Exhibition in Photos: Dominique Corbasson: Paris-Londres-New York

Dominique Corbasson: Paris-Londres-New York. Huberty & Breyne Gallery. Brussels. March 13-April 18, 2020.

Over the next month, the Huberty & Breyne Gallery is hosting a selling exhibition that doubles as a retrospective of the work of French painter and illustrator Dominique Corbasson, who passed away too soon on 21 February 2018.  Though Corbasson illustrated children's books and even produced her own comic, her international recognition was earned by her uniquely stylized and idealized cityscapes that were often illustrated on paper using pencils or acrylics.

The poster image for the Corbasson retrospective.

The basic exhibition information that immediately greets visitors upon entering the gallery.

The selection of cityscapes for this exhibition were organized across three separate but contiguous rooms within the gallery, with each room displaying the drawings and paintings associated with an assigned city. 

Upon entry into the gallery, the exhibition kicks off immediately with the New York pieces.

On display to the immediate right of the gallery entrance is this New York Quadtych: (starting top left, clockwise) Noon, Morning, Afternoon, Evening.

The New York pieces at the entryway of the gallery

432 Park Avenue

Guggenheim I, III, IV

NYC (left) and Fog in New York, displayed

The largest space located in the center of the gallery was reserved for a nice selection of Corbasson's drawings and paintings on Paris, which arguably represent her most recognizable work. As a native Parisian, Corbasson was familiar enough with these iconic locations that they were typically drawn from the perspective that she saw while riding around the city on her bicycle.

The back wall of the Paris room

From top left, clockwise: Esplanade du Louvre; Tenon-Gambetta, Le Carousel, and La Maison Rose.

Rue des Perhamps (left) and Pont des Arts sur le Louvre

The front and right walls of the Paris room

Place des Vosges (left) and La coulée vert

The arrangement of Paris drawings and paintings on the right wall of the Paris room.

The arrangement of Paris drawings and paintings on the front wall of the Paris room.

The left and front walls of the Paris room.

The arrangement of Paris drawings and paintings on the left wall of the Paris room.

Moving forward from the Paris room opens out towards the back of the gallery where the London pieces are arranged and displayed.

Sunny Winter (left) and Savile Row

The passage to the London room as seen from the frontier of the Paris Room.

The front and right walls of the London Room.

These six pieces are acrylic paintings on a wood base.

These six pieces are acrylic paintings on a wood base.

The British Museum

The final London piece: Charing Cross

The gift shop area (which is located between the New York space and the Paris room) offered signed and numbered seriegraphs and exhibition catalogs for sale. Huberty & Breyne Gallery published their own exhibition catalog, limited to 400 copies, which reproduces all of the pieces on display.

The gift shop area at Huberty & Breyne Gallery.

The exhibition catalog (left) and a complete collection of all of Corbasson's Paris work, originally published in 2016.

The exhibition does a nice job of presenting Corbasson's cityscapes in a fashion that accentuates their individual qualities when they are presented in a cumulative collected fashion. Her expressive use of color coupled with the weight of her crayon lines and brushstrokes really help each piece stand out against the wide open and white walls of the gallery. With spring around the corner, Corbasson's colorful evocations of these idealized cities provide a pleasant distraction from the realities of the city with an effortless simplicity that compliments her legacy. 

The press communique for the show, as well as all of the works on display for Paris-Londres-New York are available for closer inspection at the website of the Huberty & Breyne Gallery.

-Nick Nguyen

All photos taken by Nick Nguyen

  

March 13-22 House of Cheach exhibit in Singapore

IJOCA contributor Lim Cheng Tju has curated an exhibit of Singapore cartoonist Cheah's The House of Lim comic strip.

House of Cheah

Curated by Lim Cheng Tju | Exhibition design by Studio Juju

EXHIBITION

  https://www.theartshouse.sg/whats-on/house-of-cheah

13 - 22 MAR 2020
10AM - 10PM

vip room

FREE

Get to meet Cheah:
14 Mar, Sat, 5pm-6pm
15 Mar, Sun, 2pm-3pm
21 Mar, Sat, 6pm-7pm

VIP Room (next to Blue Room)

Comic artist Cheah Sin Ann or Cheah as he is professionally known, started Singapore's first English language daily cartoon strip, The House of Lim, which ran in the Straits Times from the late 80s till the mid 90s. Since then he has also published several comic books and graphic novels. Come view the best of his work over the years as his studio is recreated in this unique installation.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMIC ART 21-2 is out

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMIC ART
Vol. 21, No. 2 Fall/Winter 2019
Editor's Notes
John A. Lent
1
Encrumbed by the Signifying Monkey: Con Men, Cackling Clowns, and the Exigencies of Desire in the Comics of Robert Crumb
Andrew Perry
4
Initial Investigation of Political Cartoons and Illustrations in the Anti-Extradition Bill Protest in Hong Kong
Justin, Chiu-tat Wong
47
War, Romance, and Everyday Life in Beirut's Emerging Alt-Comix Scene
Jonathan Guyer
74
Invisible, Unseeing, Alienated: Mexico and William S. Burroughs in Bernardo Fernandez's Uncle Bill
Ryan Prout
91
Underground Cartoonists Exhibit in the Soviet Union, 1990
Gilbert Shelton
115
Italian Underground, The Secret Life of ltalian Comics, 1968-1978
Simone Castaldi
123
The Intrigue Surrounding China's Ink Wash Painting Animation
John A. Lent and Xu Ying
149
Patriarchal Ideology in Kenya's Editorial Cartoons: A Cultural Studies Approach
Joseph N. Nyanoti
169

Out the Window: Illustrating the Realities of Alzheimer's in Paco Roca's Arrugas

Janis Be Breckenridge

Devyani Gupta
178
I'm Blackety Black Y'all: Conventions of the Superhero in the CW's "Black Lightning"
Haley Hulan
202
The Geek Culture in the Urban Environment: The Comics' Characters in Cranio's Graffiti
Joiio Batista Freitas Cordosa
Evandro Gabriel Izidoro Merli
Lucas Scavone
221
Portraying Social Issues: A Heuristic Study of Contemporary Cartoons in India
Mrinal Chatterjee
234
Becoming a Man: The Allure of Muscular Masculinity in Manga by Ikki Kajiwara
Noboru Tomonari
243
Generative Comics: Introduction and Analysis
Malik Nairat and Palle Dahlstedt
268
"Ao Correr da Pena"--"With a Stroke of the Pen" Drawing Vila Franca De Xira and Its People
Marlene Pohle
295
Commentary
I Have Much To Tell You: Reflections on Cartoonists Zapiro and Khalid Albaih
Louise C. Larsen
315
An Interview with M. Thomas Inge
Brian Baynes
331
My Father, Mi Gu, A Masterful Cartoonist
Zhu Yaozhou
Translated by Xu Ying
354
Japan's Country Image: Perceptions of Filipino Early Generations and Anime University Student-Viewers
Joanna Luisa B. Obispo
370
The Skull and the Elephant: The Significance of The Punisher in American Political Eras
Cord Scott
397
Remembrances
13 Major Blows to the World of Comic Art
John A. Lent
411
The Printed Word
John A. Lent
440
Book Reviews
Carlotta Vacchelli
Radmila Stetlcova
John A. Lent
Catherine E. Corder
Stephen Connor
John A. Lent
Xu Ying
444
Exhibition and Media Reviews
Edited by Mike Rhode
468
Exhibition Reviews
Mike Rhode
Mike Rhode
Carli Spina
473
Correction
496
Portfolio
497

ANIMA: The Brussels Animation Film Festival 2020

The annual Brussels Animation Film Festival, officially known as ANIMA, takes place this year over the last two weekends of February, timed perfectly with the Carnival school holidays. Offering a wide range of national and international all-ages programming, ANIMA will screen 300 films over 10 days at the Flagey Cultural Centre and the Palace movie theatre. The festival also devotes a bulk of its resources to engaging with young children through interactive installations, exhibitions and animation workshops. This appeal toward pre-school and elementary school kids is telegraphed by the poster for this year’s festival which features a cameo by Petit Poilu, the popular character of a BD series of pantomime comics drawn by Belgian cartoonist Pierre Bailly.

The poster for ANIMA 2020 by Pierre Bailly. Petit Poilu is the character in the left-center of the seated audience with the black face and red nose.

The opening event for ANIMA 2020 was the screening of L’extraordinaire voyage de Marona, which had debuted at several animation festivals at the end of 2019 but was now making its Belgian premiere.

The most striking aspect of the film from a comics perspective is the aesthetic of the animation itself. Belgian comics artist Brecht Evens served as the graphic consultant for the film, responsible for establishing the visual style and character design. Both Brecht Evens and director Anca Damian were present at the opening event to present their collaboration.

Director Anca Damian (centre) and Brecht Evens (right) at the ANIMA kickoff event. Photo by Nick Nguyen.

Director Anca Damian (right) and Brecht Evens (centre) at the ANIMA kickoff event. Photo by Nick Nguyen.

Brecht Evens spoke about how he was brought on board the project via the persistence of director Anca Damian, who sought him out immediately after reading his comics to insist that his vision was exactly what she was looking for to portray the world of the film as seen through the eyes of a puppy. With his usual charm and humour, Evens humbly clarified his role in merely establishing the visual library for the film, and gave full credit to the film’s animators for the labour in making that vision come to life. The trailer for the film (presented below with English subtitles) offers a glimpse into how these animators did justice to the Evens style.

 L’extraordinaire voyage de Marona marks Brecht Evens’ first foray into the world of animation, and he follows in the wake of other fellow Euro comics cartoonists making their inroads into feature-length animated films (Emile Bravo and Lorenzo Mattotti, among others, come to mind). Here’s hoping that films like Marona reach a wider audience so that more unique visions and styles from the comics world can be expressed through audiovisual images.

Nick Nguyen

Exhibitions of the 47th Angoulème International Comics Festival: Gunnm L'ange mécanique

The exhibition space on the main floor of the Espace Franquin served as the home to another exhibition devoted to manga, though here the focus was on a singular creation rather than an entire range of work. Gunnm, l'ange mécanique [Gunnm, the mechanical angel] paid homage to Yukito Kishiro's popular cyberpunk series (known to North American readers as Battle Angel Alita) that was originally serialized in Japan from 1990 to 1995, and which was one of the first wave of manga to be translated into French in 1998. To support this exhibition, the Festival pulled out all stops: showcasing 150 pages of original artwork from the series for the first time outside of Japan, as well as bringing in Yukito Kishiro himself for a masterclass and an international encounter with Enki Bilal. 

Inside the darkened L-shaped exhibition room, the pages of original artwork were displayed on the walls as well as on flat and angular tables, and all are individually illuminated by ceiling spotlights. Near the entrance, visitors are drawn toward a video screen that features clips of individual interviews with Kishiro, directors James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez and producer Jon Landau talking about Gunnm the manga and its adaptation into the feature film ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (2019).

The exhibition organized the collection of original artwork into five separate sections that guided visitors through Kishiro's major graphic and thematic preoccupations that distinguished the series and elevated it (and by extension, its author) to stratospheric popularity. 

1. Le corps (the body). As the heroine of the series is an android named Gally, Kishiro places significant visual and thematic emphasis on the body as a site of permanent construction and destruction. Pages in this section are arranged to incrementally spotlight scenes of dismemberment, disconnection and repair to underline Kishiro's indulgence with the organo-mechanic body.

2. L'icone Gally (Gally the icon)

Gally's identity as an android provided Kishiro with the freedom to explore other the ways that duality is literally inscribed upon her body: human/android; hard wiring/free will; warrior/pacifist; violent/tender; and bounty hunter/prey. These dialectics consistently highlight the tension within Gally between the mechanical and the human in her search for her own humanity, with a visual character design that helps elevate her beyond being a simple character toward iconic status.

3. Un monde d'absolu (A world of absolutes)

The action in GUNNM takes place in a universe perfectly in tune with a post-Blade Runner aesthetic, where class divisions are expressed by two worlds: Kuzutetso (the lower depths) and Zalem (the upper heights). Pages that represent each of these worlds provided stunning clarity to Kishiro's labour and his vision in mapping out the intricate details that give these environments a sense of place and scope.

 

4. La cinétique (kineticism)

GUNNM is conceived and presented as a grand action spectacle.  Its pages highlight Kishiro's use of speed and sport through Motorball, a violent game within the GUNNM universe. The selected pages allowed for closer viewing to demonstrate the graphic tools that Kishiro uses, such as blur lines, panel and page design to connote velocity and combat.   

5. Les mues de Yukito Kishiro (The reinventions of Yukito Kishiro). The concluding section presents an evolution of Yukito Kishiro's graphism due to his discoveries of new tools (from airbrushing to digital art) and of new international comics (especially American comics).

This is a solid exhibition with a distinct aesthetic for its presentation (black walls and frames with ceiling spotlights as light sources; thematic sections individuated with color coded captions). The text and captions are to-the-point and provide sufficient commentary for visitors to appreciate what makes this series connect with its readers. Fans of the series will devour the opportunity to see so many original pages that confirm Kishiro's mastery, while neophytes such as myself will leave with a greater appreciation of the series and its place within both Japanese and French comics history.

Nick Nguyen

All photos taken by Nick Nguyen   

Exhibitions of the 47th Angoulème International Comics Festival: La bande d'Antoine Marchalot dessinée

Upstairs on the top floor of Angoulème's l'Alpha Mediathèque is an officially designated exhibition room where visitors would logically expect to find, based on the Festival maps and orientation literature, the exhibit about the comics of French cartoonist Antoine Marchalot .

"Yeah, well this here is also an exhibition room, eh"

This was not at all the case as the exhibition was actually installed outside of that room - which was closed to the public during the festival - along the four available walls that surrounded the staircase leading up to the top floor. 

 

It is unclear whether this choice was a result of political, logistic, scheduling, administrative or financial constraints (last year's exhibition on Jeremie Moreau was held in this same space), or a deliberate attempt to evoke a sense of absurdity that is characteristic of the work of Antoine Marchalot. It is totally feasible and appropriate if the answer is the latter since Marcholat himself is the author of this exhibition and he grasped the opportunity to make a meta-joke about the situation. In other words, he doesn't take things too seriously, and that also applies to himself and the presentation of his own work.

Even the title of the exhibition is compromised by Marchalot's sense of absurdity, functioning as both a visual and literary pun in French that subtly shifts meaning of the sentence due to the placement of his name in the sentence. One expects it to be say "Bienvenue dans la bande dessinée d'Antoine Marchalot" [Welcome to the comics of Antoine Marchalot] but what it actually says is "Bienvenue dans la bande d'Antoine Marchalot dessinée!" (loosely translated here as the slang is so French-specific to be [Welcome into the drawn version of Antoine Marchalot's hood!]).  

The introductory panel to the exhibition also provides all of the necessary clues to coach visitors to prepare themselves for what they are about to experience. This is a tongue-in-cheek parody of a comics exhibition whose comedy is amplified because it takes the piss out of a typical comics exhibition by presenting itself as one. This sense of absurdity even informs the encouragement to go downstairs to the Walking Dead exhibition first to get an understanding of how comics (and comics exhibitions) work before returning upstairs! 

For example, the presentation of Marchalot's work is not meant to fetishize his original artwork, but to showcase in very broad terms the comedic register that grounds it. The text boxes only provide the title information of each piece and its date of creation. There is no other metadata about the work other than Marchalot's running commentary, which he uses in a self-deprecating, exaggerated and parodic tone to both inflate and take the piss out of his own work.

The framed pages could be read on the wall as well as in their respective published versions from Les Requins Marteaux, which were chained in a deliberately ridiculous manner to their display tables. Whether it was a public action of reading on the wall with other people at the same time or an individual reading of the chained books, many of the visitors that were present while I was there were outright laughing out loud - first at the gag, then at the commentary. 

There are certain points in the exhibition where visitors must certainly begin to pick up on what Marchalot is up to. The photos below offer some of the exhibition highlights where the absurdity is self-evident. No cow is too sacred for Marchalot, especially when it comes to the discourse of comics exhibitions. The absurdity that he associates with the way that comics aesthetics, form and content are currently valorized and discussed presents readymade targets to take down.

Newspaper and magazine covers. Appeared between 1975 and 2019.

Planche de bédé sauvage. Captured on the outskirts of Bretagnolle, Corrèze, 2019

Actual Caption: "The author desperately seeking to leave the underground". 2019.

It's a pity that the exhibition was only installed for the duration of the Festival weekend as this is the kind of exhibit that demands patience for an audience to appreciate. It took me a while to recognize what Marchalot was doing with his work and this exhibition, but once I understood the method to his madness, things all became clearer and hence, much funnier for me.

Nick Nguyen

All photos taken by Nick Nguyen