françois berthoud - katzcontemporary

FRANÇOIS BERTHOUD
Essentials
1
NOTES ON BIOGRAPHY
François Berthoud
Born in Switzerland, 1961, lives and works in Zurich.
François Berthoud is known for his fashions illustrations.
Since the mid-eighties, after having worked as an art director for fashion magazines,
FB is mainly engaged in artistic activities.
His high-impact images bring art, fashion and communication together.
FB’s work is very much distinctive because it unites the languages of graphic and painting.
He has published books, made exhibitions and realized special projects
for fashion.
He is a contributor to major magazines worldwide.
2
PUBLICATIONS
Monographs
FRANCOIS BERTHOUD
STUDIO
Museum für Gestaltung Zurich
Hatje Kanz, 2011
SUPERILLUMAN
VISIONAIRE 33 TOUCH
FACSIMILE
BERTHOUD
LINOCUTS
Hazard Edizioni, 2003
Visionaire Publishing, 2000
Edition Dino Simonett, 2000
Text by Holly Brubach
Catalogue Bartsch&Chariau
1997, Text by Anna Piaggi
Catalogue Seed Hall, 1990
3
PUBLICATIONS
Compilations
DRAWING FASHION
EXCESS
DREAMING IN PRINT
UNIFIED MESSAGE
FASHION ILLUSTRATION NOW
Joelle chariau, Colin McDowell
Holly Brubach
PRESTEL, 2011
FASHION AND THE UNDERGROUND IN THE ‘80S
CHARTA, 2004
A DECADE OF VISIONAIRE,
Visionaire Publishing, 2003
Steidl, 2001
Laird Borelli
Thames&Hudson, 2000
ICONS OF FASHION
ADDRESSING THE CENTURY
FASHION IMAGES DE MODE Nº3 ART FASHION
FASHION ILLUSTRATION TODAY
Prestel, 1999
Hayward Gallery, 1998
Lisa Lovatt - Smith
Steidl, 1998
Nicholas Drake
Thames&Hudson, 1987
Volker Zahm
Mondì, 1992
4
EXHIBITIONS
2009/2011
DIE KUNST DER MODEILLUSTRATION
DRAWING FASHION
MUSEUM FUR GESTALTUNG
Zürich
2011 Solo exhibition
DESIGN MUSEUM
London
2011
5
EXHIBITIONS
2009 / 1995
PORTRAITS
SELECTED WORKS
SUPERILLUMAN
EXCESS
INSTITUT FRANÇAIS
Munich
Solo exhibition, 2009
FASHION ILLUSTRATION
GALLERY
London
Solo exhibition, 2007
CCS, CENTRO CULTURALE
SVIZZERO
Milano
Solo exhibition
Fondazione Pitti Immagine
Discovery Stazione Leopolda,
Firenze
Curated by M.L.Frisa and S. Tonchi
VANITY FAIR
INSPIRED BY FASHION
LINE
UNIFIED MESSAGE
DREAMING IN PRINT
TORCH GALLERY
Amsterdam
Richard Avedon, Roxanne Lowit,
Pierre&Gilles, StephaneSednaoui,
GALERIE BARTSCH&CHARIAU
Munich
NEON GALLERY
London
Curated by Lucie Muir and
Christabel Stewart
CAMERAWORK
Berlin
Alexei Hay, François Berthoud,
Paolo Roversi, Mats Gustafson,
Peter Lindbergh, Ruben Toledo
FIT
New York
Visionaire retrospective
GALERIE CRAMER&CRAMER,
Genève
Solo exhibition, 2009
CRÉATEUR D’IMAGES
DE MODE
6
EXHIBITIONS
1995 / 1989
FASHION ILLUSTRATION NOW
X-RAYING FASHION
FASHION ILLUSTRATED
ADDRESSING THE CENTURY
FRANÇOIS BERTHOUD
Mayor Gallery, London
Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milano
Solo exhibition
Casa Brasileria, São Paulo
Solo exhibition
Hayward Gallery, London
Bartsch&Chariau, Munich
Solo exhibition
ART FASHION
MONOTYPES
FASHION ICONS
FRANÇOIS BERTHOUD
CORPUS REI
Munich, New York, Montreal,
Zurich, Geneva, San Diego,
Chicago, Musée de la Mode et
du Costume, Paris
Galerie Martine Gossieaux,
Paris
Solo exhibition
The Ginza Art Space, Tokyo
Solo exhibition
Bartsch&Chariau, Munich
Solo exhibition
FAC, Sierre, CH
Solo exhibition
7
EXHIBITIONS
LINOCUTS
FRANÇOIS BERTHOUD
VANITY
The Seed Hall, Tokyo
Solo exhibition
Galerie Rohwedder, Paris
Solo exhibition
Halle Sud, Genève
François Berthoud, Lorenzo
Mattotti
8
ESSAY
ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM IMAGININGS
By Domenico Luchhini
SUPERILLUMAN
«There is one thing», wrote Walter Benjamin in 1924, «that
ness») to thumb his nose on the one hand at the beauty of
redeems even the most antiquated and biased works of this
an image, and on the other at its truthfulness, at its often
era, and that is illustration».
heart-wrenching nature.
How true this observation remains eighty years later can be
Whatever technique he decides to use, from drawing to
judged from the debate on the relationship between written
linocut, the elements that make up the image – figures,
text and illustration in literature, and between illustration
symbols, abstract signs and colors – are there because of
and photography in the fashion world.
their intrinsic meaning, not aesthetic considerations. Even
Fashion illustration, often thought of as a stand-in for pho-
when Berthoud seems to drawing on a certain tradition
tography, is acquiring a new aura today as it takes advan-
in fashion illustration, he does so in a different spirit from
tage of a crisis in fashion photography, which, because of
the original. It is not a question of copying a model, as in
its reproducibility and serial nature, tends to erode the pre-
antique etchings, but of reinventing and reproposing the
cincts of the imagination and to make its subjects seem too
model. His images are emblematic.
«cold». François Berthoud, after training in Switzerland and
In reality, Berthoud analyzes his subjects (mainly women)
choosing to operate in Milan, had the good fortune to work
with an elegant sense of distance before recreating them in
during a period when the province of illustration, well aware
his studio. He investigates the texture and the underlying
of its dual nature as an artistic as well as commercial enter-
structure of things, seeking to objectivize them.
prise, was enlarging its boundaries.
For Berthoud, though, the proper term may be neo-illustration, as some observers have suggested. Apart from some
incursions into the «rétro» world, fashion today is futureoriented, combining textiles with new technologies, innovative disciplines and other kinds of products. Berthoud, who
started in comic-books, skillfully blends pop art, German
expressionism and conceptual art to infuse his illustrations
with an ultramodern style that is apparently formal and
decorative but actually incisive and analytic as well as ironic
and seductive. The fact is that his work focuses more on
the procedure that goes into a style than on its outcome.
Berthoud has the rare capacity (due in part to his «wicked-
9
ESSAY
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM
IMAGININGS
As Bruno Munari used to say, «we all have a storehouse of
images that form part of our own world – conscious and
unconscious images, remote images from childhood and
images from yesterday – and together with the images are
the emotions they call up». It is in this personal set of images and feelings that the objective ones, the widely-shared
ones, must be sought.
Artists with a personal image of the world have value only
if their visual communication has objective and collective
value.
Through his art and his imagination, François Berthoud
– «montagnard» and obstinate by nature, «immigrant» by
choice of life and sensibility, with his definitely European
influences and his iconic, subversive and metaphoric
language, interpreter of our culture, our time and its anthropological changes, proceeding obsessively but without
overstrained technical perfectionism, shunning all stereotypes, formal or otherwise – gives us a chance to interpret
the visible and the invisible.
The Swiss Cultural Centre is happy to abet and testify to
Berthoud’s creativity by organizing this exhibition – fittingly
titled, like the catalogue, «Superilluman».
10
ESSAY
ALTERED STATES
By Graziano Frediani
SUPERILLUMAN
His is the story of a quest – an alchemical, visionary, ironi-
and designers most amenable to sophisticated experi-
cally implacable quest. Born in Switzerland in 1961 (to be
mentation (Jil Sander, Hermès, Shiseido, The Gap, Krizia,
precise, in the town of Le Locle, near Neuchâtel), François
Capucci, Prada, Romeo Gigli, and so on), and important art
Berthoud studied the graphic and applied arts in Lausanne,
galleries in Tokyo, New York, Munich, Amsterdam and São
but found in Italy, specifically in the Milan of the early Eight-
Paulo.
ies, the ideal setting for his excursions and experiments
More than drawing illustrations with pen or pencil, Berthoud
in and beyond the boundaries of the iconic universe. He
likes to sculpt, scrape, scratch and dig them out of different
started in comic books, and with «Mascara Lille» (written
materials (wood, linoleum, pressed paper, celluloid film).
by Franco Serra and published in «Alter Alter») he enjoyed
Like a woodcut-maker or a goldsmith, he likes to create ma-
slipping backstage into the frenzied, evanescent microcosm
trixes on which he then transfers the figures he’s sketched
of opera – the realm of doubles, disguises and identical
on paper, reducing them to the essential. This method, he
twins. Graphic literature fascinated him because it offers the
says, «is really very useful; it forces you to be concise, it
chance to boil a complex story down to a simple scene, or a
gives you time to the useless, it allows you to focus on the
sequence of simple scenes. Then, through the good offices
most important details in the most judicious, dynamic and
of Carla Sozzani, Berthoud was admitted into the galaxy of
surprising way. Anyway, what counts in fashion images is
Condé Nast publications.
knowing how to pick out the key detail (a color, a shape,
He became the art director of the bridal fashion magazine
a pattern) and work it up». As to mediums of expression,
«Vogue Sposa», then a contributor to «Vanity», an avant-
Berthoud doesn’t see illustration as competing with photog-
garde periodical whose editor, Anna Piaggi, was reinvent-
raphy. «It’s another language, so it tells other stories». As
ing the image of fashion, giving priority to illustrations over
a genuine key-detail-hunter who observes and reinterprets
photos. It was love at first sight, the turning point.
the offerings of the various fashion designers, Berthoud
Thus was born Berthoud’s Mark – that personal, unmistak-
brings arcane hints to light, overturns reading orders and
able, strong, dark, incisive mark that seems (and often is)
perspectives, ennobles things that seem marginal (a glove,
affixed with a hot stamp or rolled out under a press, and
a scarf, a high heel, the tip of a boot) by turning them into
that eventually became his trademark, when he was sought
archetypes, and reduces the models’ faces to timeless
out by some of the world’s most prestigious magazines (in-
masks that are apparently ownerless but by no means cold
cluding «Interview», «The New Yorker», «Harper’s Bazaar»,
and inhuman. «His etchings are often virtuosic from the
«Numéro», «Visionaire» and the Italian, French, German,
technical standpoint:
Spanish and British editions of «Vogue»), the fashion houses
Transparencies, evanescent forms and elaborate mosaics of
11
ESSAY
ALTERED STATES
ornamental motifs that always seem to have been com-
touched or desired before. There’s not just one image, just
posed effortlessly», noted Ruben Modigliani in the magazine
as there aren’t only seven notes.
«Uomo». «That is partly due to his sense of humor – cor-
An illustrator, like a musician, can and must go beyond, dis-
rosive but always admirably kept on the sidelines, as in
cover shapes, angles, chromatic nuances that our senses
the “x-ray” of a pair of boots, where the dizzily high heel
aren’t used to seeing or perceiving, but that are right there
seems to have a bone structure of its own, as if it were a
near us, lying hidden between the folds of normality, ready
natural extension of the body of the person who’s wearing
to leap out and amaze us, and perhaps to make us change
it». As Berthoud himself says, «A dress always evokes the
our certitudes and our points of view».
presence of the person who brought or will bring it alive by
It’s this feverish, monomaniacal, obsessive aspect that
wearing it, just as a shadow always evokes the things that
kindles and reveals the literal sensuality of Berthoud’s Mark,
project it. I like to explore the dark part, the negative side,
his fetishism, the perverse pleasure he takes in pushing
the mysterious upside-down reality that’s hidden beneath
each element to extremes until he can distil its true spirit, in
the surface.
x-raying the myriad secret images harbored in each official
And whenever I set out on one of these explorations, I never
image with the irony of one who’s not taken in by appear-
return empty-handed!». So it’s not by mere happenstance
ances and doesn’t stop inanely at the first glance, but seeks
that he signs with an mirrored F. Berthoud says that in
out new spells, new dimensions, new virgin lands on the
recent years he’s felt a desire to get in contact graphically
far side of the mirrors we’ve been reflected in up to now.
with real people (99% of them women) – with their faces,
Like all true obsessions, Berthoud’s can never be satis-
their bodies and their souls. He chooses a subject, snaps
fied, but it spawns chemical alterations, three-dimensional
a photo, prints it on paper and retouches it with a pencil.
doublings, overlappings and interwoven dissolves that
Then, using the «dripping» transfers the image over and
condense echoes of conceptual art, pop art and German
over again, letting a thick colored ink drip over the paper.
expressionism. What’s certain is that a dress, an accessory,
Each time the ink becomes denser or thinner, rises or shifts,
a fabric seen through his eyes becomes something unex-
modifying the original images with a force that acts inde-
pected. Stéphane Bonvin, in «Profil Femme», calls him «the
pendently of his intentions, as if the ink had a life of its own.
Epiphanist». «In François Berthoud’s works», Bonvin writes,
In his Milan studio, Berthoud plays around, experiments,
«the bodies often seem like eerie apparitions. They seem to
manipulates, designs «alchemical messes», decodes ideo-
reveal themselves as in a dark room, suddenly breaking in
grams and raises lost continents.
among us, seesawing between this brutal self-assertion and
He wants to discover «something never seen before, never
death». Laird Borrelli, in the anthological volume «Fashion
12
ESSAY
ALTERED STATES
Illustration Now», places him in the cohort of Sensualists.
«The role of the Sensualist illustrator», explains Borrelli,
«is to be strong and silent, like a deus ex machina». In the
German edition of «GQ», Robert Kittel coined a new word –
«Superillumann» – to describe Berthoud. We chose (and anglicized) it for the title of this book because it seems to sum
up perfectly the creative gifts of a hunter-wizard-alchemistmusician-scientist-architect-fetishist-voyeur who alternates
between nostalgia for the manual skills of old-time craftsmen and enthusiasm for the technological innovations of
the 21st century.
13
ESSAY
THE TIGER IMAGE
By Daniele Barbieri
SUPERILLUMAN
The eye of a male looking at female figures wrapped in the
But the whole key to fashion lies in the instant of appear-
trappings of fashion is an eye of desire. It explores, peruses,
ance that overwhelms the observer’s eye and imagination,
weighs what it sees, and imagines what it cannot see. The
in that bit of sadism that makes us take pleasure in the
clothed female body becomes a text whose writing induces
power that our appearance gives us.
more or less direct musings on the always central theme of
François Berthoud began to design fashions together with a
eroticism.
small cohort of other artists who came, as he did, from the
A garment is a theatrical device; it stages imaginings of all
world of comic books. Italian comic books in the early ’80s
kinds that dress the body more than physical cloth does.
were close to the artistic avant-gardes, used to measuring
Fashion dresses us with projections of the imagination;
themselves against the world of visual arts. In those years
above all, it drapes the female body with myths and un-
at least, Italian comic books were leading the trend.
avoidably perverse thoughts.
Of all those authors whom the magazine «Vanity» called
Affection and amorous passion are not yet present on this
upon to revitalize the print image of fashion, only two
stage, though these emotions are certainly not ruled out.
remained more than a short spell to continue the discourse.
They may appear later, when the machinery of the imagina-
The other one was Lorenzo Mattotti. Mattotti has an affec-
tion has already constructed in the eye and the mind of the
tionate and texture-minded imagination.
beholder something that can be desired – desired because
it makes sense to us, because it conjures up projections of
He bedecked fashion with ironic stories and exotic fanta-
elsewhere, desirable alternatives to the inevitable
sies. He created a brightly colored visual universe full of
flatness of our day-to-day lives.
literary allusions and substances, recounting clothing as
Fashion is thus sadistic, wicked. It plays on its own ambigu-
Joseph Conrad recounted the south seas.
ity so as to give the people who put it on power over those
He turned out masterpieces for two years, then went on
who cannot help looking at them, cannot help feeling at
to other things; his genius and fashion’s were to intersect
least a flash of desire. Tease but don’t say yes – that is the
again only occasionally.
essence of fashion. And when the green light finally turns
Looking again at those illustrations, magnificent though they
on, the thing at stake seems all the more valuable, all the
were, one realizes that Mattotti was too nice for fashion –
more meaningful. Only at that point, perhaps, the sadistic
too positive, too amorous. By contrast, Berthoud was more
power game will take other, more complicated turns, more
wicked than fashion. He managed to lead the discourse
amorously impassioned. And appearance will no longer be
rather than led by it; he rode the tiger and its blood-curdling
the heart of the matter, as it was in the very first stage.
symmetrical beauty in a perfectly natural way, as if he’d
14
ESSAY
THE TIGER IMAGE
been doing it forever, as if he’d been born to it.
sential lines, the very small number of elements with which
He understood straight off, and better than the colleagues
he plays (few lines, few colors, not much of anything) can-
who began with him, the subtle power relationship that is
not but surprise us when we realize the complexity of the
the essence of dressing; in other words, that fashion isn’t
references they embody. Even when rendering Moschino’s
based on clothes, but on seduction.
baroque irony, Berthoud plays on two or three sharp color
From the very beginning, in his illustrations for «Vanity», the
contrasts and a few profiles of figures with a monumental
clothes are the last thing you notice and can understand.
look.
Berthoud used a thick, unstable black line that was alto-
Yet the simplicity of his line, like everything in the world of
gether unsuitable for visualizing fabric textures.
fashion, is only apparent. Whether cut in linoleum or wood
And the cut of the clothes is barely hinted at in his images;
(or seemingly so), or drawn with a brush, Berthoud’s line
you get a better idea of them from the captions than from
is sinuous, descriptive, and as carefully thought out as the
Berthoud’s illustrations.
gestures of his characters. Those gestures echo the ones
But Berthoud’s images, though vague on the clothes, as-
we’re used to from fashion photography, but here they’re
sault the eye.
exalted, in their seductive unnaturalness, by the visual
They stand out because they’re different from all the others
isolation that results from the very fact of being drawn
around them, because of the lively gestures they portray,
instead of photographed, and that is sometimes heightened
because of their boldly symbolic character. And because
by the cut of the frame.
of their come-on, sadistic nature; what emerges from them
The gestures and poses of Berthoud’s models are certainly
is crude desire for the female body, devoid of tenderness;
unnatural in our day-to-day world, but perfectly at home in
there is no sentiment here other than the pleasure of show-
fashion images.
ing off, of creating an imaginary world that viewers can lust
His artwork captures the fascination of the unnatural be-
after.
cause he can play more variations on it than can the neces-
Berthoud wins out over fashion because he is more violent,
sarily more realistic camera.
colder and more rational, but also because around this
But precisely because photography is the necessary refer-
coldness he builds an incredibly rich and profound visual
ence of Berthoud’s visual compositions, they can maneuver
world, a world of desire that is as cruel as that of the great-
in the opposite direction by subtracting elements. Thus we
est fashion designers, and perfectly complements theirs.
may see only profiles and suggestions of colors exactly
He does so by skillfully leveraging surprise, a factor that is
where we’re used to seeing a wealth of detail. This is the
always crucial in seduction. The simplified graphics, the es-
exercise that Berthoud puts us to: reconstruct the whole
15
ESSAY
THE TIGER IMAGE
from the few elements we’re given. An exercise of imagina-
constant presence in Berthoud’s images. Irony and self-iro-
tion which (as the Baroque artists well knew) will lead us to
ny are manifestations of intelligence, and play a part in the
compose in our minds something far more interesting than
game of attraction. Irony is a display of power; it announces
what we would see if the imagine contained all the missing
that one knows the rules and is essentially violating or
details.
respecting them, that one is among those who understand
Plainly, what we have here, once again, is an exercise in
the way of things.
seduction – perhaps the exercise in seduction par excel-
Irony goes to show that we’re in control of the game, and
lence, which consists of exhibiting selected and carefully
that if we follow its rules it’s only because we’ve chosen to
studied elements that can make the imagination of people
do so. It’s the weapon of intelligence, the one Voltaire used
who look at us work for us. Given that what catches a man’s
to attack the rules of his day. It shows us to be different,
eye in a woman is sometimes simply a detail, like the tilt of
and unique.
her body or the way she bends her head or stretches her
Fashion is a way we can allow ourselves to show outright
arm. Berthoud’s illustrations are full of these details. There’s
the sadistic aspect of the seduction game – by joking about
always something intriguing in his models’ gestures, some-
it, neutralizing it, at the same time that we engage in it.
thing special that arouses one’s interest.
With the aid of irony, we can do so even when the sadistic
In Berthoud, as in the best of fashion, there’s always a hint
game comes down to its hard, constant core of eroticism.
of a deeper meaning that we’re not asked to dig for. Depth
Berthoud’s images are almost always erotic – crudely,
of meaning is a value in and of itself, but it takes a lot of
violently erotic.
work to get to the bottom of things. In the charm game, just
As should be clear at this point, that’s so partly because
a hint of possible depth may suffice, provided it is proffered
their subject is desire, but mostly because of the fierce sen-
together with other factors that distract one’s attention. Not
suality that emanates from the female bodies they depict.
that sounding the depth is forbidden, or that the hinted-
The last illustration in his anthological book «Facsimile»
at depth isn’t really there, but its exploration belongs to a
(Edition Dino Simonett) portrays a dancing girl. Her long,
different dimension from seduction. Like love or intense
stockinged legs are poised in a step that makes us think of
passion, it’s something that may come afterward; what’s
a flamingo standing on one leg; her arms are stretched out
important at this stage is for it to seem clearly possible.
in front of her, one hand curving upward and the other
But these factors are not directly involved in the construc-
downward; and her expression is one of complete absorp-
tion of desire.
tion in what she’s doing. But a huge arrow runs her through,
Since seduction is a rational game, it can include irony, a
entering from her breast and
16
ESSAY
THE TIGER IMAGE
exiting at the top of her legs. And as we look more closely,
her expression might be one of deep sexual pleasure.
Erotic, ecstatic and ironic, this figure epitomizes the coordinates of desire for Berthoud, for fashion, and for us all.
It makes us imagine that we are seeing and enjoying from
close up that body whose image seems so vivid, so over
flowing with references to the idea of an impassioned life.
17
ESSAY
THE ARTIST,
ONCE REMOVED
By Holly Brubach
FACSIMILE, 2000
“When I started to have a following and some success,
and redraw a line so many times before I think, Okay, that’s
people thought that I had a very strong style”. So says
exactly where this line should be. In that sense, I think, I’m
François Berthoud. As with any artist’s work, certain hall-
really-well, it’s close to obsession.” In attempting to convey
marks emerge when his illustrations are viewed together,
the experience of the clothes rather than a straightforward
as they are in this book. A boldness that seems derived in
diagram of their structure, he resorts to techniques rarely
equal parts from comic strips and Japanese woodcuts. A
used for fashion and, frequently, applies them in unpredict-
fascination with pattern and precision-the lattice work of
able ways. Take the linocuts, for example.”I was looking for
a black lace boot or the topographical map of fine pleats
this quality of hard line. I was mimicking the result you get
over shoulders, breasts, and midriff. A sense of humor that
when you do a linocut, but I was doing it by hand - put-
might once have been labeled risqué (before that word
ting black on a board and then removing it with a knife.
came to sound so quaint): see the silhouette of a long
And then I decided, Okay, let’s do the real thing. And for a
black dress whose skirt laces up the front, its crisscrossed
while I did, and that was fine, but eventually I didn’t know
ties forming an abstracted Eiffel Tower that narrows to a
what else to do with it. I mean, you want this effect, you use
point at the crotch. And, finally, an avid appreciation for the
this technique. It’s obvious. Then one day I used the same
female body-rhapsodic, sometimes raunchy (lust is not too
technique to do something that was transparent, not hard at
strong a word). ”What I was looking for was no style. I was
all. And I realized that, surprisingly, this technique offers me
publishing work when I was 23 (he was born in 1961-you
other possibilities, and I began using it in a way no one had
do the math), and people thought I was 50. They couldn’t
used it before” Some of François’ illustrations are narrative,
understand who the person was behind the work. To me,
portraying a situation that suggests a character or a story: a
this meant that I had achieved my goal of not representing
woman reads a letter that has just arrived. In the image lies
myself but serving the project.” A statement like this hints
the kernel of a plot. Others are more straightforward, more
at, but fails to convey the extent of, François’ modesty, a
in keeping with our expectations for a fashion illustration, in
commodity in short supply in a field that favors despots and
that they rely on visual sensation. Some viewers have seen
prima donnas. (I call him by his first name because he is my
these two approaches as contradictory, in competition with
friend.) Soft-spoken, unfailingly polite, a good listener, he
each other. François seems bewildered by this apparent
gives the impression of someone content to celebrate life as
insistence on a more consistent point of view. “I always
he finds it rather than bending it to his will. “I try to focus on
thought of it as a good competition”. The work collected
one thing and to show it. I feel so responsible all the time,
here spans roughly eighteen years, during which time the
to the idea behind the thing I’m representing. I can erase
fashion illustrator, often viewed as a poor substitute for a
18
ESSAY
THE ARTIST,
ONCE REMOVED
camera when it comes to depicting the clothes and their
my work, I don’t have any eye to catch, any smile to deal
impact, benefited from a crisis in fashion photography. This,
with. I look for other aspects, so the body is most of the
at any rate, is François’ conviction.”Fashion photography
time more important than the face.” Debates about what
had committed a kind of suicide, in the sense that all these
qualifies as art and what doesn’t are tired now and ultimate-
snapshots were destroying any kind of structure for the
ly, I think, less interesting than the work itself. “People tell
imagination. And then, parallel to that, there came this pho-
me, “You should just blow it up, make it a painting”. But this
tography that is not the interpretation of any one person but
has kept me alive every day, and it’s part of my own history.
the work of a team, and everything is perfect, very studied
It happened this way, and now it’s this, and it’s a fact. I find
- every aspect of the image is very professional but it makes
integrity in the form. But I might be the last dreamer.” Well,
for an image that’s a bit cold and flattened.” François be-
not the last, but let’s just say that it’s a dwindling club, and
lieves that it was his good fortune to be working during this
its members (of which I am one) find in François’ work a
period. Given the commercial nature of his assignments, he
cause for celebration.
has embraced limitations that many artists have resented.
“If you’re talking about fashion illustration, the territory
Holly Brubach
is really small. That makes it more interesting, of course,
because it has such strict rules - like any game. I don’t care
much about clothes for myself, but I love how the body gets
changed according to the proportion and the shapes you
put on it.” In François’ work, it’s not only the clothes that
make us look at the body in a new way - it’s also how he
frames the body. What he chooses to focus on and what he
chooses to omit bring Degas to mind: the artist’s rendering is cropped, as in a photograph. A figure is cut off at the
knees; legs appear without a torso; bodies are headless,
de-personalized, their fragments seen in close-up. Every
illustration is like a still life that extols the beauty of a single
object, be it a thimble or a pelvis. “In photography, it’s the
person, the model, that comes through. Because when
you’re taking a photo, you catch the eyes of a person. With
19
ESSAY
VOCI CONTRO
By Ruben Modigliani
L’UOMO, APRIL 2001
François Berthoud è, con ogni probabilità, il più grande
mondo è al tempo stesso unico spettatore e reporter. E le
illustratore di moda del nostro tempo. Detto questo, c’è
storie che racconta sono, inevitabilmente, storie di moda
ben poco da aggiungere: il suo lavoro è internazionalmente
come nessun altro sa raccontare. Perchè questa fascinazi-
riconosciuto ed acclamato, i suoi committenti costituiscono
one per la moda? “E un mondo che mi ha sempre attratto
il fior fiore dell’editoria mondiale. A quarant’anni, Berthoud è
naturalmente: per me è un tipo di ginnastica mentale; un
un uomo di successo. Ma questo non basta a fare la gran-
confronto estetico/visivo. Penso che faccia parte del nostro
dezza di qualcuno. C’e un termine giapponese, “ukiyo-e”
tempo, che anzi ne costituisca uno degli aspetti più vivaci,
(“immagini del mondo fluttuante”) che per secoli ha indicato
in costante cambiamento. E proprio il suo costante variare
la vastissima produzione di xilografie dedicate al mondo
un tema che rende la moda un fenomeno così interessante”.
secolare, da Hokusai a Hiroshige a Utamaro. Fluttuante era
Un mondo reso con una sontuosità tecnica che raggiunge,
tutto quello che dava piacere nella dimensione transiente
e supera, il virtuosismo. Scriveva Borges a proposito della
della vita: dalla cerimonia del tè agli spettacoli kabuki, dai
xilografia, l’arte dell’incisione su legno: “gli incisori euro-
lottatori di sumo alle geishe. Istanti quotidiani che, cristal-
pei sono soliti esagerare la rudezza del genere; gli incisori
lizzati nel loro accadere, diventavano simbolo della bellezza
orientali (e quelli antichi) preferiscono superarla”. Berthoud,
di questo nostro affaccendarsi che chiamiamo esistere.
che fin dai suoi esordi utilizza l’incisione su linoleum (dal
Anche quelle di Berthoud sono immagini di un mondo flut-
tratto duro come quella su legno), appartiene senza dubbio
tuante. Il suo occhio coglie con precisione millimetrica un
alla seconda categoria. Con leggerezza. “Mi piace saper
gesto, un dettaglio, uno scarto rispetto alla regola, l’ombra
fare qualcosa con le mani: sono arrivato alla padronanza del
di un movimento, e li trasforma in simboli, in ideogrammi.
mezzo facendo un po’ come un musicista, la cui perfor-
Suggerendo storie, scrivendo sceneggiature senza parole:
mance è frutto di pratica quotidiana”.
le sue immagini presuppongono molto spesso un prima e
Le sue incisioni sono spesso dei virtuosismi a livello
un dopo, e certi suoi ritratti posseggono una tale intensità
tecnico: trasparenze, forme evanescenti, oppure elaborati
da balzare fuori dalla pagina, animati da una loro volontà.
intrecci di motivi ornamentali. Sempre composti come
Un mondo fatto di Circi, di dark ladies, di veleni uno più
senza il minimo sforzo. Grazie anche ad un sense of humor
squisito dell’altro. Un mondo irreale: volontariamente
corrosivo, sempre però ammirevolmente defilato: come
rinchiuso in un recinto dorato (harem, gineceo, paradiso?),
nella “radiografia” di un paio di stivaletti, nella quale anche
Berthoud assiste ad una perenne sfilata di figure femminili
il tacco vertiginoso della calzatura risulta avere una sua
in alta livrea -un pò come osservare la moda e tutta la sua
struttura ossea, come se fosse una naturale estensione del
dimensione fiabesca attraverso un microscopio. Di questo
corpo di chi lo ha indosso. Perché un’altra caratteristica
20
ESSAY
VOCI CONTRO
delle opere di Berthoud è quella di coinvolgere in una sfida
continua l’occhio di chi guarda, cambiando costantemente
le carte in tavola, facendo ricorso ad un vasto vocabolario
di figure retoriche (la parte per il tutto, principalmente): e
tanto peggio per chi non le capisce.
In tempi dominati da un erotismo ginnicocircense, nel
quale il concetto di audience sembra prevalere su quello di
piacere, Berthoud ha sempre scelto di mantenersi nel territorio ben più soggettivo del sottilmente erotico, ll suo è un
mondo di donne, l’uomo ne è un raro visitatore occasionale.
La figura muliebre ne è la quasi assoluta protagonista. Entra
nell’immagine in mille modi diversi: dettaglio dal sapore
cinematografico (busto senza testa, gambe senza tronco,
etc.), silhouette appena accennata, o anche solo archetipo
evocato dal manichino, oggetto-feticcio. ll manichino, corpo
senz’anima, figura senza individualità, funziona come simbolo anche per il suo stesso lavoro: “quello che cercavo era
un non-stile: l’obbiettivo era non rappresentare me stesso
ma servire il mio progetto”. Già, il suo progetto: rendere
un’anima alla rappresentazione della moda, che la fotografia
(sempre più perfetta, tecnologica, professionale) in un qualche modo aveva inaridito. Mettendosi così a fare cose che
nessuno aveva mai fatto. “Un personaggio atipico? Penso
di esserlo prima di tutto perchè ho sempre seguito quello
che mi interessava senza curarmi dell’eventuale successo
o insuccesso. Allontanarsi dalla strada maestra è stata una
semplice conseguenza. Direi quasi inevitabile”.
Ruben Modigliani
21
ESSAY
X-RAYING FASHION
By Anna Piaggi
B&C Catalogue, 1997
For over ten years François Berthoud has done illustrations
for some of my pages, work appearing initially in Vanity, currently in Vogue Italia.
While François illustrates fashion in an apparently formal
and decorative way, in reality he analyzes his subject in
depth and with an elegant sense of detachment before
recreating it in his atelier-laboratory.
The result is an ultramodern fashion X-ray. But then fashion
illustration has always coincided - in its most advanced
forms - with major periods of taste.
Along with few other names, François Berthoud has inaugurated a period of Neo-illustration. Today beyond a stylized
“retro”, fashion is looking to the future by means of textiles,
technology and a different type of discipline. Pop Art (François has worked for comics magazines) and turn-of-thecentury German expressionism represent the two extremes
of his illustrations.
Thus he experiences fashion with a sharp sense of irony
and a visual culture rooted in conceptual art. But his style is
totally 90’s !
Anna Piaggi
22
INTERVIEW
SUPERILLUMAN
By Robert Kittel
German GQ, March 2003
Der gebürtige Schweizer François Berthoud zeichnete
Ich denke, meine Kreativität kommt von einer gewissen
Modeillustrationen für Vogue, Vanity Fair, und das New
Unzufriedenheit mit der Realität, diesem normalen Leben.
York Times Magazine. Inzwischen Iebt er in Mailand
Wie es so dahinplätschert. Meine Inspiration ist es, etwas zu
und seine Arbeiten sind Kunstwerke. Bei einem grossen
verändern, zu verbessern, etwas schöner aussehen zu las-
Milchkaffee mit GQ Style versuchte er, den hochtraben-
sen, individuell zu sein..
den Begriff Kreativitat zu erden.
Das Collins Dictionary beschreibt Individualität als einzigarSigmund Freud hat einmal gesagt: Künstler und Schrift-
tigen Charakterzug, weil es die wahre QuaIität sei, die den
steller seien kreativ, weil sie ihre unbewussten Wünsche
Einen vom Anderen unterscheidet. Braucht man eine grosse
öffentlich ausdrücken wollten. Hat er Recht?
IndividuaIität, um kreativ zu sein?
Wenn Sigmund das sagt, dann stimmt es wohl. Ich persön-
Grosse Individualität steigert natürlich das Verlangen nach
lich bevorzuge an Stelle von ,,kreieren” den Ausdruck
Unkonventionellem, nach etwas noch Unentdecktem. Es ist
,,enthüllen”, weil ich den Künstler als Menschen sehe, der
eine Voraussetzung für viele Künstler.
versucht, unerforschtes Terrain zu entdecken und zu veranschaulichen.
Würden Sie eine schwarze Linie auf einem weissen Papier
als kreative Arbeit bezeichnen?
Konstantin Jacoby, der Gründer der besten deutschen
Werbeagentur, Springer&Jacoby in Hamburg, sagte, er sei
Das hängt von der Linie ab. Warum nicht? Allerdings mag
nur deshalb kreativ, weil er sehr gut dafür bezahlt werde. Ist
ich mehr die Verbindung von Generosität und Kreativität.
GeId die richtige Motivation?
Wenn die schwarze Linie von Karl Lagerfeld gezeichnet
Hm. Schmeckt das Essen besser, wenn der Koch, der es
wurde, fangen die Leute an, darüber nachzudenken, was er
zubereitet, Hunger hat? Ich glaube, Geld ist eine nicht ganz
uns damit sagen wiIl. Ist das nicht ein wenig absurd?
unwichtige Zutat für gute Kunst. Aber nicht der einzige Motor.
Das ist alles eine Frage des Zusammenhangs. Das kreative
Element, bereits existierende Dinge anders zu zeigen, ist
Warum sind Sie kreativ, Herr Berthoud?
doch erst mit dem Wegfall von Regeln möglich. Ich kann
keine neue Farbe mehr erfinden, aber ich kann diese Farbe
23
INTERVIEW
SUPERILLUMAN
einer anderen gegenüberstellen, um einen neuen Effekt zu
Es gibt ja tausende von Möglichkeiten, ein Bild zu machen.
erreichen. So ähnlich ist es mit der schwarzen Linie und
Computerprogramme gehören inzwischen sicher dazu. Ich
dem weissen Papier. Und zu Lagerfeld: Auch ein Satz, den
mag Computeranimationen, wenn sie zu den Eigenschaften
eine wichtige Person mit interessan ??
des Endprodukts passen. Mit dem Computer traditionelle
unbekannte Aktionen aus ihrer Vergangenheit zu Stande.
Methoden zu kopieren halte ich für charakterlos.
Jeder muss seinen eigenen Weg finden.
Unser Magazin heisst ja GQ Style.
Was unterscheidet kreative Menschen von unkreativen?
Was bedeutet Style für Sie?
Unkreative Menschen sind zufrieden oder einfach nur faul.
Style ist eine absolute Notwendigkeit, um durch das Leben
Alle anderen kreieren etwas. Vielleicht wissen sie es nur
zu kommen. Einzig und allein der Style ist die so genannte
nicht.
Mise en scène (Inszenierung) des eigenen Charakters.
Sie verkaufen Ihre Illustrationen inzwischen als Kunst. Wie
Sie haben einmal gesagt: “Als ich 23 war, habe ich Arbeiten
wird eine Modezeichnung plötzlich zum Kunstwerk?
veröffentlicht, von denen die Menschen glaubten, sie wären
von einem 50-Jährigen. Das zeigte mir, dass ich mein Ziel
Es hängt davon ab, wie so etwas gemacht wurde. Eine kün-
erreicht hatte, nicht mich zu repräsentieren, sondern meinen
stlerische Haltung gegenüber dem Entwurf sorgt am Ende
Auftrag gut ausgeführt zu haben”. Sind Sie nicht der Mei-
für Kunst. Ich benutze alles, was ich zur Verfügung habe.
nung, im kreativen Geschäft versuchen alle, ihren eigenen
Alles, was ich mir angeeignet habe. Meine vielen Erinnerun-
Stil einzubringen?
gen und Erfahrungen aus dem Modebusiness, meine inzwischen geschulten Hände, mein schlagendes Herz und den
Naürlich, da haben Sie vollkommen Recht. Aber meine
immer noch arbeitenden Teil meines Gehirns. Mit all dem
Aussage ist sinnvoll, weil der Künstler versucht, seine
versuche ich, Leben in meine Bilder zu bringen. Danach bin
eigenen Mittel zu entwickeln, um seine Sicht der Dinge auf
ich wieder ein Beobachter wie jeder andere auch.
seine Art wiederzugeben. Die Arbeit enthält Im Idealfall
beides: Den eigenen Stl als auch den Wunsch des Auf-
Was ist der grösste Unterschied zwischen Computerillustra-
traggebers beziehungsweise des Konsumenten.
tionen und von Hand gefertigten Zeichnungen?
Robert Kittel
24
ESSAY
L’EPIPHANISTE
By Stephane Bonvin
PROFIL FEMME, 2002
A quoi sert la mode, si ce n’est à jeter sur des songes le filet
ou quelle légèreté habite une chair défraîchie (illustration Jil
d’un vêtement, A quoi sert la mode si ce n’est à susciter
sander). La mode, enfin, est une machine à mettre en branle
l’épiphanie d’un corps ou d’un personnage puis à libérer
des fictions? Les tableaux de François Berthoud ressem-
cette apparition pour qu’elle continue à se déhancher en
blent à des cases isolées d’une bédé, et pas seulement
direction du néant, A quoi ça sert la mode, si ce n’est à
parce qu’ici, sur une illustration Helmut Lang, une paire de
brouiller les codes et à mâchurer trois ou quatre certitudes,
talons féminins se détourne de deux jambes masculines
à quoi ça sert la mode si ce n’est, pour reprendre une
étalées comme un cadavre, ni seulement parce que là, dans
formule qu’on ne se lasse pas de murmurer, à “créer des
un coin d’un tableau réalisé pour Dolce & Gabbana, une
fictions, là où on ne voudrait voir que des réalités?”
main surgit pour tendre un miroir à une femme en corset.
A ces questions, l’oeuvre de l’illustrateur François Berthoud
mais parce que la plupart des images créées par Berthoud
y répond une à une; avec un don pour le talent et la sim-
ont l’épaisseur de ces moments où chaque seconde semble
plicité tellement délié qu’on le sent capable de beaucoup
être le point emergent d’une histoire enfouie? “Le côté
de choses. Reprenons. La mode jetterait ses filets sur des
risqué et audacieux de ses illustrations vient de ce qu’elles
ombres en transit? François Berthoud, lui esquisse des
semblent toujours tenir autant du comic strip que de la
silhouettes, feminines surtout, qu’il lui arrive de couvrir de
gravure japonaise”, écrit Holly Brubach, journaliste au New
couleurs violentes ou de voiles monochromes.Comme si
Yorker et rédactrice de la préface de Facsimile, un trés beau
le but ultime était de freiner leur effacement. La mode est
livre qui réunit une petite centaine d’oeuvre de François
une faiseuse d’épiphanies? Sur les travaux de François
Berthoud.“Voir ce qu’on fait affiché en grand, dehors.”
Berthoud, les corps, eux, ont souvent l’air d’apparaître.
Voilà, explique Berthoud, l’une des raisons qui a poussé
De se révéler comme dans un bain photographique, de
I’adolescent Loclois qu’iI était à choisir le graphisme et à
faire une brusque irruption, d’osciller entre cette affirma-
étudier les arts appliqués, à Lausanne. Barbe Iégère, crâne
tion brutale et la mort, déjà. La mode brouille les cartes et
ras, treillis militaire et baskets noires, on a surpris le Suisse
les codes? La plupart des images créées par Berthoud,
sur le soir, au bout d’une rue milanaise, dans son atelier où
elles font appel à des techniques tellement savamment
ses deux assistants préparent un accrochage. Lui travaille
bidouillées (lithographie, gravure, peinture, impression, lino,
à genoux, au milieu de feuilles géantes sur lesquelles le lino
etc.) qu’il leur arrive d’imiter les maladresses d’impression,
est venu imprimer une silhouette de jeune fille flingueuse.
quand la grâce de deux couleurs bizarrement superposées
Ce soir-là, Berthoud teste les vertus improvisatrices canali-
révèle soudain de quelles violences une nuque frêle est por-
sées d’une impression à la peinture pour voiture. Contours
teuse (illustration de Berthoud pour comme des Garçons),
changeants, vernis qui laisse des fils, épaisseur d’une
25
ESSAY
L’EPIPHANISTE
silhouette qui tremble entre l’apparition et la dissolution, ac-
n’avait jamais touché d’habit de luxe. Alors quoi? Un don
couchement d’épiphanie, encore. “J’aime ce qui laisse des
exceptionnel, un culot monstre? “Non, non, élude-t-il. Elles
traces” dit simplement Berthoud. Aujourd’hui, Berthoud,
ont dû me trouver exotique, ou mignon.” Curiosité bottée en
41 ans, vit entre New York et sa base milanaise. ll travaille
touche.
toujours à produire des illustrations de mode pour Vogue, le
Pendant deux ans, François Berthoud met alors à profit son
New Yorker, le New York Times ou Visionaire dont il a même
entrée chez Condé-Nast pour tout essayer. Au contact des
supervisé un numéro. ll a été exposé au Japon, au Brésil, à
journalistes, il se fait une culture de mode. Profitant des
Paris, à la galerie Bartsch&Chariau de Munich. Si ses deux
studios, il se familiarise avec la photo.”Ce que je cherchais,
assistants tentent, ce soir-là, de faire un peu de range-
explique-t-il, ce n’était pas un style. Quand ils voyaient les
ment dans une oeuvre prolifique qui mêle toutes sortes
dessins que je faisais à 23 ans, les gens pensaient que j’en
de techniques et d’effets visuels, c’est notamment pour
avais 50. lls ne pouvaient pas deviner qui était la personne
préparer une exposition collective à New York qui verra,
derrière ce travail. Pour moi, cela voulait dire que j’avais at-
à la galerie Camera Work, trois photographes de mode
teint mon but: ne pas me représenter moi-même mais servir
(Peter Lindbergh, Paolo Roversi et Ines van Lamsweerde) se
le projet.”
confronter à trois illustrateurs (Ruben Toledo, Mats Gustav-
Longtemps restée marginale, l’illustration de mode revi-
son et François Berthoud). étonne qu’un jeune homme né
ent dans la pub, les journaux. Avec l’arrivée des grands
au Locle, en dehors des circuits surexcités de la mode, soit
groupes industriels, avec la prépondérance du marketing
devenu une des sommités fashionistes. Lui, il fait mine de
sur la création de mode, le vêtement se fait toujours plus
rien:”J’ai été orienté vers les arts appliqués et le graphisme,
calibré, mesuré. ll a besoin d’artistes qui sachent mettre
à Lausanne. Mon père travaillait dans l’horlogerie de préci-
en scène non pas la précision de ses détails, mais une
sion. A l’époque, on nous disait, à nous autres étudiants
atmosphère, un sens du drame ou du bonheur. Ce que
graphistes, que la branche n’avait aucun avenir. La suite
fait Berthoud, avec son approche rhapsodique du corps
a prouvé le contraire. J’ai commencé par des petits strips
féminin.” Aujourd’hui, les équipes qui entourent les photo-
dans le genre bande dessinée. Je me suis présenté à Milan,
graphes sont si performantes que n’importe quelle photo
chez Condé-Nast (l’éditeur de Vogue, notamment). J’ai
est parfaite. Et un peu interchangeable. Les illustrateurs de
frappé à leur porte, lls m ‘ont engagé, ils ont même créé
mode, eux, sont plus rares, singuliers. Et puis, devant une
une sorte de poste pour moi.” On s’étonne encore une fois.
photo, l’oeil doit souvent enlever, retrancher, soustraire,
On lui dernande s’il connaissait bien la mode. Lui répond
isoler des éléments.” L’illustration, elle, fait le contraire: elle
que non, qu’il n’avait aucune culture du vêtement, qu’il
tente de dégager l’essentiel, elle suggère. “On me demande
26
ESSAY
L’EPIPHANISTE
souvent pourquoi la mode? dit Berthoud. Pourquoi je ne
crée pas d’avantage pour des galeries. Pourquoi je continue
à travailler pour des supports plus éphémères, les journaux, la pub, etc. C’est parce que j’aime voir comment un
corps change en fonction des proportions et des formes
qu’on lui ajoute. La mode a à faire avec l’expérimentation,
l’expérience des choses. Ce qui n’est pas si futile que ça.”
Stephane Bonvin
27