Catherine Meurisse. L’Humour au sérieux

Catherine Meurisse (*1980) is one of the best-known contemporary French illustrators. She is the author of several graphic novels, has created comic reports, drawn caricatures and illustrated children's books. Since 2020, she has been the first female comic artist to join the painting section of the French Academy of Fine Arts. The comprehensive retrospective of the Cartoonmuseum Basel will show original drawings from all the works of the multi-award-winning artist for the first time in the German-speaking world. An adaptation of the Basel exhibition will be shown at the International Comic Salon Erlangen.

Whether she explores serious and philosophical themes, makes subtle observations with poetic imagery or shows deep emotions - with Catherine Meurisse everything is woven through with humour. With this key, she is able to explore her contents and to open the hearts of her readers. She first studied contemporary literature in Poitiers for a few semesters before switching to illustration at the National School of Graphic Arts Estienne and later at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. Already during her studies, she made illustrations for newspapers and magazines and illustrated children's books. Catherine Meurisse published in countless newspapers and magazines, including "Libération", "L'Obs" and "Revue XXI". In 2005, she was the first woman to join the editorial team of the renowned satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo". For ten years, she drew classic cartoons and caricatures on current events, but also longer comic reports and was jointly responsible for the expressive covers.

In 2015, she narrowly escaped the assassination at the editorial office, which killed twelve people. Since then, she has been looking for other themes and images in the beauty of nature and the arts. Two graphic novels with autobiographical features were created: "La Légèreté" and "Les Grands Espaces". "La Légèreté" touchingly describes how she fights her way back into life through loss and grief. In "Weites Land" she describes her happy upbringing on her parents' farm. She combines her stylised figures, inked with dynamic strokes, with flatly painted or more realistic, colourfully drawn backgrounds. Both books are peppered with allusions to literature and art and celebrate the power of culture.

In 2014, the comedy "Olympia" appeared, combining paintings and objects from the collection of the Musée d'Orsay with a lusty cheeky story from the world of painting, dance and early film. With "Delacroix", Catherine Meurisse succeeded in 2019 in creating a magnificent graphic realisation of Alexandre Dumas' memories of Eugène Delacroix. As part of an artist-in-residence programme in Kyoto, she created her book "The Young Woman and the Sea", which tells the story of her two trips to Japan. In it, she deals with her perception of the Japanese landscape, nature and way of life, which change when the island is hit by Typhoon Hagibis.