Flemish cartoonist Kamagurka (“Soldier of Love”) is best known internationally for the irreverent and absurdist humor he uses in his cartoons (a.o. in The Spectator, Suddeutsche Zeitung, The New Yorker, and RAW) and in the Cowboy Henk strips which he writes for artist Herr Seele. But Kamagurka is a man of many talents. Next to cartoons and strips, he’s tried his hand at recording music (with moderate, local success), television comedy, theater performances, literary columns and fine art.
(Hitler as an elephant, part of a series from Kamagurka’s website, (c) Kamagurka)
As a fine artist, he seems to have found a partner in crime in Mark Coucke, head honcho of the pharmaceutical company Omega Pharma. Last week they announced that during 2008, Kamagurka will produce a painting every day, as a sort of diary, resulting in 366 paintings by the end of the year. Coucke, who has been collecting Kamagurka’s work for quite a while now, will take care of selling the paintings, and he’s convinced that in this manner, Kamagurka the painter will become world famous.
So far fifty paintings (which still need to be created) have been sold in a pre-order scheme to business people and art collectors. The Belgian art world, however, is not impressed (link in Dutch).
Wed, Jan 2, 2008
Art and animation, Comics and cartoons, From our Continental Correspondent