Julian Allen
(1942 - 1998)
Ary Bergen
(1923 – 1995)
Andrzej Dudziński
(1945 – 2023)
David Grove
(1940 – 2012)
René Gruau
(1909-2004)
Michel Jouin
(1936 – 2018)
Antonio Lopez
(1943 – 1987)
Giorgio Mizzi
(1940 – 2008)
Patrick Nagel
(1945 – 1984)
Pham Van My
(1950 - 2001)
Christian Royer
Sempé
(1932 - 2022)
Everyone knows the 'Little Nick', the 'Little Dancer' and 'Mr. Sommer' as well as Sempé's innumberable drawings, which have appeared not only in French media but also regularly in the' New Yorker' and in countless illustrated books. His drawings always tell affectionately observed everyday stories of ordinary people about whom he learns the most when he watches them, as he said. From an interview he is quoted with the phrase: "To be human requires an enormous amount of bravery"; and he draws, "because I do not understand myself and because I do not understand the world".
I think back with great pleasure and gratitude to my cooperation with Sempé - although he mostly refused my requests for advertising campaigns with the sentence: 'Oh non, je suis désolé, mais cela me renderait malheureux pendent des mois' ('Oh no, I'm sorry, but that would keep me unhappy for months'). I like to remember conversations full of friendly humour and his reliable way of working, e. g. for the print campaign of Crédit Suisse at the end of the 90s, which Sempé - thanks to the virtually tailor-made concept of the McCann Zurich creative team - put into practice with obvious pleasure.
© Margarethe Hubauer International Illustration 2024