Abdallah Benanteur is one of the greatest Algerian painters of his generation. He uses a variety of techniques: oil on canvas, watercolor, gouache, drawing, and wash painting. Passionate about illuminated manuscripts and Muslim poetry, Benanteur also produced around a hundred illustrated books.
After studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Oran, he moved to Paris in 1953 with the painter and engraver Mohammed Khadda. Attending evening classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, he gradually embraced non-figuration, abandoning still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits for luminous landscapes. Some critics describe his style as non-figurative impressionism, although at times a barely perceptible soul pierces the canvas, as in "Ermite," 1994, oil on canvas, 114 x 146 cm.
Marc Hérissé describes Benanteur's painting as "an iridescent, variegated, ethereal palette, vibrant with transparencies, within a sure, masterful, poetic, and virile gesture. The ray of light, whether sunny or stormy, draws you beyond the very limits of the painting. Faced with these quivers of light, the memory of Turner takes hold of you. It's another world, yet it's the same magic."
In France and abroad, Abdallah Benanteur participated in numerous group exhibitions. In 1957, he held his first solo exhibition, "Benanteur, Peintures," at the Cimaise Gallery. In 1970, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris presented a retrospective of his engraved work. He recently exhibited at the Arab World Institute in 2019 during two group exhibitions on drawings from the Arab world entitled: "With pen, brush, pencil: drawings from the Arab world" and in 2020 for the collection "Portrait of the Bird-Who-Does-Not-Exist". In 2021, he was the subject of a retrospective at the Angoulême Museum (MAAM) on the occasion of the Francophone film festival paying tribute to his native country, Algeria.
Some group exhibitions: 2011 “Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art”, Mathaf, The Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar 2012 “50 Years of Algerian Art”, National Museum of Fine Arts, Algiers 2012 “Crossed Horizons”: 18 contemporary artists from the Maghreb, 34th International Cultural Moussem and Galerie du Centre Hassan II, Assilah 2014 “Portrait of the Bird-That-Does-Not-Exist”, Musée de l’Hospice Saint-Roc, Issoudun 2017 “Around the World in a Tondo”, Musée de l’Hospice Saint-Roch, Issoudun 2018 “Algeria for Memory”, testimonies around The Question 1958-2018, Algerian Cultural Center, Paris 2019 “With Pen, Brush, Pencil: Drawings from the Arab World”, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris 2020 “Artists of the Algerian Brotherhood, 1963-2020 » Algerian Cultural Center, Paris 2020 “Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s”, Collection of the The Barjeel Art Foundation, New York University Gray Art Gallery