Posted on Leave a comment

Francois Boisrond (1959)

Schermafbeelding 2019-10-17 om 16.46.40

The lesser known artist for us in the Netherlands is Francois Boisrond. The Groninger Museum has some works in its collection, but according to my information this is the only public collection with works by Boisrond, but for the french he is very well known. also with a highly recognizable style he made himself a name in the FIGURATION LIBRE.

Inspired by comics his works developed in a period of 15 years in a complete other direction. His paintings lost their spontaneity and were much more painted in the classical tradition. Still Boisrond is important for Modern Art and the catalogues that www.ftn-books.com has now available show the quality of Boisrond his earliest works.

Posted on Leave a comment

Hervé Di Rosa (1959)

Schermafbeelding 2019-10-16 om 14.18.15

Di Rosa is the artist from the LIBERATION LIBRE group who arguably has been influenced the most by the original comic art from the previous French decades in comics. He even published some comics on his own. A bit like Raymond Pettibon also publishes his own comics. In an interview he tells the following to the interviewer:

“The great names in comics have affected me every bit as much as the great painters I love.” Growing up in the 1960s, relatively isolated in Sète on the French Mediterranean coast, Hervé Di Rosa got his culture fix from reproductions of fine art in books and from comics. “I saw no difference between them in scale or validity.” Starting to exhibit his art in 1980, Di Rosa with his brother Richard and Robert Combas drew on their passions for both art and pop culture to pioneer the radical French ‘Figuration Libre’ movement in the 1980s. Unlike most earlier Pop artists, who were not necessarily raised on comics, Di Rosa explains, “I don’t cite comics in a superficial way, I incorporate their techniques into my work.”

Personally i think the works by Di Rosa are too much like comics. I prefer the Combas works with the heavy outlines around his subjects , making his works stand out and recognized instantly. Still the Groninger Museum liked Di Rosa his works so much that they devoted a nice exhibition on Di Roda and published ” LES AVENTURES DE HERVE ET RICHARD ” in 1986. This and other Di Rosa publications are available at www.ftn-books.com

 

Posted on Leave a comment

Jacques Tardi (1946)

Schermafbeelding 2019-09-01 om 09.47.25

One of the iconic creators of great (french) comics is undoubtedly Jacques Tardi. Tardi managed to find the balance between classic comics/BD ( Bandes dessinee), graphic novel and Art. His series on Adele Blanc-Sec are among the very best in comic art from the last half century, but beside the series of ordinary BD’s he produced some great adaptations of “classic” french literature. Tardi successfully adapted novels by controversial writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline and crime novelist Léo Malet. In Malet’s case, Tardi adapted his detective hero Nestor Burma into a series of critically acclaimed graphic novels, though he also wrote and drew original stories of his own.

Schermafbeelding 2019-09-01 om 09.48.26

With a style of comic art, highly recognizable and very much a style of his own, Tardi crossed the border into the world of art and his pages of comics are now sold in galeries all over the world. www.ftn-books.com has some very nice Tardi publications available.

Posted on Leave a comment

Loustal….the crossover between comics and art.

From the early eighties on i a am an admirer of the french comic book artist…. Jacques de Loustal, better known as Loustal. He invented a comic book art form which is based on illustrations in which a complete scene/story is drawn within one drawing and with these illustrations he tells a complete story and challenges your imagination. Now his books are published all over the world. In the Netherlands they are mainly published by Oog & Blik, but in his early days his books and prints were almost all published in his native country France. One of the books that really stands out is WHAT HE EXPECTED OF HER. an adult view on marriage and relations. A highly recommended title of this fascinating artist. Available at www.ftn-books.com

 

wilfried

d