Gébé's biting pen at the BNF François-Mitterrand

The drawing enthusiast will always prefer the original to the reproduction. With their eyes glued to the walls of museums or galleries, they like to spot pencil strokes left untouched by the eraser, spot lapses of thought, and appreciate variations in inking. None of this is possible at the retrospective that the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF) François-Mitterrand is dedicating to Gébé (1929-2004) until October 19, but the aesthete will not deny himself the pleasure.

Devoid of any original pieces (the allocated space, the Allée Julien-Cain, open to the public, does not meet the standards for the protection of works), the exhibition, on the other hand, highlights the purely functional dimension of drawing adapted to newspapers: its ability to make people laugh, to shake things up or to send "a punch in the face" to the reader, as François Cavanna (1923-2014) said, of whom Gébé was a faithful companion.

You have 83.35% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.