The 2024 Friends of Fine Arts of Paris Awards reveal their winners

On June 27, 2024, at 6:30 p.m., the Friends of the Fine Arts of Paris association awarded seven prizes to as many artists from the School. The ceremony took place in the garden of the Chimay hotel, in the presence of Alexia Fabre, director of the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, agnès b., founder and president of the association, and by Catherine Hellier du Verneuil, member of the Friends of the Fine Arts office for fourteen years, responsible for prices, patrons and the organization. The seven awarded artists are Elias Loudiyi, Thomas Buswell, Timothée Gruel, Maria Adjovi, Libo Wei, Alexandre Nitzsche Cysne and Leto William.

Elias Loudiyi is winner of the agnès b. prize. He is a 3rd year student in the Blanckart workshop. He works with charcoal and oil pastel and favors large formats. It uses the reserve of canvas, jute or linen, as a color in its own right. Elias Loudiyi « paints the memory, the imprint and the memory » from family photos.

Thomas Buswell is winner of the Thaddaeus Ropac Prize. He is in his 5th year in the Trouvé workshop. “ The forms that I propose grow on a ground of reflections confronting human “hubris” (i.e. the desire to free ourselves from our condition), technical progress, modern comfort and hospital care with extremely terrestrial elements, such as compost, mud, simple gestures, and a relationship to bodies (human, animal) as sensory power. “, says the artist. He also offers works that involve the viewer.

Timothée Gruel is winner of the Bertrand de Demandolx-Dedons portrait prize. He is in his 5th year in the Eitel workshop. Made from his memories, from living models or from photographs, the “ painted figures become characters caught in scenes where tension creeps in: sustained looks, bursts of laughter, accidents, sometimes violence ». Ses compositions « translate his desire to make the portrait a game that is sufficient in itself, like the plot of a play ».

Maria Adjovi is a Weil Prize winner. She is in her 3rd year in the Eitel workshop and “ bases her work on a narrative construction nourished by intimate stories, texts and encounters that connect with her. She also lets herself be guided by the morality of life, almost like a burden of human existence “. The painter borrows from religious codes to write her own pictorial language. Maria Adjovi proceeds with “ erase-restart, until it remains ».

Libo Wei is winner of the Khalil de Chazournes prize. He is in his 5th year in the Trouvé, Halilaj and Urbano workshops. He focuses his practice primarily on sculpture and installation, using wood and ceramic as materials. Her works ” talk about childhood and family memories, the temporality of everyday objects and the conflicts between the individual and the earth “. Imbued with childish naivety, Libo Wei adopts a look ” combining elements marked by time with objects carefully made by him according to traditional know-how ».

Alexandre Nitzsche Cysne is the winner of the Baudry d’Asson prize. He is in his 5th year in the Trouvé studio. The artist bases his practice on ” poetic pillars emerging from his research in urban archaeology. It explores the possibility of revealing what remains from recovery and minimalist gestures “. He sees himself as ” a bridge between these encounters and these unknown stories woven into the fabric of everyday life ».

Finally, Leto William is the winner of the Friends’ prize awarded by the members. He is in his 5th year in the Vannier workshop and expresses in his work the ” feeling of being in the impulse, in the uncontrollable and in the inevitability of reiteration “. Interested in non-communicative forms of language, his work began ” through sound poetry and performance, and increasingly moves towards muted, even silent, sounds through painting, drawing, sculpture and sound installation. ».

Since 2008, the Friends of Beaux-Arts de Paris association has awarded prizes to 3rd and 5th year students selected by a jury made up of professionals from the world of contemporary art. This year, the seven prizes were worth 5,000 euros each. Six were awarded by patrons and the seventh by members of the association, a prize created in 2019. The jury was composed during this edition of Éric Baudart, artist graduated from the Beaux-Arts de Paris, Julien Bouharis, from the Suzanne Tarasieve Gallery, Elisabeth Couturier, journalist and art critic, Pascal Neveux, director of the FRAC Picardie and Émilie Villez, independent curator.

« The Friends of Fine Arts Association distributes prizes which are awarded by patronstells us Catherine Hellier du Verneuil. The selection of artists is done through applications submitted in March by all students who wish to participate. Only 3rd and 5th year students, i.e. those who are preparing a diploma, either the DLAP or the DNSAP, are eligible. ” And to continue: ” Once the files have been submitted, they are put on a drive, so it’s digital. There are five to six people including three members of the École des Beaux-Arts who analyze and study them. Fifty artists are selected for the second level. These are put on another drive and are proposed to the full jury, i.e. the seven patrons in addition to the five members of the jury who are professionals and who change regularly. Fourteen are retained by a scale system. Then, these artists appear before the jury with their file projected on a screen and a free and open discussion takes place. After deliberation, the jurors give their opinion and the patrons decide, based on their sensitivity, to whom they wish to award the prize. We can receive up to 240 files each year ».

« For me the Fine Arts are an island, I have always said that. An island on which we are with art and young artists, who we only ask to discover, for the best », declared Agnès b., the president of the association.