POP Goes the World

14 x 11", acrylic on gessoed mounted aluminium panel

painting #267, 2018

Frederic Tuten (b.1936) is an American novelist, writer, art and film critic. Tuten was a friend of both Hergé and Roy Lichtenstein. He has published several essays on the work of Lichtenstein as well as catalogues of other artists such as Eric Fischl. With the permission of Hergé, Tuten took Tintin and plunged him into a coming of age adventure, this time going to Machu Picchu with Captain Haddock and Snowy. The narrative follows Tintin as he meets and falls in love with Clavdia Chauchat, which for the first time in his life will awaken and arouse sexual desires. During this process, a metamorphoses occurs as he shed his physical image of a boy-man. This dream-like escapade with political overtones included four characters taken from Thomas Mann’s 1924 novel, “The Magic Mountain”, of which Clavdia Chauchat is among the cast. Prior to this novel, Tintin had always retain the image of being asexual throughout the comic book series

The novel, “Tintin in the New World” was published in 1993, a decade after the passing of Hergé. However, chapters of Tintin in the New World had first appeared in it's entire form in Fiction (1975), Tri-quarterly (1975),  Syntaxis (1984), Artform (1984) and De Brakke Hond (1984). It is perhaps Tuten's best known and most critically acclaimed work. It has been translated into six languages and has gone through several print runs. I had a chance to read the novel during a recent vacation and am in agreement with several critiques I've read on-line which were mixed. Tuten will be publishing a memoir, My Young Life, slated to arrive in bookstores in March 2019.

Roy Lichtenstein had previously done artwork for a book cover of Tuten’s 1971 novel, The Adventures of Mao on the Long March. The artwork that appears on the cover of Tintin in the New World was especially done for the novel in 1993 and is entitled “Tintin Reading”. I only discovered the existence of the Tuten/Lichtenstein collaboration this past August by happenstance. 

I had acquired the collectible figure of Tintin reading in the big red armchair two years ago upon visiting the Tintin Boutique in Brussels, Belgium. "Coffret at home" was inspired from the pages of the graphic novel “L’oreille cassée" (The Broken Ear), published in 1937, page 10 and 11. Tintin was originally holding a book entitled “Voyages aux Amériques” by Ch. J. Walker, Graveau éditeur, 1875. I decided to play with the narrative and have Tintin read his own adventure in Tuten's novel instead.

In the beginning of the novel, it is revealed that Tintin is an art collector and is amassing a collection which includes Danse by Henri Matisse which appears in the artwork. 

Capitain Haddock: "What about your art collecting? Have you given that up, too? All those unopened crates of paintings you've left unexamined: that Matisse you spent ages to acquire- that one with all those naked dancing people- still in its shipping case."

 Photographed during a visit at the MOMA, NYC, Dec. 2015

Lichtenstein had previously drawn inspiration from Matisse's masterwork when in 1973, he incorporated The Dance in a very large scale painting entitled, Artist's Studio- The Dance.

Artist's studio - The Dance, 1973

magna, oil on canvas, 243.8 x 325.1 cm

collection of the MOMA, NYC

Sculptor Seward Johnson is another artist whom was inspired by Matisse's The Dance and created multi-pieces 3-dimension bronze sculptures that included Matisse himself painting on a canvas and models. 

Seward Johnson
photographed during a trip to Key West, Florida

March 2011. 

This painting marks the first time that I have use the camera from my iPod Touch to do the photo study for the painting.

  

Trivia- Lichtenstein's Tintin Reading was also used for a retrospective of his work held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Montreal in 1994.

This is my second of two paintings that will exhibited at Art Toronto with La Galerie de Bellefeuille of Montreal. The exhibition will be held from October 26 to 29, 2018 at Metro Toronto Convention Centre, North Building, 255 Front Street West, Toronto.
-SOLD

Le Chemin

Acrylic on gessoed mounted birch panel, 7 x 5"

painting #263, 2018

I've just return from a one month stay in Europe. My main goal was to return on the Camino and complete the Puy Way in France that my wife and I had started last year. In 2017, we hiked 270 km from Puy en Velay to Figeac over 10 days. My wife would suffer a knee injury and we were forced to stop here.

This year, I flew to Paris alone and did some sightseeing for three days before catching a train for Figeac. I had planned 19 days to complete the 480 km trek from Figeac to the French-Spanish border town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. By day-4, I would encounter my own problem by accumulating 12 blisters on my feet. After a week on the Camino, I decided to stop in Moissac for the weekend to give my sad feet a break. I would resume my hike for another week. The two days off and having to arrive one day ahead of schedule because of an on-going train strike, would force me to leave the Camino on day-16 since Aire-sur-L'Adour was the last town I had access to public transportation. In summary, I hiked a total of 335 km over 14 days plus 2 days of rest. I was very fortunate to have so many wonderful encounters and made many new friends during the whole trip. 

I took full advantage of my time in Europe by spending three days each in Paris, Bordeaux, London, Dublin, Ireland /Belfast, Northern Ireland. I visited in excess of 30 museums, galleries, venues and countless churches which included: 

• The Louis Vuitton Foundation, L'Orangerie, le Musée D'Orsay, Musée Rodin, Panthéon, les Invalides all in Paris. 
• Le Musée-des-Beaux-Arts, Cité du Vin in Bordeaux. 
• The Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Portrait Museum, the National Gallery, the British Museum, the Tate Modern, the Tate Britain, the Saatchi Gallery, the Chelsea Flower Show - all in London.  
• The National Gallery, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Guinness Storehouse all in Dublin.
• The Titanic Belfast. 

This small painting was a gift to my friend Philippe and his wife Dora (an amazing classical pianist) who graciously invited me to stay with them during my three night stay in Paris. I met Philippe nine years ago while hiking the 800 km of the Camino Francés in Spain. We've kept in touch ever since. It was great to see him and meet his family. Last year, he completed both the ultra-endurance races of the Marathon des Sables in Morrocco in the spring and the Marathon des Sables in Peru in the fall. This composition features a Tintin figuring of Cigars of the Pharaoh resting on Le Pèlerin de Compostelle (The Pilgrimage) by Paulo Coelho. The book was published in 1987, a year before his runaway best seller, The Alchemist. The image is infused with symbolism that represents Philippe very well, not only for his athletic abilities but for his humanity as well. 

Private collection - Paris, France. 

Et Hergé créa Tintin

Acrylic on gessoed mounted aluminium panel, 14 x 11''

painting #257, 2017

This painting was inspired after viewing the exhibition, Hergé à Québec held at le Musée de la Civilisation in Québec City in late September. Last year we had planned to visit le Musée Hergé in Louvain-la-Neuve, 32 km outside of Brussels but our bus tour was cancelled at the last minute when my wife and I were they only ones who had booked on that day. Everything happens for a reason, so if we can't go to the museum.....let the museum come to us. 

This travelling exhibition was organized by le Musée Hergé. After stops in Paris, London and Geneva, the city of Québec was honoured and excited to host the show for a five month stint. Hergé à Québec was seen by 420,593 visitors, breaking the record for the most ticket sold in the museum's 30 year history. 

Hergé meets Andy Warhol in NYC, 1972

The exhibition explores the world of Georges Rémi, the talented Belgian born artist known as Hergé who created Tintin and other comic strips. Among the show's treasures was of a selection of valuable documents and artefacts of his life, original drawings, storyboards, 3D-models, illustration art from his early artistic career, a selection of his own private art collection and a mural of books of The Adventures of Tintin translated in 70 languages.

Mural of The Adventures of Tintin books

Model of the Rocket featured in two books

In this composition the museum plan and exhibition leaflets were the jump off points that ignited the narrative. A wonderful picture of Hergé by Belgian photographer Robert Kayaert (1920-2007) graced the covers of both.  The small figurines of Tintin and Milou (Snowy) were eBay purchases I had acquired a few years ago who were waiting in the wings, while a set of pencils were purchased at the Museum Gift Shop upon exiting the exhibition, unsuspecting that they would soon appear in a painting. The background imagery is from the book, Musée Hergé with preparatory drawings and final illustration for Tintin in Tibet. The book was a Christmas gift from my wife two years ago purchased that same fall at le Salon du Livre in Shippagan, NB (Book Fair). 

Selfie at le Musée de la Civilisation, Québec

The painting will be on display at Galerie de Bellefeuille in Montreal in early December, 2017.

-SOLD

Standing on a Clue

14 x 11", acrylic on gessoed mounted hardboard ( cradle board)

painting #248, 2017 

During the spring of 2016, my wife and I spent two weeks in Europe visiting Belgium, the Netherlands and Oslo Norway. We flew to Brussels where we spent our first 3 days. We were a bit apprehensive about visiting the city just six weeks after the terrorist bombings. Some sections of the airport were still closed off. Things got off to a rocky start. Just four hours after our arrival, my backpack was stolen in the locked luggage room of the lobby of the hotel/ hostel where we were staying . The whole incident was caught on video by the hotel security camera. It was an outside job. The only things I did not lose was wallet, camera, passport and my day itinerary. After filing a police report we had to come to terms with what had happened and move on. We would have to rely on the kindness of others in order to move forward. I have to say the the police officers we met had a lot of empathy and were very sympathetic and kind to us. We spent a whole day just buying the essentials which included a backpack, clothing, battery charger, reprinting documents etc.... We had purchased bus tour tickets in order to visit the Hergé Museum which is located in Louvain-la-Neuve, 32 km from Brussels. The evening before our day trip we received and e-mail from the agency that they were going to have to cancel the trip since we were the only two who had made reservations. To compensate, the agency offered us a complimentary tour of a Belgium chocolate factory. Apart from those incidents, it was an AMAZING trip. We got to visit 32 museums and countless attractions and monuments. 

We did get to visit the Belgian Centre of Comic Strip Art in Brussels. The museum is housed in a beautiful 1905 Art Nouveau building that was designed by architect Victor Horta. It originally served as a textile department store. The building was restored and re-opened as a museum in 1989. It mainly pays homage to Belgian, but also Flemish and French comic strip artists such as Hergé (Tintin), Jije (Spirou), Edgar D. Jacob (Blake & Mortimer), André Franquin (Spirou), Morris (Lucky Luke), Jean Roba (Boule & Bill) and Peyo (The Smurfs). 

In my composition, the Tintin figuring was purchased at the Tintin Boutique in Brussels. Tintin is a young reporter and adventurer, but is often portrayed playing detective, solving crimes and mysteries. Under the magnifying glass, a finger print appears on the Clue board game.

Le Musée de la Civilisation is Québec City is currently hosting an Hergé exhibition which I am planning to visit next month. The installation closes on October 22, 2017.

Earlier this year I was invited by Galerie de Bellefeuille in Montreal to submit some artwork for a Photorealism group exhibition. I am delighted to announced that two paintings were selected for this prestigious show that will run from September 30 - October 10, 2017. 

Participating artists: 
-Roberto Bernardi
-Jason DeGraaf
-Shaun Downey
-Stephen Fox
-Judy Garfin
-David Ligare
-Yigal Ozeri
-Barbara Pratt
-Juan Pujol
-Alvin Richard
-Janet Rickus
-Glen Semple
-Steve Smulka
-Paula Urzica
-Andrew Valko
-Francine Van Hove
-Jason Walker
-Gordon Young

Galerie de Bellefeuille
1367 avenue Greene
Montreal, Quebec H3Z 2A8
Tel: 514.933.4406

art@debellefeuille.com

http://debellefeuille.com/

-SOLD

Marbles over Tintin

Acrylic on gessoed hardboard, 2011

5 x 7', painting #204

Maybe I should have entitled this painting ''Losing my marbles over Tintin''. I first mentioned Tintin in 2008, when the book, Tintin in Tibet by Hergé appeared in my painting ''Are we there yet?''. I have been a fan of The Adventures of Tintin since elementary school. Having read all of the two dozen comic books which were written and illustrated between 1929 to 1976.  My son Jean-Luc has the entire collection of book and made-for-TV animated series on DVD. Tintin is a globe-trotting, crime solving Belgium journalist/reporter. He is strong for his stature, an agile fighter, car and motorcycle driver, flies planes and an able marksman. He relies greatly on his keen sense of deduction and intuition to save the day. He was created by Georges Rémi under the pen name Hergé. Tintin first appear as a comic strip in a newspaper in Belgium in 1929. The books have been translated in 50 languages and 200 millions copies have been sold. It remains one of the most popular graphic novels in Europe, and in French Canada. 

Tintin and Snowy (Milou) by Hergé

I learned back in 2008 that Steven Spielberg had begun work on the film ''The Adventures of Tintin'' with Peter Jackson as a producer. Spielberg had first acquired the rights to make a film based on Hergé's graphic novel back in 1983. It is rumored that someone made a remark to Spielberg after the release of the first Indiana Jones movie, which reminded him of the Adventures of Tintin. At the time he was not familiar with the Tintin serial and was given the whole comic book series in French. 

The film, The Adventues of Tintin opened in Europe in October and has since grossed in excess of 230 million dollars. Opening on the North American screens to favorable reviews on December 21, the film has amassed 40 million dollars on it's first 10 days. The script for the first installment combines the story lines of three books, The Secret of the Unicorn as the main story plot with exerts of Red Rackham's Treasure (1943) which is it's sequel. Scenes from the earlier The Crab with the Golden Claws (1940-41) is intertwined in the script to introduce the Captain Archibald Haddock character, who would eventually become his best friend and joined him in later escapades. 

The film has already garnered a Satellite and a Golden Globe Award for best animation film. Producer Peter Jackson, whose company, Weta Digital provided the computer animation, intends to direct a sequel.

Realism may be falling at the wayside with Academia and the art world, while the opposite is happening in animated movies. The facial features of the characters do retain a cartoonish flair, but the rest of the visuals are simply mind boggling. The hands of Captain Haddock appears so life-like. The evolution in digital animation is so advanced that it is often indistinguishable from real life.  

Hopefully the film will act as a vehicle to promote the books to a greater audience. Respected film critic Leonard Maltin noted in his review that he was ''completely unfamiliar with Hergé’s popular illustrated stories''. Hoping that this film will change all of this.

For this painting I used the cover image of the hand-drawn animated series on DVD of ''Le secret de la Licorne'' (The Secret of the Unicorn) from which the Spielberg film is based on. Underneath the mason jar glass lid hides the Unicorn, the ship that was once the vessel of Captain Haddock ancestor. 

Tintin Trivia:

-The very successful 1980's British band, The Thompson Twins was named after the latter characters.
- Tintin lives at 26 Labrador Street, Brussels, Belgium.   

''Tintin is myself. He reflects the best and brightest in me; he is my successful double. I am not a hero. But like all 15 year-old boys, I dreamt of being one..... and I have never stopped dreaming. Tintin has accomplished many things on my behalf.''

-Georges Rémi (Hergé)

Exhibited at Handworks Gallery

12 King Street, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, E2L 1G2

-SOLD

Are we there yet?

Acrylic polymer emulsion on gessoed hardboard, 14 x 20"

Created January 15 - February 24, 2008, #142.

This is my first figure painting in four years. I have to admit that it was somewhat of a struggle. I usually paint hard surfaces and inanimate objects. Here, I'm dealing with fabrics and flesh tones. The faces became tedious to the extreme. I'd thought that I might never get them right. It turned out to be a grand exercise of patience. At 5 weeks, it's time to call it a wrap.

Featured in this slice of life with my son Jean-Luc are his two other cousins on my wife side of the family. Isabelle lives in the province of Québec while Céline lives in northern New Brunswick. Gabrielle, the model in "La Balançoire" is Isabelle's sister. The photo study for this painting was taken 3 summers ago, when they were 12, 10 & 7. They have grown so much since then. They always get to spend a week together during the summer vacations.

The graphic novel that Jean-Luc is holding is from the serial The Adventures of Tintin. Tintin is a globe-trotting, crime solving Belgium journalist/reporter. He was created by Georges Rémi under the pen name Hergé. It first appear as a comic strip in a Belgium newspaper in 1929. The series of graphic novels have been translated in 50 languages and 200 millions copies have been sold. The series is very popular especially in Europe and French speaking Canada. I am not certain about its popularity in the rest of the North American continent. This volume is entitled "Tintin au Tibet".

---------

-This painting was selected in the juried FCA show at the Kamloops Historical Courthouse Centre for the Arts, 7 Seymour St. Kamloops, BC, April 18-27, 2008

- Included in my solo show at Handworks Gallery - Oct 16-30, 2009

-SOLD