Marcel Bascoulard
Dessinateur, clochard, traversti, Marcel Bascoulard left singular and multiple images. Unreachable. Unclassifiable. From his simple living mind, today beautiful tramp.
A puzzle for such psychoanalyst, an equal of Rembrandt for such art critic. Every time he surprises, he fascinates.
His drawings were appreciated for their faithful and meticulous representation of reality. Because they looked like photos, they made their local reputation. His self-portraits showing him dressed as a woman were shameful; They have made his international reputation.
Talented designer, voluntarily cloned, traversti « by aesthetic taste », Bascoulard died in 1978 as he lived, on a misunderstanding, murdered in a vague land where he had elected home and where the culprits thought they could steal from him the millions he had boasted of owning...
He was 65 years old and the city that thought it knew him, doubtless embarrassed to have been able to protect him when she knew he was threatened, offered him a funeral above the rank she had given him. She agreed in return for the absolution with a tribute paid in the walls of her House of Culture... Before scattering at the four winds the gossip on this unscenting and disturbing bougre while putting in his drawers and boxes the drawings and photos of the artist.
Bascoulard had the gift, apart from drawing, of attracting incomprehension as a limille magnet and of repelling opportunities for success such as the tide the waters of a river.
Bascoulard in the steps of Utrillo in Montmartre...The track, now erased, was actually traced in the 1930s. Among other things, it crossed Rue de l'Abreuvoir and Rue Becquerel.
In Bourges, his bronze bust adorns the small, discreet square that bears his name. The ambiguity that separates them, he and the city, is not lifted. Whatever. Bascoulard no longer belongs to Bourges, It is universal.
Patrick Martinat
St Stephen's Cathedral from the Archdiocese Garden – May 1936
94 x 73 cm
Oil on canvas
Work from a private collection
Artist: Marcel Bascoulard
Between shadow and light...
Bascoulard, cartoonist, poet, designer, transvestite... Clochard, is a multiple artist with a complex, enigmatic personality. His guingo silhouette marked the imagination of several generations of Berruyers or passers-by who crossed the streets of Bourges, when he was drawing at a corner or pushing an unlikely three-wheeled machine.
His ink technique from China is meticulously fascinating, his practice of gouache and chalk for his works in color is remarkable, his sense of perspective which gives his drawings a subjugated relief, his art places this artist alongside the Dutch engravers masters of the 17th century.
Landscaper by taste, he invites us to enter into his drawings that he chooses to exempt from the slightest human presence by installing ourselves on paths that will be lost to distant horizons as many sails ready to rise on our own imagination. Our absolute quest.
Born in 1913, Marcel Bascoulard died murdered by a thug in Bourges in 1978. A gifted and early designer, he became, thanks to his most meticulous graphic art, a witness to the transformations of the city around the 1960s, coupled with a renowned landscaper. His choices of life will impose his guingo silhouette at the point of indelible indelible in Chinese shadow in the walls of Bourges.
Strongly disturbed by the murder of his father by his mother when he was 19, he will become accustomed to photographing himself dressed as a woman. His eccentric behavior will make him look like a simple mind. His drawings, held yesterday for productions of little value, are now considered major works of graphic art.
In 2017, eight students from different classes at the Jean Mermoz de Bourges high school produced a documentary film depicting the life of an emblematic figure in the city of Bourges: Marcel Bascoulard.
Killed in 1978, this man was an outstanding cartoonist, a talented painter, but also a poet and self-taught cartographer. He voluntarily lived a life of marginal, « artist ». He also left a very rich photographic work: there were hundreds of photographs of him dressed as a woman.
Who was he really? How to embrace such a vast work? What about the people who knew him? What remains of Bascoulard today? All these questions have guided the writing, production and editing of this ambitious film.
Names of participating students: Samantha Masure – Oceane Sénéchal – Fatimata Dabo – Anaël Lozach – Matthis Dumas – Paul Bonnichon – Alexandre Pinsard – Orianna Brugier.
Teacher: Pierre Trigona (Lettres-Histoire), Jessy Bligant (Lettres-Histoire), Joël Philippeau (Lettres-English).
Artist: Hervé Bezet (Director).
Duration: 52
© Lycée Jean Mermoz de Bourges / CICLIC – 2017
