Bernard Moninot

Born in Le Fay, in 1949.
Lives and works in the Pré-Saint-Gervais and in Château-Chalon

« The work of Bernard Moninot does not fit into any of the major expressive categories. [...] It’d be most accurate to say that it is akin to drawing: but an enlarged drawing (in the sense that Novalis was able to speak of an ‘enlarged poetry’) deployed into spatial objects, on or through tracing materials and with an utterly original line» J. C. Bailly

He studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris in the late 60s and began exhibiting in 1970 at the Biennale de Paris, CNAC, Galerie Lucien Durand and Galerie Karl Flinker. His first solo show took place in 1974 at the Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain in Saint-Étienne. He then participated regularly in major group shows at the Dokumenta in Kassel, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Musée des Sables d'Olonne.


In 1979, Jean-Louis Prat organized another solo show at the Fondation Maeght. In the 80s, he continued his research, increasingly focused on the study of natural phenomena, with a desire to push back the boundaries of drawing. He carried out public commissions and taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Bourges, then in Angers.


In the 90s, he presented his work at Galerie Montenay in Paris and at Andata/Ritorno in Geneva. In 1997, a new solo show opened at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, directed by Daniel Abadie, and the following year at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dôle, as well as in Scottish and Finnish museums.
Starting in 1999, he began collecting “wind drawings” with an instrument of his own invention, an undertaking he has called La Mémoire du vent (Wind Memory), and which has seen him travel - and exhibit - in numerous countries for over twenty years.

Between 2005 and 2012, he exhibited at the Baudoin Lebon gallery. He taught drawing at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris from 2006 to 2015. 2009 marks the beginning of his collaboration with Galerie Catherine Putman. He continues to create major installations, and participates in numerous projects, exhibitions, reviews and fairs linked to the question of drawing, a field in which his practice remains intense.


A monograph published in 2013 by André Dimanche retraces his work from 1972 to 2012. He then began collaborating with Galerie Jean Fournier in 2015.
Between 2021 and 2022, a solo exhibition is presented at the Domaine de Kerguéhennec in Morbihan, curated by Olivier Delavallade. It continues at the Musée de l'Hospice Saint-Roch in Issoudun and ends at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul de Vence.