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Comic-strip art comes to the Louvre

Louvre ‘Le Louvre invite la bande dessinée’
Hirohiko Araki
Nicolas de Crécy
Eric Liberge
Marc-Antoine Mathieu
Bernar Yslaire

The Louvre, best known for its ancient artefacts and a superb traditional art collection crowned by the Mona Lisa, has daringly opened its doors to comic-strip art.

Although indignantly refuting suggestions from critics that perhaps the world’s most famous museum could be seen as dusty and boring, Curator Fabrice Douar confessed to a secret fascination with the apparent conflict between the Louvre and the alternative, comic universe.

The exhibition, entitled “Small design: the Louvre invites comics”, also invited their artists. For a few lucky visitors on opening day last month, one of those present and revealing the secrets of his trade was Bernar Yslaire. The old lead pencil was replaced by the click of a mouse as Yslaire created his comic strip based at the museum itself, called "The Sky Above the Louvre". As he worked, a tempestuous young revolutionary came to life with broad shoulders, unmanageable curly hair and piercing jet-black eyes. Yslaire’s story, a video projection in sepia, takes place in 1793, when the painter David is ordered by the French revolutionary government to create a portrait of Maximilien Robespierre for the newly inaugurated Louvre.

Sponsored by the comic strip publisher Futuropolis, the exhibition also features such famous characters as Astérix, Obélix and Tintin. Four further cartoon stories are set at the museum: "Glacial Period" by Nicolas de Crecy, "Rohan at the Louvre" by Hirohiko Araki, "Odd Hours" by Éric Liberge and "The Basement of the Louvre" by Marc-Antoine Mathieu. The design of the exhibition keeps the narrative link between the individual plates by cleverly placing complete sequences within the same frame. So Mathieu’s series of fourteen Indian ink plates becomes a dramatic set of three.

This exhibition took place in 2009

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