The figures that populate Louise Bonnet’s paintings and works on paper walk a line between beauty and ugliness, between absurdist, knockabout comedy and extreme psychological and physiological tension. Inhabiting sparse, eerie landscapes and boxed in by the edges of the canvas or the page, they act out dramas of profound discomfort that plumb the depths of the artist’s subconscious. Drawing on a range of sources, from Old Master painting to Surrealism and underground comix, Bonnet toys with signifiers—of gender and sexuality in particular—in a playfully confrontational style. Her subjects are at once monumental in scale and diminished in capacity, their limbs grotesquely bloated and their eyeless faces partially obscured by dense caps of hair.
“I’m interested in the body being out of control, that you think you are in control, but you are actually not, your body is betraying you, or things are happening that you can’t control… So the noses are, to me, represent that sort of weight, like an external vision of weight and being out of control, but still trying to be dignified about it.”
Bonnet was born in Geneva, where she attended the Haute école d’art et de design. In 1994 she moved to Los Angeles for “a year off” and never left. In 2008, having worked in illustration and graphic design, she launched her career as an artist with a solo exhibition at Subliminal Projects in Los Angeles, a gallery and project space founded by Shepard Fairey and Blaize Blouin. Five years later a move from acrylic paint into oils led Bonnet to new creative possibilities by allowing her to introduce a greater sense of light and volume to otherwise stark compositions. The change of medium also heralded a diversification and sharpening of themes and references; still focused on depicting the human body in extremis, she intensified her approach, combining the mordant wit of Philip Guston with the nuanced chiaroscuro of Caravaggio.
The representation of sex in Bonnet’s work is characterized by manic exaggeration and physical restraint. It also has a dreamlike quality that recalls such disturbing concoctions as René Magritte’s The Rape (Le viol) (1934), in which a nude female torso is recast as a face, and Hans Bellmer’s controversial sculptures of pubescent female dolls. Gender in Bonnet’s work is usually either overstated through cartoonlike inflation or left indeterminate, allowing the figures to function as universal stand-ins for unconscious drives and anxieties. In some images, this signature approach to the human figure is combined with an exploration of Christian imagery and its history in European painting.]
Practical Information
Louise Bonnet
Swiss (Born 1970)
Category: Ultra Contemporary
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.
Public Collections
Louise Bonnet’s artwork is held in numerous public collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Work; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Denver Art Museum; and the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick.
Museum Exhibitions
La Biennale di Venezia
Biennale Arte 2022 | Louise Bonnet (labiennale.org)
Gallery Representation
Gagosian
Galerie Max Hetzler
Louise Bonnet – Galerie Max Hetzler
PART I: SUMMARY
Market Overview
2024 AUCTION STATISTICS
Turnover: USD 482,720
# of Lots sold: 3
Sell-Through Rate: 100%
Highest Price achieved at auction:
USD 738,296
Louise Bonnet made her auction debut in March 2021 when a work on paper sold for USD 81,900 at Sotheby’s in New-York.
3 lots sold in 2024 for a total turnover of USD 482,720.
With no lot failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 100%. The highest price for the year was achieved at Phillips in Hong-Kong on 25 November 2024 when Scotch Tape, a painting dated 2016, sold for HKD 1,397,000 (USD 179,480).
2024 Top 3 Lots
6 lots sold at auction in 2023 for a total turnover of USD 2,333,352.
With 2 lots failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 75%. The highest price was achieved at Sotheby’s in Hong-Kong for Tennis Player, a painting dated 2015 that sold on 5 April 2023 for HKD 5,334,000 (USD 679,481). The top 3 lots generated a cumulative turnover of USD 1,489,081, representing 63.8% of the total turnover for 2023.
2023 Top 3 Lots
4 lots sold at auction in 2022 for a total turnover of USD 2,400,480.
With no lot failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 100%. All 4 lots have been sold in Hong-Kong, 2 by Sotheby’s, 1 by Christie’s and 1 by Phillips. The highest price has been achieved by Sotheby’s in Hong-Kong, for Faucethead, a painting dated 2020 that sold for HKD 5,796,000 (USD 738,296). The average price is USD 600,120.
2022 Top 3 Lots
Top Lots
#1. Faucethead, 2020
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 7 October 2022
Estimated: HKD 600,000 – 1,000,000
HKD 5,796,000 / USD 738,296
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
Faucethead, 2020
Oil on linen
30×40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
Initialed and dated 20 on the reverse
#2. The Ice Skater, 2016
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 27 April 2022
Estimated: HKD 250,000 – 450,000
HKD 5,670,000 / USD 722,587
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
The Ice Skater, 2016
Oil on canvas
52×50 inches (132×127 cm)
Signed and dated 16 on the reverse
#3. Tennis Player, 2015
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 5 April 2023
Estimated: HKD 1,000,000 – 2,000,000
HKD 5,334,000 / USD 679,481
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
Tennis Player, 2015
Oil on canvas
40×30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
#4. Lost at Sea, 2019
Christie’s Hong-Kong: 1 December 2022
Estimated: HKD 3,000,000 – 5,000,000
HKD 4,788,000 / USD 615,598
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970) (christies.com)
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970)
Lost at Sea, 2019
Oil on linen
40×30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Signed with artist’s initials and dated ‘LB 19’ (on the reverse)
#5. The Red Pants, 2016
Phillips New-York: 17 May 2023
Estimated: USD 300,000 – 500,000
USD 406,400
Louise Bonnet – 20th Century & Contempora… Lot 6 May 2023 | Phillips
LOUISE BONNET
The Red Pants, 2016
Oil on canvas
50×52 inches (127 x 132.1 cm)
PART II: AUCTION RESULTS
2025 Upcoming Lots
Untitled, 2019
Phillips London: 18 October 2025
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
Louise Bonnet Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale
Untitled, 2019
Colored pencil on paper
2025 Auction Results
PRELIMINARY AUCTION RESULTS
As of 1 October 2025
3 lots sold at auction in 2025 so far for a total turnover of USD 325,157. With no lot failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 100%.
#1. Roped Butt, 2019
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2025
Estimated: HKD 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
HKD 2,032,000 / USD 261,183
Louise Bonnet 路易絲・伯內特 | Roped Butt 捆綁的臀部 | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
Roped Butt, 2019
Oil on linen
72 x 96 1/4 inches (182.9 x 244.5 cm)
Signed with artist’s initials and dated 19 (on the reverse)
#2. Gerard at the Country Club, 2013
Christie’s Hong-Kong: 27 September 2025
Estimated: HKD 300,000 – 500,000
HKD 482,600 / USD 62,030
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970), Gerard at the Country Club | Christie’s
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970)
Gerard at the Country Club, 2013
Oil on canvas
30×24 inches (76.2 x 61 cm)
Signed with the artist’s signature and dated ‘2013’ (on the reverse)
#3. Untitled, 2020
Christie’s New-York: 27 February 2025
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 20,000
USD 15,120
WORK ON PAPER
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970), Untitled | Christie’s
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970)
Untitled, 2020
Colored pencil on paper
14×17 inches (35.6 x 43.2 cm)
Signed with the artist’s initials and dated ‘LB 20’ (on the reverse)
2024 Auction Results
3 lots sold in 2024 for a total turnover of USD 482,720.
With no lot failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 100%. The highest price for the year was achieved at Phillips in Hong-Kong on 25 November 2024 when Scotch Tape, a painting dated 2016, sold for HKD 1,397,000 (USD 179,480).
2024 Top 3 Lots
#1. Scotch Tape, 2016
Phillips Hong-Kong: 25 November 2024
Estimated: HKD 800,000 – 1,200,000
HKD 1,397,000 / USD 179,480
Louise Bonnet – Modern & Contemporar… Lot 3 November 2024 | Phillips
LOUISE BONNET
Scotch Tape, 2016
Oil on canvas
40 1/8 x 30 1/4 inches (101.9 x 76.8 cm)
Signed and dated ‘Louise Bonnet 2016’ on the reverse
#2. Containment, 2018
Christie’s Hong-Kong: 9 November 2024
Estimated: HKD 1,000,000 – 2,000,000
HKD 1,260,000 / USD 162,125
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970), Containment | Christie’s
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970)
Containment, 2018
Oil on canvas
72×60 inches (182.9 x 152.4 cm)
Signed and dated ‘LB 18’ (on the reverse)
#3. Untitled, 2020
Sotheby’s London: 10 October 2024
Estimated: GBP 80,000 – 120,000
GBP 108,000 / USD 141,115
Untitled | Contemporary Day Auction | 2024 | Sotheby’s
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
Untitled, 2020
Oil on linen
40×30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Signed with the artist’s initials and dated 20 (on the reverse)
2023 Auction Results
1. Paintings
6 lots sold at auction in 2023 for a total turnover of USD 2,333,352.
With 2 lots failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 75%. The highest price was achieved at Sotheby’s in Hong-Kong for Tennis Player, a painting dated 2015 that sold on 5 April 2023 for HKD 5,334,000 (USD 679,481). The top 3 lots generated a cumulative turnover of USD 1,489,081, representing 63.8% of the total turnover for 2023.
2023 Top 3 Lots
#1. Tennis Player, 2015
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 5 April 2023
Estimated: HKD 1,000,000 – 2,000,000
HKD 5,334,000 / USD 679,481
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
Tennis Player, 2015
Oil on canvas
40×30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
#2. The Red Pants, 2016
Phillips New-York: 17 May 2023
Estimated: USD 300,000 – 500,000
USD 406,400
LOUISE BONNET
The Red Pants, 2016
Oil on canvas
50×52 inches (127 x 132.1 cm)
#3. Interior with Orange Bed, 2021
Christie’s New-York: 15 May 2023
Estimated: USD 300,000 – 500,000
USD 403,200
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970)
Interior with Orange Bed, 2021
Oil on linen
72×120 inches (182.9 x 304.8 cm)
Signed with the artist’s initials and dated ‘LB 21’ (on the reverse)
#4. The Tear, 2016
Christie’s London: 28 February 2023
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 250,000
GBP 277,200 / USD 335,268
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970)
The Tear, 2016
Oil on canvas
52 x 50 1/8 inches (132.2 x 127.2 cm)
#5. The Velour Jumpsuit, 2016
Phillips Hong-Kong: 30 March 2023
Estimated: HKD 800,000 / 1,200,000
HKD 2,413,000 / USD 307,392
LOUISE BONNET
The Velour Jumpsuit, 2016
Oil on canvas
72×60 inches (182.9 x 152.4 cm)
#6. The Shirt, 2017
Sotheby’s London: 12 October 2023
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 165,100 / USD 201,611
The Shirt | The Now Evening Auction | 2023 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
The Shirt, 2017
Oil on canvas
40×30 inches (101.7 x 76.2 cm)
Signed with the artist’s initials and dated 17 (on the reverse)
2. Works on Paper
2 lots sold at auction in 2023 for a total turnover of USD 61,930.
#1. Untitled, 2018
Christie’s New-York: 10 March 2023
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 37,800
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970)
Untitled, 2018
Colored pencil on paper
12 x 8 3/4 inches (30.5 x 22.2 cm)
Signed with the artist’s initials and dated ‘LB 18’ (lower left)
#2. Untitled, 2016
Phillips New-York: 18 July 2023
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 24,130
LOUISE BONNET
Untitled, 2016
Colored pencil on paper
12×9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Signed and dated “Louise Bonnet 2016” on the reverse
2022 Auction Results
1. Paintings
4 lots sold at auction in 2022 for a total turnover of USD 2,400,480.
With no lot failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 100%. All 4 lots have been sold in Hong-Kong, 2 by Sotheby’s, 1 by Christie’s and 1 by Phillips. The highest price has been achieved by Sotheby’s in Hong-Kong, for Faucethead, a painting dated 2020 that sold for HKD 5,796,000 (USD 738,296). The average price is USD 600,120.
2022 Top 3 Lots
#1. Faucethead, 2020
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 7 October 2022
Estimated: HKD 600,000 – 1,000,000
HKD 5,796,000 / USD 738,296
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
Faucethead, 2020
Oil on linen
30×40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
Initialed and dated 20 on the reverse
#2. The Ice Skater, 2016
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 27 April 2022
Estimated: HKD 250,000 – 450,000
HKD 5,670,000 / USD 722,587
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
The Ice Skater, 2016
Oil on canvas
52×50 inches (132×127 cm)
Signed and dated 16 on the reverse
#3. Lost at Sea, 2019
Christie’s Hong-Kong: 1 December 2022
Estimated: HKD 3,000,000 – 5,000,000
HKD 4,788,000 / USD 615,598
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970) (christies.com)
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970)
Lost at Sea, 2019
Oil on linen
40×30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Signed with artist’s initials and dated ‘LB 19’ (on the reverse)
#4. The Swimmer, 2016
Phillips Hong-Kong: 1 December 2022
Estimated: HKD 400,000 – 600,000
HKD 2,520,000 / USD 313,999
LOUISE BONNET
The Swimmer, 2016
Oil on canvas
30×20 inches (76.5 x 51 cm)
2. Works on Paper
6 lots sold at auction in 2022 for a total turnover of USD 307,593.
#1. Untitled, 2018
Phillips New-York: 16 November 2022
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 40,000
USD 75,600
Louise Bonnet – 20th Century & Con… Lot 325 November 2022 | Phillips
LOUISE BONNET
Untitled, 2018
Colored pencil on paper
24×19 inches (61 x 48.3 cm)
Signed with the artist’s initials and dated “LB 18” on the reverse
#2. Untitled, 2017
Phillips New-York: 19 May 2022
Estimated: USD 18,000 – 22,000
USD 73,080
Louise Bonnet – 20th Century & Contempo… Lot 319 May 2022 | Phillips
LOUISE BONNET
Untitled, 2017
Colored pencil on paper
14×11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Signed with the artist’s initials and dated “LB 17” on the reverse
#3. Untitled, 2020
Christie’s New-York: 29 September 2022
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 20,0000
USD 52,920
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970), Untitled | Christie’s (christies.com)
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970)
Untitled, 2020
Colored pencil on paper, in artist-appointed frame
Sheet: 14×17 inches (35.6 x 43.2 cm)
Signed with the artist’s initials and dated ‘LB20’ (on the reverse)
#4. Untitled, 2018
Phillips New-York: 28 September 2022
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 44,100
Louise Bonnet – New Now New York Lot 7 September 2022 | Phillips
LOUISE BONNET
Untitled, 2018
Colored pencil on paper
12×9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Signed with the artist’s initials and dated “LB 18” on the reverse
#5. Untitled, 2016
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 6 October 2022
Estimated: HKD 150,000 – 240,000
HKD 327,600 / USD 41,733
Louise Bonnet 路易絲・伯內特 | Untitled 無題 | Contemporary Day Auction | 2022 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
Untitled, 2016
Colored pencil on paper
12×9 inches (30.4 x 22.8 cm)
Signed and dated 2016 on the reverse
#6. Untitled, 2016
Sotheby’s New-York: 30 September 2022
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 20,000
USD 20,160
Untitled | Contemporary Curated | 2022 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
Untitled, 2016
Colored pencil on paper
14×11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Signed Bonnet and dated ’16 (on the verso)
PART III: FOCUS
Record Breakers
The Red Pants, 2016
Phillips New-York: 17 May 2023
Estimated: USD 300,000 – 500,000
USD 406,400
Louise Bonnet – 20th Century & Contempora… Lot 6 May 2023 | Phillips
LOUISE BONNET
The Red Pants, 2016
Oil on canvas
50×52 inches (127 x 132.1 cm)
The cropped, central figure in The Red Pants, 2016, is emblematic of the unique visual language of Louise Bonnet’s surreal, distended universe. Featured in the artist’s first solo show at Nino Mier Gallery in Los Angeles in 2016, the intentionally claustrophobic composition centers on the pelvis of a figure whose long, drooping nose swings into view like a fleshy necktie. Sausage-like fingers hold buttercups, pulled together loosely with twined white string, one of the artist’s long-standing motifs. The Red Pants brings together the artist’s signature combination of bodily distortion and a sense of unease. Bonnet’s treatment of the body—particularly her bulbous noses—caused sensation in Los Angeles, where she lived, worked, and exhibited, in the mid-2010s. The artist addresses the phallic likeness of her noses head-on:
“The figures make some people uncomfortable maybe because the noses look like penises, but I don’t start out thinking I’m going to paint penises. I just like when things go in and out of something.”
Indeed, The Red Pants, and her oeuvre at large, traverses a wide range of graphic references, from Surrealists like René Magritte, to the late work of Philip Guston; the underground cartoons of R. Crumb, and even medieval European devotional art.
Detail, book of hours, c. 1500, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Morgan Library, MS G5 fol. 18v. Image: The Morgan Library & Museum / Art Resource, NY
The hands holding buttercups function as a fig-leaf to the exposed nose above, recalling medieval Christian floral symbolism. The picked flowers and color palette of The Red Pants are reminiscent of the aesthetics of medieval books of hours, particularly those from the Flemish and Netherlandish schools, c. 1500, which featured illustrations of flowers as life-like as those found in contemporary herbals. More widely, in medieval European art, Christian saints are painted holding attributes, such as flowers, that symbolize the plot of a story from the saint’s life. St. Elizabeth of Hungary’s cloak full of roses, for example, reminds the viewer of when the saint miraculously turned bread into roses. Bonnet likes this aspect of medieval European art, explaining how painting from this time is “really in the service of an idea, and it’s trying to tell a story,” just like her own work. In The Red Pants, for instance, the viewer is keenly aware that the content on the canvas is only part of the scene. The drooping nose belongs to some invisible face; the buttercups were picked elsewhere.
Interior with Orange Bed, 2021
Christie’s New-York: 15 May 2023
Estimated: USD 300,000 – 500,000
USD 403,200
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970) (christies.com)
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970)
Interior with Orange Bed, 2021
Oil on linen
72×120 inches (182.9 x 304.8 cm)
Signed with the artist’s initials and dated ‘LB 21’ (on the reverse)
With nods to art history, yet working unapologetically in the present, Louise Bonnet’s paintings are complex considerations of contemporary art. With the same sensitivity to color and the body as the paintings of the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens, Interior with Orange Bed is a layered, complex, and surreal study of space: it evokes Andrea Mantegna’s Lamentation of Christ (c. 1480, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan) as the supine body pushes at the picture plane, and it is like a painting by Salvador Dalí, with its long, melting forms, or René Magritte, with its interior that seems outside of time. With works like the present example, Bonnet—whose work was selected for inclusion in the most recent Venice Biennale—has become one of the most exciting and innovative painters working today.
Interior with Orange Bed depicts one of Bonnet’s characteristically faceless figures upon the eponymous bed, as if being psychoanalyzed. Clad in light green, its long fingers are intertwined, swirling around each other like a small tornado. Behind it is a small, slanted window that is reminiscent of Robert Irwin’s Scrim veil—Black rectangle—Natural light, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1977), which is embedded in the Marcel Breuer building that formerly housed the Whitney Museum and the Met Breuer. Like the diagonal window, Bonnet’s protagonist extends unnaturally into the claustrophobic space. As Artforum observes, “Like the love children of R. Crumb and [Johannes] Vermeer, her subjects are unconstrained by the logic of traditional human anatomy because she shapes her characters more through violent force than through technical precision—flesh is pressed, twisted, gripping”
Andrea Mantegna, Dead Christ (“the foreshortened Christ”), mourned by the Virgin, a pious woman and Saint John the Apostle, circa 1480. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. Photo: Erich Lessing / Art Resource, New York.
Interior with Orange Bed is part of a series inspired by Agnès Varda’s 1985 film Vagabond, a narrative drama with quasi-documentary elements. The story follows a young woman who wanders the south of France, only to die alone. Despite this tragedy, the film is also a celebration of freedom and the possibility of finding community in the loneliest places. Interior with Orange Bed is likewise outside of society, existing in a space that defies the laws of nature and decorum. Interior with Orange Bed is a slice of an unknown life, one we can imagine only with Bonnet’s guidance. She tells the Dodie Bellamy,
“I like the idea of viewing the paintings like they’re in the middle of a movie, almost like a still. There’s a story before and after what you’re seeing, but it’s not given away. Sometimes I don’t even know what it is.”
The story of Interior with Orange Bed might just be one of rest, but it could also be something else that we cannot fully grasp, something sinister or hair-raising. Yet in Bonnet’s paintings there is always a sense of wonder and an invitation to dream.
Tennis Player, 2015
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 5 April 2023
Estimated: HKD 1,000,000 – 2,000,000
HKD 5,334,000 / USD 679,481
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
Tennis Player, 2015
Oil on canvas
40×30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Influenced 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 color and volume, diversifying and sharpening her artist practice. The artist’s deft handling of color 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.
Lost at Sea, 2019
Christie’s Hong-Kong: 1 December 2022
Estimated: HKD 3,000,000 – 5,000,000
HKD 4,788,000 / USD 615,598
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970) (christies.com)
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970)
Lost at Sea, 2019
Oil on linen
40×30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Signed with artist’s initials and dated ‘LB 19’ (on the reverse)
“You’re not challenged by the figure or the character looking back at you. There are no eyes [in my work] because that sucks up all the attention. I could never look at someone being shamed if I had to deal with their feelings of me looking at them.”
Faucethead, 2020
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 7 October 2022
Estimated: HKD 600,000 – 1,000,000
HKD 5,796,000 / USD 738,296
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
Faucethead, 2020
Oil on linen
30×40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
Initialed and dated 20 on the reverse
Faucethead (2020) is an exemplary painting that showcases Louise Bonnet’s irresistible sense of the absurd, with the artist often depicting the body in extremis. 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. The present work features a figure that bares a surrealist resemblance to René Magritte’s Le Viol (1934), in which a nude female torso is recast as a face, similarly juxtaposing exaggerated ugliness with eerie beauty. The corporeal is a central theme in Bonnet’s work, where emotions of shame, of being out of control and exposed, are expressed through tensions and distortions of the muscles. The blonde head here is transformed into a shower-head with water droplets dripping down – for Bonnet, excess bodily fluids can both pollute and fertilize the landscape around us.
The crux that lies at the heart of Bonnet’s work is the gap between our feeling of, and actual capacity for, control. Corporeal fluids – urine, saliva, sweat, blood or milk – are a recurrent motif in Bonnet’s ongoing investigation of our human instinct to control and our desire to contain bodily shame. Walking a fine line between beauty and the grotesque, comedy and tension, Bonnet’s figures function as universal stand-ins for unconscious drives and anxieties. Influenced by a range of sources, from Old Master paintings to Classical mythology, Bennet’s figures fluctuate in a kind of gender-blended state, evoking extreme psychological and physiological tension in a playfully confrontational style.
Other Paintings
Roped Butt, 2019
Sotheby’s Hong-Kong: 29 March 2025
Estimated: HKD 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
HKD 2,032,000 / USD 261,183
Louise Bonnet 路易絲・伯內特 | Roped Butt 捆綁的臀部 | Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
Roped Butt, 2019
Oil on linen
72 x 96 1/4 inches (182.9 x 244.5 cm)
Signed with artist’s initials and dated 19 (on the reverse)
Born in Geneva, Louise 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 color and volume, diversifying and sharpening her artist practice. The artist’s deft handling of color 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.
The second largest painting and one of the most significant works by the Bonnet to come to auction, Roped Butt is an exemplary piece by the artist, who is characterized by her surreal and exaggerated depictions of the human form, often exploring themes of vulnerability, discomfort, and the grotesque. Her use of rich, earthy tones and meticulous attention to texture creates a sense of both intimacy and unease, drawing viewers into a world where the boundaries between the familiar and the uncanny blur. Bonnet’s figures, often contorted or compressed within tight spaces, evoke a visceral emotional response, reflecting the complexities of human experience and the tension between inner and outer realities.
Scotch Tape, 2016
Phillips Hong-Kong: 25 November 2024
Estimated: HKD 800,000 – 1,200,000
HKD 1,397,000 / USD 179,480
Louise Bonnet – Modern & Contemporar… Lot 3 November 2024 | Phillips
LOUISE BONNET
Scotch Tape, 2016
Oil on canvas
101.9 x 76.8 cm (40 1/8 x 30 1/4 inches)
Signed and dated ‘Louise Bonnet 2016’ on the reverse
Louise Bonnet’s Scotch Tape captures her enduring fascination with bodily discomfort and psychological tension through her signature style of figurative distortion, striking a balance between beauty and the bizarre. She frequently explores the body’s ability to act beyond our control, a theme vividly illustrated in this work. These exaggerated features seem to operate independently of the figure’s intentions, creating a powerful visual metaphor for how our physical forms can disrupt our desired self-presentation, leading to unexpected revelations.
Born in Geneva in 1970 and now based in Los Angeles, Bonnet investigates the body’s involuntary reflection of inner emotions in her work. The figure’s dramatically elongated ear and nose serve as striking focal points, bending under gravity while retaining an elastic quality. The truncated view of the head and neck heightens the psychological tension, as the artist’s manipulation of anatomical forms explores themes of shame, control, and vulnerability. Bonnet’s unique visual language draws from her early interests in comics, particularly works of Robert Crumb and the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo. These formative encounters with uninhibited artistic expression revealed to her the liberating potential of art without constraints.
“I’m interested in the body being out of control, that you think you are in control, but you are actually not, your body is betraying you, or things are happening that you can’t control… So the noses are, to me, represent that sort of weight, like an external vision of weight and being out of control, but still trying to be dignified about it.”
Additionally, her fascination with horror films has significantly influenced her vision, especially in how they present the body’s capacity for transformation and distortion. This influence is vividly expressed in the current lot, where the exaggerated ear and nose become the central focus, embodying the tension between vulnerability and resilience.
Untitled, 2002. Page from Art & Beauty Magazine, Number 2, 2003
© Robert Crumb, 2002
While Bonnet consciously attempts to ‘shut off’ her thoughts while painting, themes of womanhood and feminism inevitably permeate her work. These undercurrents introduce an additional layer of complexity to her exploration of bodily discomfort and social expectations, emerging organically rather than as overt statements. This unconscious engagement with gender adds greater depth to the tension present in her pieces.
“I’m interested in the body being out of control, that you think you are in control, but you are actually not, your body is betraying you, or things are happening that you can’t control… So the noses are, to me, represent that sort of weight, like an external vision of weight and being out of control, but still trying to be dignified about it.”
The present lot also highlights the artist’s mastery of oil paint, a medium she has embraced since 2014. The luminous surface and expert handling of volume showcase her deep understanding of the medium. Her nuanced treatment of flesh tones and the subtle interplay of highlights and shadows create an almost sculptural presence through her careful attention to the chiaroscuro effect. This technical approach, rooted in historical painting traditions, enhances the impact of the distorted anatomy and adds a classical framework to the piece.
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, c. 1530
Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1911, 11.15
By obscuring the figure’s face–an intentional choice in her work–Bonnet fosters a psychological space where viewers can project their own emotions onto the image, free from the influence of facial expressions. This concealment creates an uncomfortable voyeuristic dynamic that intensifies the work’s psychological tension. The title, Scotch Tape, adds another layer of meaning, suggesting both adhesion and transparency–qualities that mock the figure’s struggle to maintain dignity amid bodily betrayal. This reference creates a striking contrast with the painting’s psychological depth, exemplifying the tension between the mundane and the grotesque that permeates much of Bonnet’s oeuvre. With a background in graphic design and illustration, Bonnet infuses her paintings with a precise formal sensibility while pushing the boundaries of figurative representation. Her unique visual language merges volumetric drama with a contemporary understanding of bodily distortion, evoking both surrealist painting and cartoon aesthetics. This work marks a pivotal moment in Bonnet’s artistic development, crafted during a time when she fully embraced the expressive potential of oil paint and honed her distinctive style. It crystallizes her ongoing exploration of the relationship between physical form and psychological state, producing an image that oscillates between attraction and repulsion, dignity and absurdity – a duality that continues to define her practice.
The Shirt, 2017
Sotheby’s London: 12 October 2023
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 165,100 / USD 201,611
The Shirt | The Now Evening Auction | 2023 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)
LOUISE BONNET (b. 1970)
The Shirt, 2017
Oil on canvas
40×30 inches (101.7 x 76.2 cm)
Signed with the artist’s initials and dated 17 (on the reverse)
With an irresistible sense for the absurd, Louise Bonnet paints portraits that combine pain and beauty to facilitate the exploration of melancholy, nostalgia and displacement. A female figure with dense, glossy blonde hair is the subject of Bonnet’s The Shirt. With her physical anatomy satirically inflated – typical of Bonnet’s portraiture – the figure’s face is distorted and otherwise hidden behind the hair, while their black buttoned shirt appears ready to burst. Drawing on influences ranging from science fiction to comedic horror, such as David Cronenberg’s 1979 body horror film The Brood, Bonnet humorously directs our attention to our social discomfort around certain body parts and depictions of ugliness.
Bonnet’s decision to exclude eyes in The Shirt, and throughout her oeuvre, is motivated by the belief that eyes would attract all the attention; Bonnet “could never look at someone being shamed if I had to deal with their feelings of me looking at them” (Pac Pobric, “‘I Don’t Mind Being Repulsive’: Swiss Painter Louise Bonnet on the Lure of Ugliness and How Horror Films Inspire Her Work,” Artnet, 29 October 2020, online). The judgement exercised by eyes interferes with Bonnet’s aim: to depict shame and rage and death, freezing them within the canvas, so the viewer is able to look closely at them from outside. With a deft handling of colour and light, The Shift demonstrates a sensitivity to the formal and atmospheric possibilities of oil paint. Bonnet’s figure evokes an extreme psychological and physiological tension in a playfully confrontational approach.
The Velour Jumpsuit, 2016
Phillips Hong-Kong: 30 March 2023
Estimated: HKD 800,000 / 1,200,000
HKD 2,413,000 / USD 307,392
Louise Bonnet – 20th Century & Contempo… Lot 4 March 2023 | Phillips
LOUISE BONNET
The Velour Jumpsuit, 2016
Oil on canvas
72×60 inches (182.9 x 152.4 cm)
Los Angeles-based Swiss painter Louise Bonnet dances between the humorous, the beautiful, and the monstrous in her paintings of strangely contorted, misshapen bodies or figures with oddly placed organs and appendages. Rendered with the meticulous attention to light, shadow, and texture of the Renaissance masters, her paintings enact emotions of shame and revulsion through the dramatic surrealism of the absurd. The Velour Jumpsuit, created in 2016, is an enchanting and thought-provoking example of Bonnet’s distinctive style. An apparently bodiless pale purple velvety jumpsuit set against a glowing greenish-yellow background is the tranquil backdrop for the outlandish occurrence of a digestive organ, placed outside of the body. The organ, which brings to mind a human stomach, is effortlessly volumetric and exquisitely rendered in chiaroscuro, and although located outside of the body it is drawn into the painting’s inherent drama via the rope that ties around the waist of the velour suit.
The Tear, 2016
Christie’s London: 28 February 2023
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 250,000
GBP 277,200 / USD 335,268
LOUISE BONNET (B. 1970)
The Tear, 2016
Oil on canvas
52 x 50 1/8 inches (132.2 x 127.2 cm)
At once tragic and comic, The Tear is a bold early example of Louise Bonnet’s surreal portraits. Painted in 2016, it forms part of the celebrated series of tennis players that propelled her to public acclaim. Against a rich monochrome backdrop, Bonnet’s subject stands in crisp profile. A single hooded eye is trained upon the levitated ball before him, whose radiant green surface seems to illuminate the space around it. His wildly exaggerated nose—a hallmark of the artist’s practice—mirrors not only the ball’s engraved pattern, but also the shape of the titular teardrop that rolls in glassy perfection down his cheek. Every element of the composition—from the wrinkles of the character’s bandana, to the shadows that play across his face and shirt—is rendered with precise, graphic clarity. Rooted in close engagement with art history, film and comics, Bonnet’s caricatured muses express real emotions and psychological states, highlighting the anguish and absurdity of the human condition. Part clown, part athlete, the present work’s protagonist refuses to return our gaze, quietly begging for empathy.
The Swimmer, 2016
Phillips Hong-Kong: 1 December 2022
Estimated: HKD 400,000 – 600,000
HKD 2,520,000 / USD 313,999
Louise Bonnet – 20th Century & Cont… Lot 31 December 2022 | Phillips
LOUISE BONNET
The Swimmer, 2016
Oil on canvas
30×20 inches (76.5 x 51 cm)
Fascinated by externalizing her inner vision for emotions such as guilt and shame, Los Angeles-based Swiss artist Louise Bonnet’s constant explorations into the matter arrive at a highly recognizable style that straddles the line between beauty and ugliness, whilst focusing on expressing her own feelings as much as evoking them from the viewer. Created in 2016, The Swimmer is a humorous and bizarrely charming exemplar, revealing a light-hearted side of Bonnet’s oeuvre. Widely recognized for her beautiful yet grotesque depictions of human bodies that twist, fold and intwine into an emotionally powerful presence, she has garnered international following in recent years.
Following less on a narrative that ties a painting together, Bonnet instead focuses on articulating the expressive tension of forms through the rendering of weight, volume, and depth, allowing elements to weave into a nonsensical appearance that exudes unexpected strength and enchantment. Captured on canvas is a figure in a navy swimsuit and swim cap, with wavy blond hair untucked, standing under a drizzling showerhead against a white-tiled bathroom wall. With eyes covered-up and their gender inconclusive, the character’s body is depicted in solidified and weighty forms, with a tiered torso being reminiscent of the Michelin Man. With the disproportionally large mallet-shaped nose taking centre stage for attention, the absurdity of the ‘swimming under a showerhead’ scene immediately brings a smile to the viewer’s face.