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Algerian Guerrilla War II: Les Portes de fer – The Iron Gates of Subjugation
Pictorial Reports from the Algerian Guerrilla War II After a series of devastating defeats against the insurgent Arab militias led by Abd el-Kader, the French tried to gain valuable time through the Treaty of Tafna to consolidate their military. The agreement, concluded in May 1837, granted Abd el- Kader sovereignty over the largest part of […]
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Retraite De Constantine / Prise De Constantine
“Retraite de Constantine” was one of the most widespread examples of Auguste Raffet´s series of annual lithography albums. It was published in spring of 1837 by Gilhaut Freres and gives an account of the first failed attempts at conquering the Algerian fortress. The ignominious retreat of the French army in November 1836 was mainly blamed […]
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Crashes and Collapses (Masters of Faits Divers – Painting I)
In 1863 a new kind of journalism with particular emphasis on sensational news stories, the so called faits divers, was introduced to the French press landscape by the foundation of the daily “Le Petit Journal”. It´s editor M.P. Millaud had coined the much quoted phrase “dare to be stupid”. In the 1890s this leading French […]
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Alexandre Cabanel – Die Tradition der Biestigkeit (Ausstellungsbesprechung)
Not translated: Cabanel, der Name klingt nach Parfüm und wird auch so beworben. Immerhin hat der Maler dahinter den Modezaren Christian Lacroix angelockt, der nun wiederum Besucher ins Kölner Wallraf-Richartz- Museum locken soll. Lacroix hat man dort nicht nur die Möglichkeit eingeräumt, sein künstlerisches Idol in Kachtelteppich und saucige Fototapete einzukleiden sondern auch noch zum […]
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Robert Weaver VI: Book Illustrations
“Weaver established the idea of the draughtsman being an equal to the writer of the text. He should have had a great influence on the world of text and image publishing, but for the most part, art directors and editors did not demand the kind of picture-writing that Weaver had in mind. In fact, few […]
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Cham, the “popular” Caricaturist [
Daumier Again. The following survey by David Kunzle contrasts Daumier’s career with that of the then much more popular Amédée de Noé, who was known under his penname Cham. He was ten years younger and a disciple of Daumier’s role model, the tragically underrated Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet, who was banned by Baudelaire from the pantheon of […]
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Recommended by Susan Turcot: Lili Rethi, organismic topographer (1894 -1971)
Much more than her precursor Joseph Pennell, young Viennese artist Lili Rethi was able to transform static architectural sites into energetic, vibrant organisms. The illustrations of the German version of Upton Sinclair´s Letters to Judd, an American Workingman (Briefe an einen Arbeiter, Leipzig- Wien 1932) already revealed her specific talent to praise the processes and […]
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Illustration & Avantgarde (MePri-News 18/5/08 – 4/6/10)
18/5/08 Annabelle Görgen: Antihaltung mit System: Die Arts Incohérents. Eine vergessene Kunst und die Folgen. MePri-Lecture #14 Das surrealistische Verfahren der poetischen Zündung, die Methode der Kombinatorik, und der häufig sprachspielerische und schwarze Humor erhalten durch die Erforschung einer wenig bekannten Pariser Künstlergruppe des späten 19. Jahrhunderts einen neuen historischen Hintergrund: Die Arts incohérents waren […]
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Robert Weaver V: Industrial Scenes II
The image of “Fortune” was deeply connected with a specific artistic American tradition of Social Realism. The Magazine was founded in 1939, in the era of the Great Depression and an art director like Leo Lionni, who was resonsible for the appearence of the magazine from 1940 on,updated this specific ethos by engaging illustrators like […]
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Ronald Searle, Fugitive
Among the many voices that paid homage to the ninty-years old cartoonist Ronald Searle, the one of film director Mike Leigh protrudes. In an essay published by Daily Telegraph Leigh, who is noted for his experimental methods of achieving realism in film, explains, how a book of cartoons, given to him at the age of […]