Hans Bouman grew up in Haarlem, Netherlands, and earned his degrees at the Graphics School[1] and at the Rietveld Academy [2] of Amsterdam in 1978.
After settling in Paris in 1980, he received the Painting Prize at the Salon de Montrouge[3] in 1985, when he became a well-known and successful visual artist. Along the years, art critics Alin Avila, Gérard Barrière,[4] Gérard-Georges Lemaire, as well as novelist Daniel Picouly wrote the prefaces to the catalogues of his one-man shows.
During his career, Bouman's works have grown in a series of interconnected cycles.
His hieratic heads carved in the thickness and density of the layers of paint recalled the Moai of Easter Island, the African masks or the dramatic elongations of Expressionnism. « The magic of Bouman lies in the play on pictorial matter and his capacity to make a forceful figure emerge from it, both literally and figuratively" Henri-François Debailleux wrote at the time.[5]
In a subsequent series, a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses was born from his imagination: Årantaleph, Olafdir, Kratikoff, Mandi Tan...
He has always used photography, for instance in a series dedicated to the bunkers stranded on the beaches of the North Sea. With the development of digital photography, he merged drawing, painting and etching with the many possibilities offered by new technologies.
Travelling has always been part and parcel of his artistic approach. During his stays in Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso and Foumban in Cameroon, together with local traditional bronze casters he created a series of bronze lost-wax sculptures.
In 2014, he created a monumental sculpture for the Par't Sino-français in Shunde near Canton, Guangdong, that marked the anniversary of the 50 years of diplomatic relationships between France and China.[6][7]
When he was invited as an artist in residence by the ADEFC created by novelist Ya Ding[8] in 2017 et 2018, Hans Bouman's work took on a new direction, inspired by the astounding landscapes of Guangxi and Hubei provinces.
Hans Bouman is also the author of experimental films (The meanders of black, A Dream based on Franz Kafka's short story) and video portraits of his artist friends: Painters in Longzhou,[9] Christine Jean,[10] Serge Plagnol, Fred Kleinberg,[11]Zwy Milshtein, Bernard Ollier,[12] Sophie Sainrapt, Albert Hirsch...
Hans Bouman also works in his new studio in the countryside in the Loiret, where his recent work is permeated by the natural elements that surround him.
Selected 0ne-man shows
2023 Family Affairs #8, Galerie Area, Paris, avec Margreet Bouman et Ronald Ruseler
2022 Corps & Esprit III, IF-Grenier à sel, Châtillon-Coligny[13]
2008 Têtes ardentes, La Réserve d'area, Paris, catalogue
2008 Corps et esprit, Centre d'art contemporain Raymond Farbos, Mont-de-Marsan
2007 Suaire de soi, La Réserve d'area, Paris
2005 Labyrinthe, avec S. Galazzo, F. Haddad et S. Sainrapt, L'Entrepôt, Paris[20]
2004 10 ans de peinture, Galerie Le Confort des Étranges, Toulouse
2001 Galerie Art Déco, Antananarivo
2000 Galerie Koralewski, Paris
1999 Galerie Simoncini, Luxembourg
1997 Au pays Lobi avec Bertrand Rieger, espace Paul Ricard, Paris,
1997 Centre culturel Albert Camus, Antananarivo, Madagascar
1996 Œuvres récentes, Studio Kostel, Paris, Œuvres sur papier, galerie Vanuxem, Paris, Parcours 1985/1996, galerie Kiron, Paris
1995 Galerie Westlund, Stockholm, Galerie Vanuxem, Paris
1993 Traits de caractère, Chapelle de l'hôtel de ville, Vesoul
1993 Galerie Nicole Buck, Strasbourg
1993 Galerie Vanuxem, Paris
1992 Galerie Simoncini, Luxembourg,
1992 Sculptures, galerie Koralewski, Paris
1990 Studio Kostel, Paris
1990 Galerie Vanuxem, Paris
1990 Galerie La Cour 21, Nantes
1987 Galleria M.R., Rome
1987 Galerie Nicole Ferry, Paris
1986 Galerie Flora, Espace Kiron, Paris
1985 Galerie Jean-Claude David, Grenoble
Books
2021 Family affairs #6, 3 paper works with M. Bouman & R. Ruseler[21]
2020 Haarlem en ik, leporello, collection Museum Haarlem
2018 Le Corps derrière le corps, text by Gérard-Georges Lemaire, Piver publisher
2018 CommeUn n°17, text by Daniel Picouly with A. Inumaru et N. Gaulier, Area Paris, Alin Avila publisher
2016 CommeUn n° 7, text by Alain Pizerra with B. Guarrigues et B. Pingeot, Area Paris, Alin Avila publisher
2014 Le Concours des torses, text by Gérard-Georges Lemaire, Piver publisher
2013 Face-A-Face, a photographic dialogue in South Korea, Piver publisher
2012 Body & Soul, Paris & Seoul,Piver publisher
2005 Sextus, text by Gérard-Georges Lemaire, Area Paris publisher
1998 From Bobo to Ouaga, text by Hans Bouman & Tony Soulié, Yeo publisher for Area Paris
1998 Family Affairs, with M. Bouman & R. Ruseler, text by I. Lanz & D. Cunin, M.Bouman publisher (ISBN9080360821)
1997 Chemins croisés en Pays Lobi, texts by G. Barrière, C. Barbier, H. Bouman, M.-C. Guyot, F. Le Graverend & B. Rieger, Espace Paul Ricard & Polaroid[22]
1996 Voici moi, poem by Tadeusz Koralewski, illustrated by Hans Bouman, Area Paris, Alin Avila publisher[23]
1993 Têtes, a drawing notebook, Yeo for Area Paris, Alin Avila publisher[24]
1993 Visages, text by Gérard Barrière, galerie Vanuxem publisher, Paris[4]
Collections
Guangzhou FengLe Medical Technology Co, Guangzhou, Guangdong, Chine
Museum Haarlem, Haarlem, Pays-Bas
International Art Centre, Shangjin, Hubei, Chine
International Museum, Longzhou, Guangxi, Chine
P’art sino-français, Shunde, Guangdong, Chine
BNP Paribas, Paris
Ars Aevi, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Musée de Toulon, donation Alin Avila
Selected articles
Gérard-Georges Lemaire, Dans l'atelier de Hans Bouman, Verso-hebdo, 2021[25]
Vitorio E. Pisu, Hans Bouman. Nature du regard, Palazzi a Venezia n° 9, septembre 2020[26]
Alin Avila, Je peins, donc tu es, area revue n° 34, printemps 2018
Hassouna Mosbahi, Un peintre hollandais à Paris, elaph.com, 30 mars 2017
Gérard-Georges Lemaire, Body and Soul, Culture Ocean, mars-avril 2013
Chistophe Averty, Les âmes silencieuses, Artension n° 112, 2013
Gérard Férou, L’Afrique fantôme d'Hans Bouman, Les Lettres françaises, octobre 2007
Gérard-Georges Lemaire, Hans Bouman , Santé mentale, no 167, 2012[27]
Henri-François Debailleux, Hans Bouman en têtes, Libération, 29 novembre 1996
Françoise Monnin, Le double visage d'Hans Bouman, Muséart, no 55, novembre 1995
Bibliography
Gérard-Georges Lemaire, Le Noir absolu et les Leçons de ténèbres, Hémisud, 2009[28]
Daniel Picouly et Gérard-Georges Lemaire, Têtes ardentes, Éditions Area, 2008[29]
Gérard-Georges Lemaire, Labyrinthe, 2004
Alin Avila, Totems de silence: Hans Bouman, 1996, Yeo éditeur pour Area, Paris (EAN 265–0006469745)
Gérard Barrière, Traits de caractères, 1993
Henri-François Debailleux, Hans Bouman, Galerie Vanuxem éditeur, Paris, 1990
