Gnarled teenagers, bourgeois little intellectuals, couples washed out of fatigue and falsely cool parents, Claire Bretécher's anti-heroes have lost their creator. The illustrator, author of cartoons and comics has died, Tuesday, February 11, announced Dargaud editions and the newspaper L'Obs, which published its most famous characters, "Les Frustrés" and "Agrippine".
Claire Bretécher received recognition from her peers in 1982, with the Grand Prix d'Angoulême for all of her work, even before experiencing success with her character "Agrippine", whose last album was released in 2009. Six years later, his work was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Public Information Library of the Beaubourg Center, in Paris. "It's easier to draw women, and I don't know how to maneuver men," she replied, when asked if she was a feminist. No lesson giver, no theorist, Claire Bretécher observed above all.
Born in Nantes on April 17, 1940, Claire Bretécher made her professional debut in the Franco-Belgian youth press of the 1960s, then drew "Cellulite" in the journal Pilote. She co-founded L'Écho des savanes in 1972. It was in Le Nouvel Observateur that Claire Bretécher found a large audience, beyond comic book readers, with the series of gags entitled "Les Frustrés", that author then publishes in self-published albums. In 1982, she received the special grand prize at the Angoulême festival, one of only three women to receive this distinction in the very masculine universe of comics.
To read - Harassment in the world of comics: "We were a precursor of #MeToo"
Populated by fragile characters, in sham rebellion with the world, the universe invented by Claire Bretécher is then singularly spicy for the left bourgeoisie. "Claire Bretécher will impose a style, a tone, an offbeat look of a total originality. Detached observer (really very detached) of her time, she crunches through them with immense self-mockery", write the editions Dargaud in a published press release this Tuesday, February 11. "To the point that in 1976, Roland Barthes will say that she is the 'sociologist of the year'. [...] Her humor and her freedom of spirit were immense, they will be missed by all her readers, we miss her already."
She continues to be the ironic sociologist of the urban upper middle classes by devoting albums to maternity, medicine, tourism. Then comes the success of "Agrippine", a teenage character created in 1988, who concentrates the flaws of a high school student in a wealthy and Parisian family.
In 2006, Claire Bretécher ended up selling her catalog to Dargaud editions. In addition to comics, Claire Bretécher practiced painting, especially portraits of her relatives, in particular her companion Guy Carcassone, professor of constitutional law. These works are assembled in three collections: "Portraits" (Denöel, 1983), "Moments de lassitude" (Hyphen, 1999), "Portraits sentimentaux" (La Martinière, 2004).
The France 24 week summary invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribeDownload the app
google-play-badge_FR