Grapus

Grapus was the most important pioneering French graphic artist collective of the 20th century and existed from 1970 until 1991. The influence of the group can clearly be seen in the French communication design today.

History

The graphic artist collective Grapus was founded in 1970 in response to the student and workers' revolt in May 1968. The protests originated in the anger of the students that the cumbersome, outdated university system could not last longer at a rapidly growing number of students, the level of education. Furthermore, the revolt was a protest against the conservative post-war society under the President Charles de Gaulle. The protests reportedly joined to up to nine million workers.

Up to the student uprisings, the three founders Pierre Bernard, Gérard Paris - Clavel and François Miehe had studied at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris on Atélier Populaire. All three broke her studies there from, Bernard and Paris - Clavel studied for a year at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw in the Polish poster artist Henryk Tomaszewski. With its very own style he coined his two French students strong.

The year 1968 also drove in France a wedge between the local graphic artist; it formed the branch of graphic designers in the field of commercial advertising and the creative branch of those who rebelled against the conventional representation of nature and conceptualized exclusively in terms of culture and politics. After the establishment in 1970, 1974 Jean -Paul Bachollet and 1976 the German Alex Jordan, a master student of Joseph Beuys at the Dusseldorf Art Academy, taken as festivals in the collective. 1978 Miehe Grapus left and returned to the École des Arts Décoratifs back as a professor.

Initial successes achieved with visualization Grapus left visions. They designed cultural and political poster for experimental theater groups, progressive city councils, for the Communist Party PCF, the Communist CGT and educational campaigns and social institutions.

The special feature of the studio was the one the experience of the division of labor, further, that all works are signed with the name of the studio and the third conception of images with social profit. Grapus used to mix politics with pleasure, according to the motto " fun does not cost more money ." Your idealistic goal was to bring the culture to politics and politics to culture, and to encourage people to self- activity. By public stimulating private fantasies lost utopias were recovered.

Many graphical techniques that we take for granted today were used by the Grapus first time. Even in the 1970s they printed photos out of focus, sat against all ways of seeing one manuscripts, taped his own pubic hair in the creative composition, used grease stains and other at first sight impossible things. A very important medium was the poster. Here they effect achieved by the combination of collagen and graffiti and the art of Sehunterbrechungen ( detournement ), that is, a message is redirected by Sehvandalismus. They developed the strategy of paradoxical intervention in public space: they had to recover as a target, with their work, a part of the public space and thus a bit of democracy. Grapus developed a unique visual language, with apparently naive manuscripts of bright, vibrant colors, sensual shapes and spirited sense impressions.

The founder of the group, Pierre Bernard, Gérard Paris - Clavel and François Miehe identified a lack of inhibitions, a poetry of conception and a general distrust of advertising and propaganda techniques. According to Bernard, the viewer is only stirred when the sensation has passed through the filter of personal experience and the inner conviction.

They developed the idea of the graphic with the author. Each brought by the customer order has been questioned. It could happen that a customer wanted a poster Grapus but another medium such as holding a brochure for more meaningful and proposed. The customer relationships were difficult. A certain type of customers came back only once and never again.

In the heyday of the studio worked there more than 20 people. This led later to the fact that was later worked into three separate units. In 15 years, the studio has created many of the familiar graphical icons that time in France. For example, the corporate design for the Secours Populaire, La Villette, or the Louvre. The founders of Grapus were up in the 1980s active members of the PCF, the French Communist Party for which she also designed posters for electoral and other campaigns. The crisis of the collective began about 1987. There was a factional dispute between Bernard, Paris - Clavel, Alex Jordan and Jean -Paul Bachollet. While Paris - Clavel retained the old radicalism and no longer wanted to work for state flagship institutions, Bernard approached in these institutions, such as the Louvre. He was of the view that the graphical communication can also be an instrument of social change, if you work the large state-owned cultural institutions. Alex Jordan and Jean -Paul Bachollet tried in vain to mediate between the two extremes. This is also reflected in the work of the Grapus members after separation. While Paris - Clavels work became increasingly radical, is Bernard's work began to approach more like those of a large, international design offices. His long-term interns brought international influences with their home countries. Since the late 1980s, in contrast to Gerard Paris - Clavel and Alex Jordan - a strong Dutch influence in the design and typography of Pierre Bernard to detect.

Splitting of the group

• Gérard Paris - Clavel founded 1989/1990 together with Vincent Perrottet the group Les Associés Graphistes ( LGA), where he was active until 1992. He designed many posters with a strong political reference. 1989/1990, he founded the association also with other Ne Pas Plier.
• Pierre Bernard founded in 1990 with Focke Draier and Dirk de Création Graphique Behage the Atélier (ACG ).
• Alex Jordan in 1990 founded together with Ronit Meirovitz and Anette Lenz, the group Nous travaillons ensemble ( NDE ).