Zep (Philippe Chappuis, also known as) *1967

Zep (Philippe Chappuis, also known as) *1967
Titeuf in Carouge
Felt-tip pen and Ecoline liquid watercolor on paper for an illustration intended for a serigraph published on the occasion of this exhibition organized in 2018.
Signed and dated “July 31, 2018”. Also used for one of the three posters of this exhibition (only the right part, with Titeuf). On the preparatory drawing, the shop had a sign that said “Chocolats” (Chocolates), the man with the cap had no dog, Zep was at the back of the cafe, there was no bicycle attached to the gutter, and Titeuf's gaze was directed to the right.
29.7 x 42 cm

Sitting on the left, in a green polo shirt, observing with wide, round eyes what is happening in this quiet street and scribbling some notes, Zep, with a pencil (perhaps a Caran d'Ache) and a sketchbook. In the background, partly hidden by the tree trunk, a poster for the Geneva rock band Le Beau Lac de Bâle in concert at the Chat noir, and, at the back of the cafe, Flappo, the character created by Gérald Poussin. It is rare for the cartoonist and Titeuf to be reunited in this way, especially in a work whose atmosphere is that of a typical small Swiss town. This image in a way recalls Zep's beginnings, when he had his studio right next to a primary school in this municipality in the canton of Geneva, where the exhilarating cries and comments of children, particularly wild during recess, reached him, and he hoped that the character he had just created, at the beginning of 1992, would finally be accepted by a publisher. This would be the case a few months later, and the big day would come in January of the following year with the publication of the first Titeuf album.