Tintin-Inspired Paintings Go to Court, Hidden Self-Portrait Resurfaces, LGBTQ+ Exhibit Closed in Turkey, and More: Morning Links for July 19, 2024

July 19, 2024

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THE HEADLINES

PEEKABOO. A self-portrait of the coal miner artist Norman Cornish has been rediscovered on the reverse of one of his crowded pub scenes, reports The Art Newspaper. The hidden picture features a grimy young man with tousled hair. Cornish, born in 1919 in county Durham, UK, was described as “the last of the pitman painters” when he died in 2014, although by then he had long since become sufficiently famous and prosperous to leave the mines, work full time as an artist, and be awarded an MBE. The undated self-portrait features on the back of the obviously later Bar Scene, on loan from the Durham County Council collection to an exhibition opening this week at the Bowes Museum, County Durham. It was discovered during conservation work at the museum. It had never been shown to the public before.

TEN THOUSAND THUNDERING TYPHOONS. Tintin is the hero of a series of 24 comic albums created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, aka Hergé. Artist Xavier Marabout (b. 1967) has landed himself in legal trouble after painting the character hitting on a pin-up girl, reading a gay magazine, transporting a chick in a garter belt on his motorcycle, not to mention other unexpected scenarios. Almost 40 of his acrylic paintings were taken to court by the Tintinimaginatio company, which manages the commercial exploitation of Hergé’s work, and condemned as counterfeits by the Rennes Court of Appeal. Marabout is known for mixing cultural references, from cartoon characters to the subjects of great masters. In one of his compositions, for instance, Tex Avery’s libidinous Wolf meets naked women painted in the style of Picasso.

THE DIGEST

Specialist Laetitia Guillotin has joined the Artnet Auctions Prints and Multiples department. Based in London, she is considered “perfectly poised to grow the department’s profile and outreach in Europe”. One of the current projects Guillotin has contributed to is the “Premier Prints and Multiples: Summer Edition” sale, now live for bidding through July 25, 2024, as well as “Premier Prints: Private Sales”, live through August 8, 2024. [Artnet]

Turkish authorities have banned an exhibition exploring the art and history of the country’s transgender community. The move comes as the government intensifies a crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community. Depo Istanbul, a non-profit space that was established by the now-imprisoned philanthropist Osman Kavala, was forced by the police to take down “Turn and See Back: Revisiting Trans Revolutions in Turkey”. Officers delivered a notice from a district governor that alleged the show incited the public to hatred, according to organisers. [The Art Newspaper]

On the occasion of their parallel solo exhibitions on view at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, husband-and-wife artists Julia Chiang and KAWS have interviewed each other. In terms of art, KAWS and Julia Chiang have almost nothing to do with one another. KAWS makes a range of multimedia work, from pint-size toys to monumental sculptures, inspired by comic books, Pop art history, and streetwear culture. Chiang creates intricate ceramics and paintings of organic forms and overlapping pools of color. However both shared an attention to detail and an affection for bright hues, among other things… [CULTURED]

The Los Angeles Times gives a taste of the “Glimpses of the Joshua Tree Dream”, the brainchild of Lisa Schyck, who said her goal was to “capture the private worlds of the high desert creative community.” With photography by Bill Leigh Brewer and essays by Katie Nartonis, the freshly released self-published book “mixes grit and polish as it bounces from Joshua Tree to Yucca Valley to Morongo Valley”. [Los Angeles Times]

THE KICKER

DEEP DIVE. How are artists turning the ocean into a subject of creation? That is the question raised in Le Quotidien de l’Art’s last issue before its annual one-month break. In November 2023, President Emmanuel Macron stated that 2025 would be the year of the sea. In addition to the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, next year’s Heritage Days will be dedicated to maritime issues, and the Fête de la Science will focus on the oceans. As for artists and curators, they have long been working on this issue. In France, a cultural history of the sea and oceans, also known as “blue art history” in reference to the Anglo-Saxon blue humanities, is shaping up. “Art is a way of rethinking knowledge about the oceans and marine life, whether scientific, popular, indigenous or mythical. All of this without prioritizing or relativizing scientific knowledge,” said art historian Juliette Bessette. [Le Quotidien de l’Art]