Spirou and Fantasio use the most advanced gadgets and cars, while Modeste and Pompon, and Monsieur Choc in his debut in Tif and Tondu, live with chic interior designs from the latest showrooms. After the tragedy and austerity of the Second World War, Jijé (alias Joseph Gillain), mentor to André Franquin and Will (alias Willy Maltaite), followed by Jidehem (alias Jean De Mesmaker) and Maurice Tillieux, understood that it was time to embrace modernity and give their readers new hopes and dreams, many of them American dreams. In our search for the origins of the Atom Style, five forward-thinking geniuses of the “Marcinelle school” of Belgian comics stand out for their defining role. The Atomium in Brussels hosts the exhibition. Now more than ever, we need the playful vision and liberating spirit of the « Atom Style » to help us look back to the futures that might have been, and look ahead to the futures still to come. Suddenly, we are in the 21st century and we are living in the future. Again, with Makassar as his mouthpiece, he decries the boring normalisation of European design of the period and extolls instead the « Atom Style » as « a style that plays with design », « the Contemporary Art Deco of 30 years ago » and « a style - like several others - which from time to time is reanimated for a moment, when fashion needs it ». Swarte clarified his concept still further in 1980 in a fake newspaper article on the title page of his 30 x 40 Futuropolis collection. In a brilliant twist of revisionist history, Makassar even claims that ".the superb ‘Atomium’ monument is named after this style"! The repercussions of this style are in many of the albums published by Dupuis." Makassar insists that "Still today, variations on the Atom Style are being invented", praising the Belgian Ever Meulen and the Spaniard Javier Mariscal, both included here. As evidence, Makassar enthuses : "You can find beautiful examples of Atom Style in Belgium. Swarte used his pompous art historian Anton Makassar to lecture the uncultivated workman Pierre van Genderen about this concept. In a humorous dialogue published in a Dutch magazine in 1977 he first named this movement « Atoomstijl » or « Atom Style ». Swarte was well aware that another comics movement, to which he also belonged, was then harking back to the graphics, designs and decors of the past, and particularly the Fifties, as found in the « Marcinelle School » of Spirou weekly. Earlier that year, the Dutch illustrator had already come up with the phrase « De klare lijn » (The Clear Line) to describe the outlined drawings and rigorous clarity of Hergé and his followers in the « Brussels School » in Tintin weekly. It was not until 1977 that Joost Swarte, the first artist featured here, devised the concept. The « Atom Style » existed back in the Fifties, although it had not yet been given a name. All of them interconnect to form one "live" network which mirrors the concept of this monument. On these walls you can enjoy nine different projections, like the nine spheres of The Atomium, which spotlight seven leading innovators of the «Atom Style» and two selections of further artists. Welcome to a celebration of the exceptional contemporary comic artists who are continuing to make the « Atom Style » such a vibrant artistic movement. While the «Atom Style» is constantly changing, relevant and truly international, its roots lie in the Fifties - in the modernism exemplified by Expo ‘58, the dynamism of Belgium’s comics culture and the era’s spirit of optimism about the future. The exhibition runs from June 5 to September 20, 2009, and is being held at the Atomium at the Square de l’Atomium in Brussels. If you find yourself in, or even near, Belgium this summer you must go and see an exhibition I have curated: In Search Of The Atom Style.
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