Bénédicte Dubart

Born in 1959 in Lille and passionate about sculpture since childhood, Bénédicte Dubart left her ten-year job at a communications agency to devote herself entirely to working with clay and bronze. She then began taking evening classes at the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et du Textile in Roubaix, under the guidance of her future mentor, Armand Debève. She realized her lifelong dream, making her professional debut in 1992.

Established, she began teaching her art a few years later, ensuring that her work was not limited to the shaping of materials alone. Bénédicte Dubart then opened the doors of her successive studios and revealed the manifest sincerity of her work to the public; she put it so well: ‘It is by working that one finds originality, not by seeking it.’

Born in 1959 in Lille and passionate about sculpture since childhood, Bénédicte Dubart left her ten-year job at a communications agency to devote herself entirely to working with clay and bronze. She then began taking evening classes at the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et du Textile in Roubaix, under the guidance of her future mentor, Armand Debève. She realized her lifelong dream, making her professional debut in 1992.

Established, she began teaching her art a few years later, ensuring that her work was not limited to the shaping of materials alone. Bénédicte Dubart then opened the doors of her successive studios and revealed the manifest sincerity of her work to the public; she put it so well: ‘It is by working that we find originality, not by searching for it’.

Bénédicte Dubart upholds the legacy of the great masters in the best possible way: by passing it on. Some of her sculptures, through their surface treatment and sensuality, directly recall Rodin or his studio, Camille Claudel, Lucien Schnegg, and Léon-Ernest Drivier. Rodin’s studies of Michelangelo’s sculpture, his innovative approach to movement, textured rendering, and the expressionism of his subjects, have accompanied her, like the master’s students, since her training.

As an emancipated successor, Bénédicte Dubart also embodies the spirit of the “Schnegg gang” and a unique vision of movement. Movement and lightness go hand in hand, presenting her expression of grace, sometimes dramatic. The raw and rough appearance of some sculptures gives a new impetus to the metal, making the bronze resemble the original clay, as if it had been shaped in the same way, with bare hands.

Modeling takes the form of a rather profound experiment, where the importance she places on proportions is precisely enhanced by her work with live models. She achieves remarkable balance in her sculptures, regardless of the postures, often extraordinary, sometimes dramatic. And with her passion for bodies rendered in clay, Bénédicte Dubart must be able to feel the sensations they express, particularly when posing.

She works with northern clay, always the same clay, which she strives to keep as intact as possible by not drying it out. She modeled for a long time in a yurt, bathed by its layout in a particular light, a softness easily discernible in her sculpture. The striking play of light, its reflections, are essential to understanding her, and surely we can even more fully consider her a ‘conveyor of emotions’.

Already established in the Lille and wider French landscapes, her reputation is now international, reaching as far as the Venice Biennale, where she received a special prize in 2019 for the ‘Woman’s Essence’ exhibition. In 2017, she was even included in Anne Rivière’s Dictionary of Women Sculptors in France.

Numerous commissions, both private and public, fueled her growing desire to think big. Her sure and delicate technique allows her to enlarge her sculptures, such as the monumental ‘Au bord du monde’ and ‘Yalla’. Some are quite original: ‘La Vierge à la Torah’ in the main courtyard of the Collège de Marcq-en-Baroeul, and ‘My Way’ in Gaillard (Geneva), a stone’s throw from Switzerland. At the same time, her passion for Argentine tango inspired a series of highly original bronzes, depicting couples and dancers, most of whom practice it. It is the character, the strong expressiveness of his sculpture that won us over.