mysticism as well as an exceptional modernity. Before his first solo exhibition organized by the gallery in 2019, his work had already been noticed at the exhibition Brut Now: art brut in the time of technologies, at the Belfort museums. Since then, he has joined prestigious collections such as those of Laurent Dumas (France) or Treger-Saint Silvestre (Portugal).

Catalog
Éric Benetto in excelsis
Catalogue published to mark the exhibition *Éric Benetto : in excelsis*, christian berst art brut, Paris, 2019. - © christian berst art brut, christian berst — art brut

Foreword : Christian Berst.
Catalog published to mark the exhibition Éric Benetto : in excelsis, from January 26th to March 2nd, 2019.

Press review
méditation sous rayons X
Inès Boittiaux, Beaux Arts Magazine. February 13, 2019.
in pictures : exposition éric benetto
La Rédaction, The Art Newspaper Daily. February 1, 2019.
éric benetto : radiographies mystiques
François Salmeron Et Juliette Soulez, Le Quotidien De L’art. January 29, 2019.
éric benetto

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