Description
Leonardo Benatov was born in 1942 into a family of artists who fled communist Russia. His father was a painter (Bounatian-Benatov) and became known in France by exhibiting in 1927 at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d’Automne. Her mother is a writer who signs her works under the name Livja Flood. The family circle will frequent Larionov, Goncharova, Rodchenko, Soutine and other artists in exile.
At 16, Leonardo joined an uncle in Brazil and tried to cross the Amazon. Captured by the anthropophagic Indians, he remained a prisoner for a year after marrying the daughter of the chief of the tribe, “Erik Paxa”.
In 1964, the military revolution in Brazil forced him to return to France where he attempted without success to present a sculpture at the Salon d’Automne. From this date, Leonardo will never stop drawing and sculpting and it is natural that he arrives in 1975/76 in art casting.
From then on, this artist with an imposing physique would pursue his career as foundry director and sculptor, granting a particular place in his works to feelings, distress and the grandeur of being.
Adorning parks or public buildings, you can admire a “Broken Man” in the garden museum of the town of Gravelines, a representation of the musician Rossini at the Opera of Pesaro, his birthplace (as well as at UNESCO) , a bust of Napoleon at Ajaccio airport…
The artist bowed out on June 11, 2018, while exhibitions in Japan and China were being prepared…
Leonardo Benatov holds the order of Knight of Arts and Letters