French Robots
Posted on May 6, 2009 | Posted under Sharing
Update: Fred Blanchard in the comments has informed me that these are most likely inspired by the work of Roman Cieslewicz. The artist for the first image is Jean-Luc Moreau.
These two images are lucky finds while browsing through the March 1982 issue of Omni Magazine. I’m in love with them.
The article unfortunately provided no credits to the artist, only mentioning that they were student work created at a French institution, part of an assignment for graphic design students to reimagine robots in a unique way. Let me know if have info about the artist!
As usual, super-big versions are available on my Flickr account. I’d like to note that my Flickr account just recently hit 2 million views. Totally rad! I love Flickr.
Fred Blanchard May 7th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Don’t know who did those but they’re obviously inspired by the works of Roman Cieslewicz. Roman was one of the most famous french poster artists from the late 60s to the mid 90s (when he died).
Born in Poland, his technique included o a lot of photomontage…
I had the honor to have him as a teacher at Ecole Superieure d’Art Graphique (ESAG, aka Penninghen) in the mid 80s… i thinnk that’s where the art you’re currently displaying comes from (we all did such images refering to our master’s art).
For more on Roman Cieslewicz, plese follow this link (frecnh text only but a lot of images by RC)
http://paris.blog.lemonde.fr/2007/09/03/hommage-a-roman-cieslewicz-1930-1996/
Hope it’ll help !
: )
B
Kie May 10th, 2009 at 2:31 am
Another great find Eric…
Enlarged and colourised Photocopies the great D.I.Y medium! these both work great, shades of Terry Gilliam/Monty Python….
Eric May 12th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Thanks Fred, it sounds like you may have been in the class the article talks about, Ecole Superieure d’Art Graphique is mentioned in it. I have seen Roman Cieslewicz’ stuff before but never knew the name. I’m not sure if he did these exact pieces either, but they definitely look close. Thanks for the info!
Fred Blanchard May 13th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
You’re welcome Eric !
: )
There are a few boks about roman Cieslewicz but they’re quite hard to find now…
If interested in seeing more of hi sworks, try to find this one on eBay, it pops out from time to time… and it’s in english ! (all the others I own are in french only)
; )
ROMAN CIESLEWICZ – Thames & Hudson 1993
I can also tell you both images you’ve posted above weren’t done by Roman…
; )
BTW, he did one of the best cold war era posters, titled “superman” (aka illustration for the front cover of “Opus international” #4 1968). Try to google it, you won’t be disappointed…
Fred
Fred Blanchard May 22nd, 2009 at 10:04 am
OK, found the name of the student who did the first one (the angel with wires in his hair) in an old ESAG / Penninghen promotional catalog I had in my archives :
Jean-Luc Moreau (He graduated in 1981)
; )
Fred
eric May 31st, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Thanks Fred!
Michel Maidenberg November 21st, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Hi Eric, so funny to find those two images. There are two robots made in the first lesson we had with Roman in september 1980.
I made the second one, the Roboxe.
The inspiration of Roman was very very strong and on purpuse. It was a part of the exercice. Roman said: “Just do it once and forget it”.
Thank you Eric for finding those old images.
All the best,
M:M
Michel Maidenberg
eric February 22nd, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Michel, amazing that you found your artwork here on my blog. Thank you for sharing!