What will tomorrow bring? French artist Blutch has turned the comic upside down in terms of drawing and content, and opened doors to the unknown. 

Blutch was born Christian Hincker in 1967 in Strasbourg, where he studied art at École supérieure des arts décoratifs. He is seen as one of the most important and masterful artists behind the new French comic. His oeuvre, which is hugely diverse both thematically and in terms of form, revolves around the quick expressive drawing, complemented by subtle freestyle painting. In his often experimental works, this artist repeatedly crosses over into abstraction or leaves it up to the reader to fill in the gaps by means of free association, as seen in his early work ‘Péplum’. His stories play with all genres, be it science fiction, mystery, western, drama or comedy. In 1988, his first short strips appeared in the magazine ‘Fluide Glacial’. In 1998, he surprised readers with ‘Le petit Christian’, a collection of cheerful short autobiographical strips that bring to life his childhood in Alsace during the 1970s. His countless black-and-white albums were followed by the colourful and puzzling ‘Vitesse moderne’ in 2002. Blutch has worked for numerous publishers and in a wide variety of collaborations. He has illustrated books, designed posters for filmmaker Alain Resnais and the Banlieues Bleues jazz festival, and drawn for ‘Libération’, ‘The New Yorker’ and ‘Les Inrockuptibles’. Blutch won the Grand Prix de la Ville d’Angoulême in 2009, the most important European award in comics.

The retrospective at Cartoonmuseum Basel brings together originals from his early albums, as well as paintings, portraits, illustrations, poster designs and original drawings from his latest album ‘La mer à boire’.

Press conference: 9.11.2023, 11am
Opening: 10.11.2023, 6.30pm
Curator: Anette Gehrig