It was only while researching the works of both the two French comics artists featured here that I discovered their minimalist geometric and wordless works are a part of a new artistic movement called "French Abstract Formalist Comics (French Structural Comics)." Someone who has written extensively about this movement is the comics critic Kim Jooha, and here she outlines some of its essential features and their effect upon the reader, writing "The emotionless and mechanical style and lack of narrative and words lead the reader to focus on the formal qualities and abstract concepts of comics, visual art, and printed media, such as space-time, movement, body, sign, texture, representation, transformation, repetition/difference, etc..."(1) She continues writing that "In the mid-2010s, a group of French artists began creating wordless comics with geometric and minimalist style and little or no narrative. What they show instead is more of a 'process.'"(2)
The theme of structuralism in these works resonates with the Structural Cinema of Michael Snow's Wavelength (1968), with Nadé stating that during his studies at art school he was influenced by the works of experimental filmmakers such as Peter Tscherkassky, Peter Kubelka and Paul Sharits. Addressing their influence on his work he stated, "It was while studying them that I became interested in repetition and sequences; I found it fascinating watching them on film, they were like a comic strip on a 35mm stripe."(3)
On opening up Nadé's Ingredients the viewer is confronted by a series of sculptural elements set within a series of architectonic shapes, and on the reverse side he uses the whole accordion panorama to reveal a landscape with many of the previous elements in situ. I couldn't help wondering if Nadé was echoing features of the recently opened & celebrated earthwork by Michael Heizer located in the Nevada desert titled City (1970-2022), as the similarities are uncanny (see images below of City).
Stein's accordion plays with sequencing and transformation & destruction and creation in a series of one-page works that each illustrate a process of transformation both logical and yet with unexpected visual turns.
Both accordions: 7 double-sided pages, individual pages 6" x 4.5", and when fully opened 2ft 6.5".
Footnotes
1. Jooha, Kim, "French Abstract Comics (French Structural Comics): An Artistic Movement," The Comics Journal, November 8, 2018. French Abstract Formalist Comics (French Structural Comics): An Artistic Movement - The Comics Journal
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid. This could also be a description of an accordion work!
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Nicolas Nadé, Ingredients, Editions Matière, 2016, ed 300
reverse side with panoramic image
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Sammy Stein, Sculpture, Editions Matière, 2016, ed. 300
reverse side
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