The Insane Art of Pascal Doury

This is a long-delayed post. I've wanted to do a Doury post for a long time, because I love his art and it's been a big influence on my own drawings, however little similarity there may be. His work is like nothing else, a visual tornado of cartoon images, drawing inspiration from high-brow "modern" artists to South Park. It could be said that he takes in cartoons and just vomits them on the page or canvas, but I don't believe that's the case, it seems far more expressive and obsessive, and passionate than that.


From Lambiek: "Pascal Doury was born in 1956 as the son of an unknown father and a mother who was a housekeeper. Doury grew up in the Maisons d'Enfants in Sèvres, where in 1966, he met Bruno Richard, with whom he developed a love/hate working relationship. Together they created the magazine 'Elles sont de sortie', filled with their own innovative work."


"When Doury turned to heroin, and Richard to pornography, their magazine reflected this development. In 1984 they had an exhibition in Lyon, and a year later in Paris. In the same year, Pascal and his wife Nathalie had a daughter, named Dora Diamant, and she was promptly incorporated into Doury's oeuvre, resulting in the picture series 'L'Age d'Or de Dora Diamant'."


"When his wife died in 1991, Pascal took on the upbringing of his daughter, leaving drugs behind him."


"Intrigued by the modern visual culture, Doury made a compilation of icons and images, 'l'Encyclopédie des Images', which appeared in 2001. In the same year, he staged his last exhibition."


"Pascal Doury can rightly be called one of the most innovative and original artists of France, but also one of the least recognized. In the fall of 1999 his latest works were on exhibition in Galerie Lambiek, with a no less than mind-boggling visual experience as a result. Doury's fame as a comix artist mainly stems from his dense and intense portrayal of boarding school life in 'Pornographie Catholiqie', which was published in Raw magazine. Doury also published many small print-run comix, many in silk-screen form, most of these in collaboration again with like-minded artist Bruno Richard."


"Pascal Doury died from lung cancer in his home in Paris on the 13th September 2001, leaving behind a veritable legacy of amazing art."




















The two above are his earlier works. I was surprised by how much his style changed.