I nfluenced by the Surrealist and Old Master artistic tradition, Louise Bonnet’s Tennis Player (2015) is an exemplary painting that showcases the artist’s irresistible sense of the absurd. Exploring melancholy, nostalgia and displacement in her exaggerated portraits, Bonnet’s figures bare anatomical elements such as noses, feet or genitalia which are satirically inflated, drawing our attention to our social discomfort around certain body parts or depictions of ugliness. Part of a small series of works inspired by tennis players and their uniforms of perfectly white shorts, crisp collared polos and iconic headbands, the present work depicts a tensed and grotesquely inflated figure in profile. Through allegorical depictions of the body, Bonnet’s figures shamelessly represent unexpressed emotions such as melancholy and agony, desire and grief. The present figure’s face of bulbous nose and helmet-like hair, wearing a tightly zipped tennis top ready to burst, is archetypal of Bonnet’s pulsating and intriguing world.

As with Tennis Player, Bonnet’s canvases are rife with comedy. The early-adopted motif of the tennis player is here depicted in the artist’s signature palette of pleasing pink fleshy tones. Met with frenzied reception since their inception, the tennis player subject is derived not from any connection to the sport, but rather Bonnet’s love of the uniforms. Born in Geneva, Bonnet launched her artist career in 2008 after having worked in illustration and graphic design in Los Angeles, painting first in acrylic followed by oils, a change in medium which opened up new possibilities of colour and volume, diversifying and sharpening her artist practise. The artist’s deft handling of colour and light demonstrates a sensitivity to the formal and atmospheric possibilities of oil paint. Fluctuating in a kind of gender-blended state, Bonnet’s figures evoke an extreme psychological and physiological tension in a playfully confrontational style. As with the present work, the tennis player’s sagging, half closed cartoon-eyes suggest a fatigue, with life or with the game, Bonnet leaving the viewer to decide for themselves.

At the 2022 Venice Biennale, Bonnet was selected to be featured in the exhibit’s main show, titled The Milk of Dreams, her absurdist and unsettling canvases a natural fit for a show named after the Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. Represented by both Max Hetzler and Gagosian, Bonnet has also received her first solo show solo show Onslaught in Hong Kong at Gagosian last year, which was her first in Asia.

受 超現實主義和古典大師影響，路易絲·伯內特（Louise Bonnet）的《網球員》（2015）荒誕怪異，刻劃出一個怪誕膨脹、神情緊張的側面，完美呈現藝術家別樹一幟的創作風格。伯內特往往以諷刺誇張的形式繪畫人物的鼻子、腳或生殖器等人體結構，教觀者察覺到自身對某些身體部位或醜陋的描述抱有一種社交焦慮。這個系列的作品為數不多，靈感來自網球員和他們的運動服（純白短褲、有領網球上衣和招牌頭帶）。伯內特圍繞著憂鬱、懷舊和流離失所的主題，繪畫比例誇張失衡的人物身體，不但具諷喻意味，亦透露出憂鬱痛苦、慾望和悲傷等未被表達的情感。《網球員》的畫中人是伯內特筆下精彩世界的代表；他的鼻子呈球根狀，頭上頂著一個宛如頭盔的髮型，身穿一件緊得快要爆開的拉鍊網球上衣。

伯內特的作品充滿喜劇色彩。「網球員」是藝術家早期採用的主題，而伯內特在本作亦沿用同一主題，以招牌淡粉色描繪作品中的角色。「網球員」主題登場後旋即大受歡迎，不過藝術家的創作靈感並非源於這項球類運動，而是與她對制服的熱愛有關。伯內特出生於日內瓦，早年在洛杉磯從事插畫和平面設計，在 2008 年開展藝術家生涯。她起初以壓克力彩創作，其後改用油彩，這種改變令作品在色彩和豐盈感方面有更多可能性，伯內特的藝術實踐亦因而更加多元和進步。她巧妙處理色彩和光線，周全考慮到油畫在形式和氛圍上的可能性，可見她心思敏感細膩，極具天賦。伯內特筆下的人物性別模糊，以狡黠又帶點挑釁的態度喚起極大的心理和生理張力。在本作中，網球員的卡通眼睛下垂半閉，盡見倦怠之感。但到底他是厭倦生活或是比賽，並無答案，伯內特交由觀者決定。

在 2022 年的威尼斯雙年展中，伯內特獲邀參加名為「夢之乳」的主展，其荒誕而令人不安的作品非常切合這個以超現實主義藝術家利奧諾拉·卡林頓（Leonora Carrington）的作品命名的展覽。同年，由麥克斯·赫茨勒（Max Hetzler）畫廊和高古軒共同代理的伯內特亦在香港高古軒舉辦首場亞洲個展「Onslaught」。