finally looking up guy pouppez

i was listening to the strokes' "under the cover of darkness" which i think is my favorite song of theirs.

i always enjoyed the angles cover art, but it never occurred to me to learn more about it until my edible looked it up last week and found this yahoo article that's been deleted so here is a wayback machine link.

"Hanging above are two geometric paintings from the 1970s by Belgian artist Guy Pouppez. “My sister’s boyfriend worked in an antiques store in Nice in the South of France and he’d come across a whole bunch of art by this Belgian artist Guy Pouppez, who had died recently in Monaco. I bought three of them,” says Matthew. Later on, when his girlfriend at the time was working with The Strokes on their album cover art, she submitted these paintings as options. The one on the right was chosen for the cover of their album Angles." (yahoo)

"kinetic" art implies the use of movement, like a sculpture that moves in the wind. it also can imply perceived movement which create optical illusions - think the use of concentrated patterns and other factors of the viewers environment like the source of light around those lines. by the way - i use hyphens - to add a beat - to my words which is not considered correct and these days gets you accused of using ai to write, but it's just me and my beautiful mind, capisce? anyway, being able to use straight lines on a 2d plane to get a human eye to think there's 3d movement happening is very rock and roll. apt for a strokes album cover.

"Pouppez was a painter known for this kinetic style and produced this work through the 1960’s-70’s. Born in the UK, he moved to Monaco where he lived until he passed in 1993." (monroe north imports) "Guy Pouppez (de Kettenis de Hollaeken) Born in Folkstone (GB) in 1915 and died in 1993 in Monaco, where he became a resident. Belgian artist representative of the kinetic art of the years 1960-70, his work, perfectly mastered, is close to that of a Victor Vasarely. Alongside his large acrylic paintings on canvas or panels, Pouppez has made gouaches, drawings with colored or graphite inks and silkscreen prints. He is also known for drawing stamps for the Monegasque Post. Numerous exhibitions in the 1960s and 70s, among which: -1969, Monte-Carlo Casino (with Lalanne, Mathieu, Leroy) -1970, Galerie Vallombreuse, Biarritz (with Opy Zouni) -1971, Royal-Luxembourg Gallery, Nice (with Chaimowicz ea, Chubac, Chu-The-Chun, Logan) -1973, "Logica della percezione", solo exhibition, Galleria Beniamino, SanRemo, Italy -2014, Retrospective of his work, Scarlett gallery, Megève" (proantic)

if these very few blurbs about his life are right, it seems his art was most relevant during his mid-40s to mid-60s. i can't relate to him as far as not having a lot about one's self on the internet - let alone, having died in 1993, possibly never having used a computer before - but i can relate to being middle aged and motivated to hand-draw many straight lines by hand.

photo of a large watercolor paper with a pencil grid i hand drew before a painting

here are some links to some sites that look weird - probably because i'm not a heiress - and have more of guy pouppez's work to look at.

i needed to dump all this somewhere and maybe you needed the break to look at some cool art, so thank you and you're welcome.