Jean-Michel Arroyo et Maël Exhibition

In Pigalle, 1950, Jean-Michel Arroyo evokes the vibrant Paris of the 1950s, with its Butte Montmartre, cabarets, dancers, gangsters, and schemes. For the album, the artist adopts a sepia color palette and a wash drawing technique in shades of brown. An elegant, retro style that perfectly matches the atmosphere of the era and brings to life this unusual crime novel by Pierre Christin. From the Moulin Rouge to the Café de Flore and the Gaumont-Palace cinema, Arroyo revisits the must-see locations of Paris in the atmosphere of the 1950s, recreating their former glory. A timeless charm emanates from his original pages, around sixty of which will be on display in the exhibition, along with originals from his Buck Danny Classic albums.

For his second exhibition at the gallery, Maël presents original pages from the four albums in his Notre Amérique series, written by Kris. This saga begins in the aftermath of the Great War and explores the 1920s, first in Mexico, then in the United States, alongside Max and Julien, two young men whose destinies have been shattered by war. After Entre les lignes and Notre Mère la guerre, Maël once again demonstrates the extent of his talent in the historical genre, his favorite medium. His easily recognizable style, with its elegant pen strokes and watercolor coloring, perfectly captures the tone of this breathless story, which resembles a western and then a detective novel. Maël has found a variety of nuances in his color palette that allow him to create remarkable atmospheres throughout the saga. More than a hundred originals from Notre Amérique will be on display at the exhibition, as well as artworks created especially for the event and pages from the Notre Mère la guerre series.