Interview. The most famous of domestic felines invests, with his plumpness and his tongue-in-cheek and irresistible humor, a Le Havre gallery. Interview with its creator, the hilarious Philippe Geluck.
Lhe Chat was born in 1983 in the Columns of Evening, in Brussels. Can you remind us in what context he gave his first scratches?
Philippe Geluck: “He had appeared on the thank you card for our wedding in 1980. I had represented us, my wife and I, in the form of cats in a position that left no ambiguity on the course of the wedding night. Everyone had a good laugh. Three years later: it’s the birth of our son, Antoine. So I redesigned the couple of cats watching over their swaddled kitten. A few weeks later, a friend of mine, a journalist from Evening, who had seen several of my exhibitions of India ink drawings enhanced with watercolors, said: “You should be part of the editorial casting. Invent a character who would appear every week in the Tuesday supplement. We will choose the drawings on April 4 ”. “
“The Cat first made my wife laugh”
And have you been working for weeks?
P. G. : ” Not at all ! On the 3rd, he called me to tell me: you haven’t forgotten the drawings? I tell him of course no. However, I had completely zapped, and I got into it late in the evening, on the dining room table. The cat is reborn under my pen. I give him my round glasses. I put a coat, a tie, and start making him say bullshit. I showed the sketches to my wife and it was this cat that made her laugh. The next day, I brought them to the editorial staff and I was chosen. “
In 2023, your Cat will be 40 years old. Are you planning something special for her birthday?
P. G. : “Not yet, but thanks for reminding me of that.” This is what a friend did twenty years ago. He told me that we should do something in a gallery in Paris. One thing leading to another, we evoked the School of Fine Arts. He spoke about it to Henry-Claude Cousseau, the director, and I was able to do a monumental exhibition for the 20 years of the Cat. For the 40 years, I hope that it will be the opening of the Museum of the Cat and the drawing of humor, which must be born in my city, unless the Brussels administration continues to advance like a snail. Suddenly, we may have to wait until 50 years. “
Last October, the Cat became the guide for the Soulages museum in Rodez. Like all museums, it is closed. Are you going to play extra time?
PG: “I hope so with all my heart. The exhibition The Cat at Soulages is already extended until the end of May. I hope the museums will reopen. In Belgium, they never closed. In France, we consider that museums are dangerous places for the spread of the virus, more than supermarkets, which leaves me … wondering. “
You are currently preparing “Le Chat strolls”, a set of 20 monumental sculptures on the Champs Élysées in Paris. Where are you ?
P. G. : “This project has been in the starting blocks for a year. Unfortunately, we cannot be sure of anything. The chosen date is from March 25 to June 11. I hope we can install in mid-March. Being in the open air will be a significant asset, and this cultural event could meet its audience, because there are so few … “
You are regularly the accomplice of a Le Havre, Laurent Ruquier, in his television and radio programs. Does he tell you about his hometown?
P. G. : ” Yes. He often talks about it. In Belgium, that doesn’t mean much. We are a small country while in France, being Normand, Alsatian or Toulouse is not nothing. I don’t know if Laurent is proud of his origins, there isn’t much that can be done about it. On the other hand, he is certainly proud to be the son of a shipyard worker and to have made such a journey. “
What if the Cat went on a diet?
This makes twice that you exhibit in Le Havre, at Corinne Le Monnier, since 2019. You were unable to come for the opening of the exhibition which is starting, but you already know the city?
PG: “If we can say so. I remember the station, the architecture that reminds me of Eastern Europe and the very welcoming bookstore. I have a very emotional memory of a dedication meeting here. A very nice family came to greet me. The children had made drawings of the Cat and gave them to me. I still have them, as well as pictures of these kids. I remember their extraordinary faces. They had brightened my day in Le Havre. “
Have you ever tried putting your Cat on a diet?
PG: “Yes. I drew the Cat in boxer shorts in front of the mirror, making a terrible observation: all my diet attempts ended in a flop! “
A tomcat who stamps contemporary art
–
A dazzling canvas, serigraphs and resin sculptures. Le Chat takes its winter quarters in Le Havre.
Corinne Le Monnier had already exhibited Philippe Geluck’s famous cat in the fall of 2019. “I was charmed by his exhibition at the Musée en Herbe in Paris, and we saw each other again in his studio in Brussels. We had agreed on a new exhibition this winter. What is a pity is that Philippe Geluck was unable to come because of the health situation ”, indicates the Le Havre gallery owner.
Corinne Le Monnier has selected a set of original serigraphs printed in 100 copies and a very beautiful canvas, where it is about the lips of goldfish.
As in the eponymous album – The cat loves art -, Philippe Geluck continues to revisit the greatest masterpieces of contemporary art, where his reinterpretation of the famous Shout de Munch allows him to afford the head of Francis Lalanne; where it is about a not dry Mondrian and the great Pierre Soulages for whom the admiration of the Belgian artist is absolute, unconditional and infinite, like the outrenoir of the Aveyron giant.
The tie cat has entered the Soulages museum in Rodez. It is a big step for art, and a giant leap in terms of emotion. At Corinne Le Monnier, we find some of Geluck’s superb tributes to Soulages. Beyond his beautiful wit, the dazzling is total. Around Le Chat, the gallery owner from Le Havre brought together two contemporary artists: Klasen and Erro.
C. P.
“Around Geluck” exhibition, Corinne Le Monnier gallery, 149 rue Victor-Hugo, Le Havre.
—
– .
