The French gallery owner, who has been living in Budapest for a few years, believes in the power of art and that paintings make everyday life colorful and exciting. We talked to Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia.
Benjamin’s gallery, which opened its doors this year, located in one of the most atmospheric parts of Budapest, in the villa district of the sixth district. Upon entering, i was greeted by a beautiful sight and at first glance i was amazed by the colorful array of artworks watching happily from the white walls. Almost every painting appeals to me, suddenly I don’t even know where to look.
Which painting in your gallery has the greatest influence on you?
I grew up surrounded by my mother’s paintings, so her works always have a great influence on me. But right now my favorite painting is The life is beautiful as always” by Eugen Igor Prokop. It basically has everything I like and abstract art itself. Igor used to be a biologist, which is perhaps why he can tell stories about nature very well with his paintings. The more you look, the more details you discover, the shades and small details are fantastic. Every time I look at it, I always see something else. In addition, the message of the painting – life is beautiful – I think it is a very good message in this current world.
All the paintings in your gallery are very vibrant and colorful. Are you consciously looking for works full of such colors?
Yes, I really like colors and I would like Budapest to be a little more colorful as a result. I remember when I first visited the National Museum I was amazed by the many masterpieces and the tecniques, while the themes and colors were very dark and gloomy. Then I visited several galleries and noticed that the darker paintings predominated. I know that the Hungarian past is quite difficult and a lot happened in the country, but the dark colors had a slightly depressing effect on me. I thought it was time to bring some colors.
What are your preferences when you choose the artists whose works you exhibit in the gallery?
Most of the artists whose paintings I deal with already have a long artistic career behind them. Thanks to my mother, I have known many artists since my childhood and I have worked with several artists before. Some I met at art fairs, some I met completely by chance. I really like colors and detailed works, so I’m mainly looking for those. I watch the painters for a long time, I follow their careers and if I see that they fit into the overall image of the gallery, I exhibit their works. However, many times I make decisions on instinct, and if I have chosen them, it means that I believe in them. In a few months, it will become clear whether a relationship is established with potential customers, and then we can decide how to proceed. There’s always a time frame for how long the paintings stay, and I do my best to keep them as long as possible.
You have lived in several places in the world. Why did you open the gallery in Budapest?
It’s a very long story. I moved to Budapest three and a half years ago, but I have been here several times before as a tourist, and many of my friends live here. After I moved back to Europe from Asia, I didn’t want to go to France, I came to Budapest instead. I applied for a few jobs, but then COVID started, so of course all the job interviews were canceled. I had to decide if I wanted to stay. In the end, I stayed because the idea of the gallery started to stir in me. Finally, I found this place, which is not very big, but the area is beautiful, and I opened my gallery in April this year. I am currently building the brand, which takes time and I work a lot so that as many people as possible get to know the gallery.
How do you feel after spending three and a half years in Budapest?
I feel very good and I love the city very much. Culturally it is a very active and colorful city, with a lot of possibilities. It’s big enough that there’s always something to do and small enough if I just want to walk around. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a small village and I love that there are so many parks here. It’s less tiring than living in Paris.
How do you remember your first encounter with art?
I grew up in Pont-Aven, the city of artists in Brittany, where there are more galleries than any other shops. Walking down the street, you find galleries everywhere, in our house there was my mother’s studio and gallery, where, of course, I spent a lot of time as a child.
You never wanted to be a painter?
I think talent jumped a generation in our family, and to be honest, I never really wanted to be a painter. You know, when you’re a kid, you never want to do what your parents do. I was always very proud of my mother, a successful painting mother is not an everyday experience, despite this, I never painted. On the other hand, I have always loved art and paintings and I like to spread culture as much as I can. However, it was never a big dream of mine to create a work of art myself.
What was the work of art that had the greatest impact on you?
I never liked paintings with religious themes, but I once went to a Velasquez exhibition in Paris. There I saw a painting of the Virgin Mary, which took my breath away for minutes. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. By that time, I was a bit tired of the depictions of Jesus and Mary, but this painting fundamentally changed my opinion, it was the miracle itself. It was not as colorful a work as the ones we can see in the gallery now, it was much, much darker. But there was something in that darkness that touched me.
