Moebius art show, Star Wars Visions

Moebius art show:

From October 12, 2010 through March 13, 2011 the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain presents MOEBIUS-TRANSE-FORME, the first major exhibition in Paris devoted to the work of Jean Giraud, known by his pseudonyms Gir and Mœbius. An icon of incomparable stature in the world of comics, an inventor of extraordinary forms and a brilliant cartoonist, Mœbius is an artist who goes beyond the traditional boundaries of the discipline. Following the artist’s wishes, this exhibition explores the theme of metamorphosis, a leitmotif that runs throughout his comics, drawings, and film projects. In relation to this theme, the exhibition also presents the first 3-D animated film directed by the artist, La Planète encore, along with the stories from the original comic boards. With landscapes and characters in perpetual transformation, his drawings explore the boundaries of the unconscious and reveal an imaginary and fantastic world. Th rough often sudden and disturbing metamorphoses of a character or a setting, Mœbius reveals a world where appearances are not as stable as they may seem.

The gallery's site is a little frustrating, but with patience you can see lots of pages from the beautiful catalog:



And the landing page features an interactive squid monster that I turned into a desktop wallpaper:



Which all reminded me of this - - Mos Eisley by Moebius:



It's part of the Star Wars: Art Visions book that's on sale for 34% off at Amazon.

And proving that Rene and I are still shockingly well-synced, no sooner did I finish drafting this post that I noticed that he linked to a long Wired article on the very same Star Wars book. Wired has several more beautiful images, but here are a few:


Rancor by Arantzazu Martinez.



Young Lando by Alex Bostic.



Exorcism of Darth Vader by Rudy Gutierrez.

Again, here's the Amazon link.

Alejandro Jodorowsky's ‘Dune’: An exhibition of a film of a book that never was

Alejandro Jodorowsky's ‘Dune’: An exhibition of a film of a book that never was is currently on display at The Drawing Room in London:

Alejandro Jodorowsky's ‘Dune’: An exhibition of a film of a book that never was takes as its departure point the cult Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s attempted 1976 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel ‘Dune’.

This exhibition includes production drawings made by Moebius, H.R Giger and Chris Foss alongside commissioned work made in response by three international contemporary artists Steven Claydon, Matthew Day Jackson and Vidya Gastaldon.

Following the release of his mystical Western ‘El Topo’ (1970) and his psychedelic quest movie ‘Holy Mountain’, Jodorowsky embarked on his ‘Dune’ project, gathering around him a group of collaborators that included the French comics artist Moebius, the Swiss artist H.R. Giger (who would later design the 1979 film ‘Alien’), the British sci-fi artist Chris Foss, and the British band Pink Floyd, who would provide the soundtrack. Among Jodorowsky’s proposed cast were Orson Welles, Mick Jagger and Salvador Dali, the last of whom was to play the Emperor of the Universe, who ruled from a golden toilet-cum-throne in the shape of two intertwined dolphins. Unable to secure the money from Hollywood to create the ‘Dune’ of his imagination, Jodorowsky abandoned the film before a single frame was shot. All that survives of this project is Jodorowsky’s extensive notes, and the production drawings of Moebius, Giger and Foss. These reveal a potential future for sci-fi movie making that eschewed the conservative, technology-based approach of American filmmakers in favour of something closer to a metaphysical fever-dream. This was, though, a future that would never take place. In 1977, George Lucas’ ‘Star Wars’ was released, and the history of sci-fi filmmaking, and even mainstream cinema, would never be the same again.

Dune’s themes of jihad, resource war and environmental degradation are especially pertinent to our current political moment and the exhibition also seeks to explore the notion of adaptation and counterfactual histories of film. The exhibition brings together production drawings for ‘Dune,’ alongside new works by Steve Claydon, Matthew Day Jackson and Vidya Gastaldon developed in reaction to Jodorowsky’s notes on ‘Dune’ - an extraordinary mixture of mystical pronouncement, philosophical speculation on the nature of authorship, cultural criticism and ‘70s film world gossip.

Steven Claydon uses a range of media to explore moments in history and draw provocative connotations between contemporary social concerns and obsolete ideologies.

Matthew Day Jackson makes paintings, drawings and sculptures that tackle America’s colonial past and its environmentally rapacious present. Vidya Gastaldon creates sculptures, drawings, video animations and prints which explore the neverland between fantasy and reality in works which are microcosms of hallucinatory, saccharine symbols.

The project is guest-curated by Tom Morton, Curator at The Hayward, London, Co-curator of The British Art Show 7 (2010 -11), and Contributing Editor, frieze magazine.

You can see more images here, here, here, and here.

*Previously: H.R. Giger's ads for Pioneer.

*Buy H.R. Giger books at Amazon.

Alejandro Jodorowsky's ‘Dune’: An exhibition of a film of a book that never was

Alejandro Jodorowsky's ‘Dune’: An exhibition of a film of a book that never was is currently on display at The Drawing Room in London:

Alejandro Jodorowsky's ‘Dune’: An exhibition of a film of a book that never was takes as its departure point the cult Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s attempted 1976 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel ‘Dune’.

This exhibition includes production drawings made by Moebius, H.R Giger and Chris Foss alongside commissioned work made in response by three international contemporary artists Steven Claydon, Matthew Day Jackson and Vidya Gastaldon.

Following the release of his mystical Western ‘El Topo’ (1970) and his psychedelic quest movie ‘Holy Mountain’, Jodorowsky embarked on his ‘Dune’ project, gathering around him a group of collaborators that included the French comics artist Moebius, the Swiss artist H.R. Giger (who would later design the 1979 film ‘Alien’), the British sci-fi artist Chris Foss, and the British band Pink Floyd, who would provide the soundtrack. Among Jodorowsky’s proposed cast were Orson Welles, Mick Jagger and Salvador Dali, the last of whom was to play the Emperor of the Universe, who ruled from a golden toilet-cum-throne in the shape of two intertwined dolphins. Unable to secure the money from Hollywood to create the ‘Dune’ of his imagination, Jodorowsky abandoned the film before a single frame was shot. All that survives of this project is Jodorowsky’s extensive notes, and the production drawings of Moebius, Giger and Foss. These reveal a potential future for sci-fi movie making that eschewed the conservative, technology-based approach of American filmmakers in favour of something closer to a metaphysical fever-dream. This was, though, a future that would never take place. In 1977, George Lucas’ ‘Star Wars’ was released, and the history of sci-fi filmmaking, and even mainstream cinema, would never be the same again.

Dune’s themes of jihad, resource war and environmental degradation are especially pertinent to our current political moment and the exhibition also seeks to explore the notion of adaptation and counterfactual histories of film. The exhibition brings together production drawings for ‘Dune,’ alongside new works by Steve Claydon, Matthew Day Jackson and Vidya Gastaldon developed in reaction to Jodorowsky’s notes on ‘Dune’ - an extraordinary mixture of mystical pronouncement, philosophical speculation on the nature of authorship, cultural criticism and ‘70s film world gossip.

Steven Claydon uses a range of media to explore moments in history and draw provocative connotations between contemporary social concerns and obsolete ideologies.

Matthew Day Jackson makes paintings, drawings and sculptures that tackle America’s colonial past and its environmentally rapacious present. Vidya Gastaldon creates sculptures, drawings, video animations and prints which explore the neverland between fantasy and reality in works which are microcosms of hallucinatory, saccharine symbols.

The project is guest-curated by Tom Morton, Curator at The Hayward, London, Co-curator of The British Art Show 7 (2010 -11), and Contributing Editor, frieze magazine.

You can see more images here, here, here, and here.

*Previously: H.R. Giger's ads for Pioneer.

*Buy H.R. Giger books at Amazon.