nestar press in collaboration with les Abattoirs de Toulouse and Galerie Pietro Spartà is pleased to announce the publication of Jurassic Pork II by Alain Séchas. Our readers know Alain Séchas because he (as well as being a fine artist) is the official cartoonist here at Afterart News. On the occasion of his recent installation at the Palais de Tokyo -Jurassic Pork II- Philippe Dagen of Le Monde published a review in that paper 10/04/05). Our special correspondant Lupy Chlew responds below.
Alain Séchas (artiste plasticien) and Philippe Dagen (critique d’art) have appreciated each other for a long time. The latter just wrote an article about the former in Le Monde for his exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo. Dagen is not going to praise Séchas, that’s not his style. His subtlety and irony keep him from anything like that. And then critics who write for the daily press have the handicap of being read superficially. Finally he has a reputation for defending painters no one would want to associate with and who, on top of it all, make bad paintings! So Dagen is going to be severe with Séchas, although he’ll consecrate a quarter page in Le Monde to this artist who doesn’t paint! This is what we might call the “Dagen paradox.” As usual he approaches the problem of art starting with Picabia, his gold standard, even if he takes Picabia for a clumsy plagiarist and an inconsequential man, confused and verbose. In good reverse logic, this means that Séchas has succeeded where Picabia failed. When Dagen compares the cartoons of newspaper artists to that of Séchas, he takes care to reproduce meticulously one Séchas’ works to show that these forms of expression have nothing in common.
The critic goes all out when he writes that Faizant deserves to be in museum. Laughs are assured from those who know that for the last forty-five years Faizant has been a political cartoonist for Le Figaro, a mediocre cartoonist who is only interested in minor social events. In 1999, the newspaper reduced the place offered to Faizant and his handwritten captions became practically illegible, aligning them perfectly with the drawings, which had long since become incomprehensible. Without his knowledge, Faizant even became the object of an improbable interest from fans who buy Le Figaro only when there is a drawing by their idol. They wait for the big day, when his most recent drawing will be published. Dagen, knowing this fashion, quickly understood what there was to gain in it. He has long believed in the emergence of a sort of mauvais design à la française. He believes Faizant should be in museums, in large format black and white, in minimalist tapestries, Zen, etc. And there we would no longer be in the land of jokes.
LUPY CHLEW, Paris.
Alain Séchas
Jurassic Pork II
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