Fabrice Hergott's Interviews with Bernard Dufour Published as Book

A new book of interviews between Fabrice Hergott and Bernard Dufour, titled "Bernard Dufour / absolument singulier," has been published by Éditions La Différence. The volume traces Dufour's life as a painter and man, covering his birth shortly after World War I, his friendship with Alain Robbe-Grillet, his wartime experience in Germany's STO, and his return to Paris. Dufour's discovery of Italian and French painting at the Louvre, particularly the shock of Delacroix, and his readings of Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Apollinaire, Stendhal, Flaubert, Sade, Céline, Bataille, and the surrealists are discussed. Central to his work are the women in his life—Anne, Cynthia, Martine, and Laure—who served as his primary inspiration. The book also addresses Dufour's decades-long obscurity, during which his non-figurative and later figurative work fell out of step with market trends, and his eventual rediscovery by a younger generation of painters and critics including Marc Desgrandchamps, Vincent Corpet, Philippe Dagen, Richard Leydier, Jérôme Lebrun, and Fabrice Hergott. Dufour's controversial work "Holger Meins" is noted. The publication coincides with "Actualités de la peinture," a collection of Dufour's critical texts, also from Éditions La Différence. Jacques Henric, co-founder of art press, contributes an essay reflecting on Dufour's career and his recent visit to the artist's studio in Le Pradié, where Dufour, at 89, continues to paint and write.