René Goscinny Beyond Laughter 27 September 2017 — 4 March 2018 the Goscinny (JCA), a Philanthropic Institution Founded in 1891
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René Goscinny Beyond laughter 27 september 2017 — 4 march 2018 The Goscinny (JCA), a philanthropic institution founded in 1891. Anna and their two sons joined him phenomenon there the following year. René was educated at the French College and frequented During a career unique in the history the Jewish immigrant community, of the illustrated press, René Goscinny created characterised by its cultural and political a cultural revolution by dissolving the divide activism. Enjoying both drawing and writing between learned and popular culture. and an avid cinemagoer, he read the French What is so striking about this frenetic creator classics and the adventures of Patoruzú, is the gulf between his origins, profoundly the Patagonian Indian hero created marked by Jewish cosmopolitanism and his by the comics artist Dante Quinterno. family’s diasporic existence, and an oeuvre so absolutely secular that some have regarded it as a contemporary “place of memory.” Echoes of war Indeed, there is nothing “Jewish” to be found in the work of the creator of Asterix and (1940-1944) Le Petit Nicolas, the scriptwriter of Lucky Luke and the editor of Pilote magazine. Steeped In August 1940, Stanislas joined at school in the history manuals of Malet the De Gaulle Committee in Buenos Aires. and Isaac, Goscinny made this heritage his own René filled his sketchbooks with caricatures by integrating an archipelago of influences of political figures in the news. We know gleaned in South and North America. nothing of the fate of the Goscinnys who remained in Poland. Abraham Beresniak died in France’s Free zone in 1942. His son The Beresniaks Serge escaped deportation but Léon, Maurice and Volodya were deported and the Goscinnys and murdered at Auschwitz in 1942. In 1943, Stanislas’s sudden death pitched René Goscinny was born in 1926. His mother, the family into a precarious situation. Anna Beresniak, was born in Ukraine in 1889. René worked as an accountant in a tyre factory In Paris in 1912, his grandfather Abraham then as an artist in an advertising agency. founded the Beresniak printing works, whose catalogue comprised publications in Yiddish, Hebrew, French, Russian and Polish, Survival in New York and philosophical, literary and political texts. René’s father, Stanislas Goscinny, was born (1945-1951) in Warsaw in 1887. In 1906 he emigrated to Paris to study chemistry. There, he married In 1945, René and Anna left for New York, Anna Beresniak and Claude and René were where René hoped to forge a career as born. Stanislas and Anna were naturalised a cartoonist in animated films. In 1946, as French citizens in 1926. although he could have obtained American citizenship by serving as a GI, he chose to remain French and did his military service Childhood in France. On his return to New York in 1947, he struggled to earn a living as an illustrator. and adolescence He met Harvey Kurtzman, future creator of Mad magazine, with whom he illustrated in Argentina children’s books. Will Elder, John Severin and Jack Davis initiated him in the art (1928-1940) of comic book production. Goscinny also met Jijé, the mainstay of the Franco-Belgian In 1927 Stanislas Goscinny was sent to Buenos weekly magazine Spirou, and the young Aires by the Jewish Colonisation Association Belgian cartoonist Morris. Beginnings Pilote, as a scriptwriter creative laboratory (1951-1959) and ideal magazine In 1951, Goscinny left New York for Paris, (1959-1974) where he was hired by the Belgian publisher Georges Troisfontaines, whose agency, In 1959, François Clauteaux, Raymond World Press, published Editions Dupuis Joly, Jean Hébrard, René Goscinny, titles. He contributed texts and illustrations Jean-Michel Charlier and Albert Uderzo for a variety of magazines, including Spirou, created Pilote, a weekly magazine for young and became friends with Jean-Michel Charlier people combining news stories and comic and Albert Uderzo. For a few months strips such as Asterix, Barbe-Rouge in 1952-1953, Goscinny was artistic director and Tanguy et Laverdure, which would of TV Family, the magazine that Dupuis become milestones of the “ninth art.” wanted to establish in New York. In 1955-1956, From 1963, Goscinny and Charlier, he published Capitaine Bibobu and Dick Dicks, its co-editors, prioritized comic strips the last comic strips he produced single- and opened up the magazine to a new handedly. A scriptwriter in great demand generation of authors including Giraud, Greg, from 1953 onwards, Goscinny upheld author’s Cabu, Gotlib, Fred, Mandryka, Bretécher, Gébé, rights with Charlier. He was fired for this Reiser and a host of other talents. In the late by World Press and hired by Tintin magazine. 1960s, Giraud, Mandryka, Brétécher, Gotlib, Alexis and Druillet, artists who had infused Pilote with a new modernity, distanced The cornerstones themselves from the magazine to publish in new titles such as L’Écho des savanes, of an oeuvre Métal hurlant and Fluide glacial. Goscinny left Pilote in 1974. Goscinny’s collaborations with the cartoonists Uderzo, Morris, Sempé and Tabary were hugely important in his career. With Uderzo, The zetser and he explored various comics genres from 1951 to 1958 before creating Oumpah Pah (1958) the philosopher and above all their parody of ancient French history, Asterix (the 24 books in the series In Goscinnian comedy one can discern what were worldwide bestsellers from 1959 to 1977). the philosopher Henri Bergson considered In 1955, Morris asked Goscinny to write scripts the prerequisite of every comic effect: for his comic strip Lucky Luke, created in 1946. “a momentary anaesthesia of the heart” Beginning with Rails on the Prairie, their that “addresses itself to pure intelligence.” combined skills and knowledge of North Very early on, Goscinny demonstrated American culture immediately bore fruit. his formidable mastery of the “procedures The popularity of the 41 full-length stories of fabrication of the comical.” Delving into they published from 1955 to 1977 brought the mechanics of his narration and considering them international fame. In 1959, Goscinny his intimate knowledge of printing and Jean-Jacques Sempé created the Little and particularly the gestures of the typesetter Nicolas stories. From 1959 to 1964, the 14 books (zetser in Yiddish), we can detect the hidden in the series sold 15 million copies and were mainsprings of his inspiration, his favourite translated into numerous languages. themes (history, the absurd and black humour, Created in 1962 by Goscinny and Jean Tabary, the childhood world, etc.) and his observation the internationally successful Iznogoud series, of human nature. Behind the comic author whose vile antihero dreams of becoming hid the soul of a moralist and the spirit “caliph instead of the caliph,” ran to 14 books. of a philosopher. Inaugural Lecture Activities Extramural tour for children Wednesday 18 October Saturday 14 October 19.30 Sunday 15 October 14.00 Why “Goscinny is France” 10.30 “In René Goscinny’s By Pascal Ory Tuesday 24 October footsteps at Bobigny” 14.00 Wednesday 25 October Lecture 14.00 Exhibition at “Cinébulles” La Cinémathèque Tuesday 7 November visit-workshop Française, Paris 19.30 The Keys Tuesday 26 December 4 October 2017 – on the Mantelpiece From 10.30 7 March 2018 Read by Anne Goscinny, “René Goscinny for all” day Goscinny and the Cinema. accompanied by Asterix, Lucky Luke & Co Henri Demarquette Game-booklet for 5-10 year-olds on cello Educational space Keep your René Goscinny. in the exhibition Beyond Laughter exhibition ticket and obtain a 50% reduction on full-rate admission (11€) for the Goscinny and the Cinema. Panel Discussions Asterix, Lucky Luke & Co Guided visits exhibition at La Cinémathèque Wednesday 6 December for adults Française. Admission is free 19.30 Thursday 5 October for under 18s. René Goscinny’s 14.15 family History Wednesday 8 November With Aymar du Chatenet, 19.15 Anne Hélène Hoog, Sunday 3 December Natalia Krynicka 11.15 and Yitskhok Niborski Chaired by Didier Pasamonik Wednesday 10 January Visits for adults 19.30 and children René Goscinny, Sundays 22 October a revolution in comics and 5 November with Jean-Pierre Dionnet, 11.15 Philippe Druillet, Emmanuel Guibert, Wednesdays 22 November, Jul, Laurent Martin, 13 December Jean-Pierre Mercier and 10 January and Jean Solé 15.15 Chaired by Wednesday 24 January Antoine Guillot 19.15 This exhibition was made possible thanks to the exceptional loans and collaboration of the Institut René Goscinny, the invaluable collaboration of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and funding by the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah..