Figuration narrative

The Paris-based Pop Art movement La Figuration Narrative (which overlaps with and is hard to distinguish from the similarly-named grouping La Nouvelle Figuration) had fallen into obscurity until recently, when it has been the subject of several books—notably La Figuration narrative by Gérald Gassiot-Talabot (2003) and La Figuration narrative by Jean-Louis Pradel (2008)—and a major exhibition at the Grand Palais in 2008, Figuration narrative—Paris, 1960-1972, with an accompanying catalogue of the same title.

Bernard Rancillac (French, 1931- )

Untitled composition

Lithograph, 1964

Hervé Télémaque (Haitian, 1937- )

Untitled composition

Lithograph, 1964

Hervé Télémaque

Untitled composition

Lithograph, 1979

Hervé Télémaque

L'énigme

Lithograph, 1982

Key figures incude René Bertholo, Peter Klasen, Bernard Rancillac, and Hervé Télémaque. Following on from my previous post, all the lithographs in this post dated 1967 come from issue 6 of Situationist Times. But as I have other works by Bertholo and Télémaque, and also by artists who did not contribute to Situationist Times, such as Gilles Aillaud, Valerio Adami, Jacques Monory, and Bernard Rancillac, I will include some of those to give a wider picture of this fascinating but still little-known art movement, founded in reaction to abstraction, and in parallel with Pop Art.

Samuel Buri (Swiss, 1935- )

Untitled composition

Lithograph, 1967

Klaus Geissler (German, 1933-c.1980)

Plus Value

Lithograph, 1967

Peter Klasen (German, 1935- )

Untitled composition

Lithograph, 1967

The exhibition which launched Figuration Narrative as a movement was Mythologies quotidiennes (Everyday mythologies) organized by the artists Bernard Rancillac and Hervé Télémaque and the critics Gérald Gassiot-Talabot and Marie-Claude Dane, which opened at the Musée d'art modern de la Ville de Paris in July 1964. An exhibition with the title Figuration Narrative was held the following year at the Galerie Greuze, and the French Pop Art era can be held to have finally come to an end with the exhibition Mythologies quotidiennes 2 in 1977.

René Bertholo (Portuguese, 1935-2005)

Untitled composition

Lithograph, 1964

René Bertholo

Voyage sur l'Intrépide

Lithograph, 1967

Lourdes Castro (Portuguese, 1930- )

Untitled composition (Ombre)

Lithograph, 1967

Jan Voss (German, 1936- )

Untitled composition

Lithograph, 1967

One notable grouping within the movement is the artists behind the journal and art movement KWY. Led by husband-and-wife René Bertholo and Lourdes Castro, this group also included Christo (not, so far as I'm aware, associated with Figuration Narrative) and Jan Voss.

Giles Aillaud (French, 1928-2005)

Lion (Salicorne)

Lithograph, 1972

All of the artists in this post exhibited in the original Mythologies quotidiennes exhibition. Major exhibitors of whose work I have no examples include Eduardo Arroyo, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Jean Tinguely.

Valerio Adami (Italian, 1935- )

Telephone

Lithograph, 1970

Jacques Monory (French, 1934- )

Adieu ma jolie

Lithograph, 1982

Not every critic thought the artists of La Figuration Narrative had much to say. Robert Hughes was scathing in The Observer (18 October 1964, helpfully reprinted 17 October 2010), lambasting the artists for their "supine lack of originality". "All the young French painters contrived to bring to the raucous, deadpan face of pop was a cosmetician's chic," he wrote. Delightfully acerbic as he is, I think that Robert Hughes, immediately confronted by the similarities between Figuration Narrative and American Pop, failed to take proper account of the differences, most notably the political engagement of many of these artists. Their idea of Everyday Mythologies was far from the fetishising of brand names and comic strips that occupied the Americans; it was a true exploration of the stories that lie hidden beneath the surface of our daily experience.