Martin Vaughn-James
From 8 March to 26 May 2007
Since the mid-1980s, Martin Vaughn-James has devoted himself mainly to painting, and exhibits regularly in France, Belgium and Germany, showing works in which he expresses his narrative preoccupations in other ways. A long-time collaborator of François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters, Martin Vaughn-James played the role of the painter Augustin Desombres in their albums 'L'Enfant penchée' and 'L'Affaire Desombres'.
It seemed logical then that an exhibition devoted to Martin Vaughn-James, which brings together a large number of his paintings and drawings, should be held now at the Maison Autrique. The artist, in his choice of works, has given priority to those linked to Brussels, his adopted home, and particularly to the Palais de Justice.
Martin Vaughn-James
Martin Vaughn-James was born in 1943 in Bristol, United Kingdom. After living in London, Montreal, Toronto and Paris, he made his home in Brussels. In the 1970s he worked with a number of writers and published many drawings in French and Belgian reviews and magazines, including Minuit, Obliques, La Nouvelle Critique, Libération, Jungle, 25, etc. In Canada he published four graphic novels: 'Elephant' (1970), 'The Projector' (1971), 'The Park' (1972), and 'The Cage' (1975).
'La Cage' and 'L'Enquêteur' were published in French by Impressions Nouvelles and received a lot of attention. Of 'The Cage', Thierry Groensteen wrote: "If the graphic novel is a genre, then Vaughn-James is a master of it, just as Töpffer was in his time for the comic strip, and it will be hard to find his equal." It is therefore not surprising that all his original plates and notebooks for this book were bought by the Comic Strip Museum in Angoulême.
Since the mid-1980s, Martin Vaughn-James has devoted himself mainly to painting, and exhibits regularly in France, Belgium and Germany, showing works in which he expresses his narrative preoccupations in other ways. A long-time collaborator of François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters, Martin Vaughn-James played the role of the painter Augustin Desombres in their albums 'L'Enfant penchée' and 'L'Affaire Desombres'.
The book
Click and zoom
« Dans cet hôtel, il doit y avoir plusieurs centaines de chambres. Entre le hall et celle que j’occupe, j’ai compté pas moins de vingt-cinq portes. Mais ce nombre est variable, tantôt supérieur, tantôt inférieur. Sans parler de tous ces escaliers et de tous ces couloirs dont on ne voit jamais le bout. Qu’importe, une vingtaine de chambres noires suffisent amplement à les noyer dans le doute et à m’accorder un sursis, une chance de plonger à terre et d’ouvrir le feu le premier. »
En attendant ses démons pour le règlement de compte final, le narrateur échappe à ses cauchemars en s’immergeant dans des fragments de séries noires imaginaires.
Coinciding with this exhibition, Martin Vaughn-James's first graphic novel for many years, Chambres noires, will be published in March by Impressions Nouvelles.
Collection Traverses (17 cm x 24 cm - 128 pages - Les Impressions Nouvelles
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version FR
NL versie