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Kiraz’s “Les Parisiennes” drawings exhibition at the Musée Carnavalet
from: http://blogs.lexpress.fr/cafe-mode/2008/05/expo_les_parisiennes_de_kiraz.html
Paris history museum, the Musée Carnavalet, is showing a Kiraz retrospective at the moment. More than a hundred gouache illustrations are on show, plus paintings and ads, from the 60s to the 2000s. Visiting it is like flicking through an album. Every drawing deserves a stop. Half of the time, people burst out laughing in front of the text. Then they are seduced by the charm of the drawing. Kiraz was not only a great colorist, but he also knew everything about fashion. Tiny bikinis, psychedelic prints, bell bottom trousers... he caught everything. Born in Cairo, he liked Paris streets: his Parisian girls were always set in familiar areas, but never obviously touristy places. As for their bodies, they had more to do with fantasy than with reality.
There is something very special about their figures. Photographer Dominique Issermann summed it up perfectly: "He invented an amazing mix, African body, Italian chest, Eastern eyes, Northern hair, Paris spirit". I got it wrong yesterday, the greatest retouch specialist is not Dangin, it is Kiraz. Always tanned, irresistible with their big Bambi eyes and their childish pouts, showing never-ending legs, they exhale something a model will never have. Canderel, who used the drawings in a memorable campaign from 1995 to 2003, knew it very well. I was sometimes a bit annoyed by the sexist side (Kiraz' s Parisiennes are always daddy's girls who never work and see men as financial providers they should marry very quickly), but never mind: if some lines sounded old-fashioned, the drawings remain timeless.
From:http://www.hotels-paris-rive-gauche...az-drawings-exhibition-musee-carnavalet-paris
Kiraz is extremely well-known in France for his instantly recognisable style of drawings, especially his series of impossibly tall and thin women called 'Les Parisiennes'. The Musée Carnavalet, the Paris museum about Paris, is holding an exhibition showing his large body of work.
They are tall. They are thin. They are sometimes completely brainless, sometimes wickedly satirical. They 'Les Parisiennes', a series of drawings by Kiraz, an egyptian-born artist whose work has graced the covers of Elle, Marie-Claire and the pages of Playboy (where the drawings are often quite saucy, in an innocent 1970s way). Created in the 1950s, they became better known in the 1960s. Paris Match loved them. Playboy still publishes them.
Kiraz was born in Cairo in 1923 and worked as a political satirist after the Second World War. However in 1959 he changed styles and tried to launch himself in higher circles, using his risqué touch to help create a buzz. 40 years later, the first major retrospective of his work includes 130 pieces including original drawings, some paintings that have never been seen, sketches, photographs, publicity posters and press clippings.
If you want to get an idea of the image of Parisian women, equal parts style and snobbery, go see!
Kiraz at work, the video Kiraz
Les Parisiennes by Kiraz
From May 14th to September 21st 2008
Musée Carnavalet
23, rue de Sévigné, Paris 3ème
Métro Saint Paul (line 4) or Chemin Vert (line 8). Bus n°s 29, 69, 76 & 96
Tél : 00 33 1 44 59 58 58
Open from Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm
Closed on Mondays and Bank Holidays
from: http://blogs.lexpress.fr/cafe-mode/2008/05/expo_les_parisiennes_de_kiraz.html
Paris history museum, the Musée Carnavalet, is showing a Kiraz retrospective at the moment. More than a hundred gouache illustrations are on show, plus paintings and ads, from the 60s to the 2000s. Visiting it is like flicking through an album. Every drawing deserves a stop. Half of the time, people burst out laughing in front of the text. Then they are seduced by the charm of the drawing. Kiraz was not only a great colorist, but he also knew everything about fashion. Tiny bikinis, psychedelic prints, bell bottom trousers... he caught everything. Born in Cairo, he liked Paris streets: his Parisian girls were always set in familiar areas, but never obviously touristy places. As for their bodies, they had more to do with fantasy than with reality.
There is something very special about their figures. Photographer Dominique Issermann summed it up perfectly: "He invented an amazing mix, African body, Italian chest, Eastern eyes, Northern hair, Paris spirit". I got it wrong yesterday, the greatest retouch specialist is not Dangin, it is Kiraz. Always tanned, irresistible with their big Bambi eyes and their childish pouts, showing never-ending legs, they exhale something a model will never have. Canderel, who used the drawings in a memorable campaign from 1995 to 2003, knew it very well. I was sometimes a bit annoyed by the sexist side (Kiraz' s Parisiennes are always daddy's girls who never work and see men as financial providers they should marry very quickly), but never mind: if some lines sounded old-fashioned, the drawings remain timeless.
From:http://www.hotels-paris-rive-gauche...az-drawings-exhibition-musee-carnavalet-paris
Kiraz is extremely well-known in France for his instantly recognisable style of drawings, especially his series of impossibly tall and thin women called 'Les Parisiennes'. The Musée Carnavalet, the Paris museum about Paris, is holding an exhibition showing his large body of work.
They are tall. They are thin. They are sometimes completely brainless, sometimes wickedly satirical. They 'Les Parisiennes', a series of drawings by Kiraz, an egyptian-born artist whose work has graced the covers of Elle, Marie-Claire and the pages of Playboy (where the drawings are often quite saucy, in an innocent 1970s way). Created in the 1950s, they became better known in the 1960s. Paris Match loved them. Playboy still publishes them.
Kiraz was born in Cairo in 1923 and worked as a political satirist after the Second World War. However in 1959 he changed styles and tried to launch himself in higher circles, using his risqué touch to help create a buzz. 40 years later, the first major retrospective of his work includes 130 pieces including original drawings, some paintings that have never been seen, sketches, photographs, publicity posters and press clippings.
If you want to get an idea of the image of Parisian women, equal parts style and snobbery, go see!
Kiraz at work, the video Kiraz
Les Parisiennes by Kiraz
From May 14th to September 21st 2008
Musée Carnavalet
23, rue de Sévigné, Paris 3ème
Métro Saint Paul (line 4) or Chemin Vert (line 8). Bus n°s 29, 69, 76 & 96
Tél : 00 33 1 44 59 58 58
Open from Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm
Closed on Mondays and Bank Holidays
