PAINTING & PASSION: PABLO, THE GRAPHIC NOVEL
Always thought genius were pure minds, floating in the ethereal air of creation? Then SelfMadeHero’s Art Masters graphic novel series is for you: it brings to life the greatest artists, more human than you ever thought.
Rivalries, doubt, sex and love: this is the life of Pablo Picasso during his early years in Paris, as we discover it in the second opus of SelfMadeHero’s Art Masters graphic novel series: Pablo. Picasso was definitely not a solitary man. We see him among his friends and rivals Matisse and Max Jacob but most of all we follow his love story with Fernande Olivier, his muse and lover for ten years. Actually, this is one of the great strengths of this book: Julie Birmant, the writer, decided to tell the story from Fernande’s point of view. And this dynamic woman is far from blind: she sees both the genius and the weakness of her lover – and points them out to us.
The book is also absolutely worth it for the amazing drawing of Clément Oubrerie, famous for his Aya graphic novels. Clever enough to not try to copy the artist, Clément Oubrerie is however brilliant enough to recreate his atmosphere and let us feel the diverse influences in which his talent grew. Don’t trust us? Hear what The Guardian said: “Every frame is full of colour; every speech bubble crackles with life. You can almost smell the tobacco, the fish soup, the turpentine.”
Now you want to read the book, right? Well, good news for you: the graphic novel will be coming out in the UK on the 23th of April, and the French Institute has the book on display at the Médiathèque this week already. But that’s not all. Julie Birmant and Clément Oubrerie came all the way from France to talk about their amazing book, and trust me, they have a lot to say. They will be at the French Institute on Wednesday 15th of April, in conversion with the great Paul Gravett, co-curator of the British Library’s Comics Unmasked exhibition. This will be a unique experience to discover the behind the scene of the graphic novel, and it’s free!
To book your ticket, see here.
Plus, you can still try to win of copy by taking part in the French Institute’s Facebook & Twitter competition “Book of the Week”!