2000 Figaro Magazine of September 23, 2000
Figaro Magazine of September 23 2000 n°17455, pages 154 and 155, "Loustal,: Simenon has the trace" ( "Loustal: Simenon a la trace")
Advertisement, comic strip, illustration of novels and sleeves of disks, jacques of Loustal imposed itself by an atmosphere made of permanence and mystery of the Simenon in painting.
Loustal
Simenon to the trace by Sebastian Lapaque
Paris,
the shop of Jacques of Loustal is installed a channel very close to. It is
enough to declare the drawer predestined to become attached to the universe
of Georges Simenon. Grants his work, one finds other signs annonciateurs of his
meeting with the novelist to the four hundred books. Himself underlines some
of it.
-
I always felt greatly the atmospheres of Simenon. Jaime well the way of
which he/it describes his/its characters, the ambiance grants which yews
evolve. Their solitude touches me a
lot.
He/it advances a proof of the seniority of his passion besides
-
I passed my architect's diploma with one memory on "The landscape of
the channel." II was there question of to perception of the channel in
literature, notably at Georges Simenon.
Two
universes made to meet
A
long time Loustal was surrounded by Simenon. That one thinks of these
details stolen on the outskirts of his shop: a taciturn sinner strap on his
cigarette, of the ducks shivering on the green water, a towpath above of
which slips a Flemish sky. A decor moved away of those that assured the
renown of Loustal, too elegant not to make himself of it the caricatures:
The clouds, Loustal often represented them fluffy and white, as the plumes
of steam that escape of the chimney of the ships. his first work of
illustration dedicated to Simenon concerned a southern novel logically: Touriste
de bananes (Vertige Graphic, 1998). The moving history of the
installation been lacking in Tahiti of a young man who dreamed of one
heedless life on the sides of a lagoon.
So Loustal is satisfied with this first confrontation with the writer's
universe, he underlines that she was belated. Ten years before, the persons
responsible of the Futuropolis editions - Gallimard, for that Tardi worked
on Céline, had already proposed him to illustrate a work of his choice. II
had thought about two books of Simenon: le Coup de lune, a novel of
1933 taking place in Africa, and Quartier nègre, published in 1935
and situated at Panama. To the time, the father of Maigret was even living.
Knowing it very attentive to the transfer of his rights, Loustal had sent
him a set of preparatory drawings. No agreement of publishers had can be
concluded yet. It is Under the cold light, of Pierre Mac Orlan, that had
finally benefitted from his pictures.
Some years later, his meeting with Marc Simenon, the novelist's eldest son,
and Mylène Demongeot, his wife, offered him the opportunity to forget this
unsuccessful appointment. To the editions Dizziness Graphic, that suggested
him to illustrate At the heart of darkness, of Joseph Conrad - -« un
livre trop métaphysique, trop sérieux »-, the drawer proposed the
edition illustrated of a Simenon.
- To the time, I thought in a group of a transposition drawn. This work
on Tourist of bananas allowed me of fair a first reading in depth of a
Simenon, with one or two drawings by chapter, to see what it gave I realized
that Simenon was difficult to adopt drawn in a group.
Artist to the infinite grants, inventor in a recognizable manner between
all, dedicated by his illustrations for the press and the advertisement, his
paintings, his posters, his sleeves of disks, Loustal comes back to the book
as the migratory bird to his nest.
- It is my universe, I always bathed in a literary environment.
To 44 years, this illustrator traveler, who published his first drawings at
the end of the years 70 in Rock & Folk and howling Metal, can flatter
itself dune advantageous bibliography. II made itself a name in the big
world of the comic French while working with Philippe Paringaux, Tito Topin,
Jean-Luc Fromental, Jérôme Charyn.
II
illustrates Mac Orlan and Coatalem
Of
Italy, of Morocco, of Israel, of Mexico, of Argentina, of the japon, of
Greece, of the United States, of China, he/it returned three Notebooks) of
journeys (Doorstep, 1997-1999). The illustration of novels and complete news
the agreement perfects that it wished to achieve always between text and
picture. Besides novels of Pierre Mac Orlan and Georges Simenon, he
illustrated les Contes de la forêt vierge and les Lettres
d'un chasseur, of Quiroga Horacio (Doorstep-Métailié, 1998 and 2000),
without forgetting 50 000 dinars, a news of Jean-Luc Coatalem (to
Report, 1995), that must him the cover of three of his books and of which
he/it gets ready to transpose another news in a group drawn.
Maigret,
it is the pipe, the hat, the raincoat,
When he/it was proposed him to illustrate two news putting in stage
commissioner Maigret for the collection Omnibus, Loustal hesitated.
- Too many incarnations to the television, to the movies. I didn't want
to make especially of Maigret a stereotyped hero, as in some comic strips.
Wanting to feel "the eternal enjoyment of the constraint" loved by
Baudelaire probably, he/it ends up being interested in these unexpected
texts, left immersed from the Simenon iceberg: the most obstinate Customer
of the world and One doesn't kill the poor types. Composed in 1946 by a
Simenon exiled in America, these narrations filled of characters attacked by
the doubt called the nonchalant art of Loustal. II achieved for each of them
about fifteen drawings in black and white, to the feather, heightened to the
pencil.
- For Maigret, I was content with a silhouette: the pipe, the raincoat,
the hat.
Loustal? The style.
«
Carnets » Omnibus, 108 p., 60 F.
En
librairie le 28 septembre 2000.
