andre francois: straying from the cliches

Andre Francois’ art was deeply political; that was part of his seriousness. But when he made political drawings, they were, ironically enough, not good politics. They are good as humor, great as drawings, but are not sufficiently respectful of the political aims envisioned to constitute a real call to the colours.

Politically, effective drawings probably must not deviate from the cliches. If they do, they immediately cease, as the saying goes, “to communicate.” Francis was incapable of producing a cliche. To him the cliches have only one kind of existence: as a part of people’s clumsy, clambering, shambling life here on earth. As such, they come to life and are the stuff of his humor.

---Andre Francois. click image for source...

—Andre Francois. click image for source…

One of the big multinational oil companies once asked Francois to make a poster for them displaying their famous oil can in some conspicuous but organic way. The poster was of two people lying in a bed, three corners of which were supported by bricks. The fourth corner was supported by the famous and familiar oil can. What more can one say about Francois and the cliche?

Andre Francois. click image for source...

Andre Francois. click image for source…

The word “cartoon” has always seemed a peculiarly unsuitable one for drawings as those of Francois and of other artists of his time such as Richard Searle and Saul Steinberg. A cartoon, as every informed reader knows, is the full-scale drawing through which a painter’s mural designs are transferred to the wall. The present sense of the word was established some time during the reign of Queen Victoria when the magazine Punch jestingly entered a competition for mural decorations for the houses of Parliament. Punch had always referred to its casual pictorial lampoonings as “pencilings,” but it now adopted the word cartoon, which of course has become universal.

Andre Francois. click image for source...

Andre Francois. click image for source…

An older name for pictorial lampoons and broadsides was the “mad designe.” This is the word that belongs. It fits and ought to be revived, though its chances are slim to doubtful. If anything describes the work of Andre Francois, it is “mad designe.”

---Le musée Tomi Ungerer propose en ce moment un parcours à travers les œuvres André François, Robert Gernhardt, Maurice Henry, Françoise Hollenstein, Ronald Searle, F. K. Waechter et Robert Weaver. Conférence sur André François---click image for source...

—Le musée Tomi Ungerer propose en ce moment un parcours à travers les œuvres André François, Robert Gernhardt, Maurice Henry, Françoise Hollenstein, Ronald Searle, F. K. Waechter et Robert Weaver. Conférence sur André François—click image for source…

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