On How I made my new Graphic Novel. Life of Marcel Duchamp, godfather of Dada
In October 22th I released the first graphic novel about Marcel Duchamp. This is an excerpt of the presentation.
Gerard Pàmies (1980) is the author of the graphic novel “Duchamp: detonació controlada” published in 2019 by Cossetània Edicions (Quorum). Duchamp is considered a key figure of the art of the XXth century. This graphic novel is the best introduction to the life and work of Marcel Duchamp. It is currently available in catalan.
When did you start getting into the figure of Duchamp?
It was during the Fine Arts degree in Barcelona. I had professors that spoke very good about him and considered him almost a sacred cow. A key figure of the artistic field similar to Albert Einstein in the scientific field. At the same time I had teachers that considered Duchamp a swindler, an artist that dared to open the pandora box of “everything is possible”. From one teacher side or from the other the ghost of Duchamp was always present in my art lessons.
What motivated the project?
After my studies I wanted to get deeper into the figure of Duchamp. I began reading the biography by Calvin Tomkins.
Afterwards the interview by Pierre Cabanne blew me away. It was a such an inspirational voice, so contemporary. I was surprised that this influential artist was almost unknown by the broader audience. My idea was to connect him to the massive audience of graphic novels and art books readers.
When did you decide to make the book?
All books about Marcel Duchamp focus too much about his artworks. I wanted to do a book that talks aswell about the artist behind the works. It is a living story about real characters.
In the graphic novel we get the chance to see them in the studio or in the moment they are created. Before the institutions convert them into artifacts collecting dust in the museum cabinets. I envisioned the story as a movie and tried to materialise something that the reader feels as a reality rather than art history. I wanted to achieve an immersive experience. In my opinion the art form called “comic book” or cartoons is a medium that uses the fantasy of the reader to create a new reality that tells a story.
In the story we meet as well figures like Dalí, Picasso and Walter Benjamin
Yes. Duchamp had a friendship or at least was connected to art celebrities of the time. I like biographies because they set a lot of history knowledge in a chronologic order which is good for learning.
One of the funny things of the book is the meeting between Marcel Duchamp and Walter Benjamin. Both worked on similar ideas from different disciplines. I liked this idea of the artist and the the theoritian sharing points of view. This meeting is real and documented. But the conversation is totally fictive.
Both were into the mechanization of art and the lost of its Aura. Duchamp was actively contribuiting to undermine the aura of the work of art, as an example his famous readymade L.H.O.O.Q. with Leonardo’s Mona Lisa with a moustache is the best example of his iconoclast spirit. Duchamp used a mechanical reproduction of the Mona Lisa as part of his artistic process.
Walter Benjamin described the lost of the aura in the contemparary audience in his seminal article The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Due to massive reproduction and travelling the modern audience has a different experience of art objects. An experience which is closer to the way we see “manufactured” objects which we use everyday, which Duchamp used to create his Ready-mades.
Your book makes a rich use of different panels and layouts
Indeed. I was very impressed by the books about making comics by Will Eisner and Scott McCloud. They are the most important ressources on making comics.
Scott McCloud is very analytic and gives a lot of ideas on how the comic language works. For instance how the reader fills the action and physical space between the panels with her imagination.
I love Will Eisner’s analogy between graphic and musical language which can be applied to the cinema and comic. From him I learned that the space of a panel in comics creates the rhythm on experience of the reader.
How was the process of documentation?
In addition to reading everything written about Duchamp, I had the chance to assist to the international symposion organized in 2012 by the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich about Duchamp. It was a celebration of his stay in the bavarian capital 100 years before in 1912. Besides of that I traveled myself to places where he had lived: Paris, Nova York, Cadaqués, Philadelphia.
How did you choose the drawing style?
It wasn’t a conscious decision. It was defined by the constrictions of the medium and the story I wanted to tell. It was a hard process of synthesis from the photos of real characters and the places. It had to be a style that ties everything together. It was hard to get the characters recognizable and yet simple to match the style.
Color is an element that stands out
For the color I stablished a basic color palette to unify the book. I started from this very simple palette and was tuning the color on the go to achieve emotional impact.
With this colors I tried to map the most important characters. It establishes an emotional relation between them and helps the reader identify the character by the color code.
I had a look aswell at the Pixar technique of the color script to modulate the palette matching the emotions of the scene. It means changing the saturation and brightness of each color.
The publication was possible thanks to a crowdfunding campaign
Yes, at first I thought about a self-publication. But the problem with self-published books is distribution. I was thinking aswell about digital publication but it’s not the best channel for this kind of project.
Thanks to Cossetània Edicions I could be able to finance the publication with their Quorum platform which will give better visibility to the graphic novel.
I hope I can help with this to someone starting a graphic novel. Will be glad to answer your questions on the comment section.
