Axel Sanson

Axel Sanson was born in Paris in 1975. He graduated university in 1998 with a degree in social law. He moved on to study history of art and in 2002 he wrote a thesis about French orientalist painter Henri Regnault.[1] He taught himself how to paint, and decided in 2004, when nearing thirty, to dedicate himself fully to image creation.[2]

Axel Sanson is known mostly for his paintings. His works are generally sizable square formats conceived as variations on a theme.[3] The images are often borrowed from photographs or cinema stills, and the way he reinterprets them shows an acute sense of storytelling. In his works, scales collide, space and temporality are fluctuating and sometimes contradictory. The poetry of his works comes from such contrasts.[3]

Drawn to historical subjects,[4] Axel Sanson worked with Art historian Jerôme Delaplanche - now director of the History of Art department at the Villa Medicis - on the book Peindre la guerre (Painting the War).[5] His passion for history makes his practice as a painter essentially reflexive.[6]

In his works he has paid tribute to actresses Bulle Ogier,[7] Silvana Mangano[8] and Dorothy Stratten[9] among others.

In 2018, he is selected for an art project and paints two in-situ frescoes in the car park of the Royal Hamilius, in Luxembourg city, a building designed by renowned architect Sir Norman Foster.[10][11] Other artists participated in the project, namely : Dorothée Louise Recker, Kosta Kulundzic, Valentina Canseco, Gaëtan Henrioux and Lise Stoufflet.