Cartoonist Glen Baxter draws the Poitou-Charentes - guaranteed to make you smile!
It’s a tough job but someone has to do it! For the past nine years the English cartoonist Glen Baxter has been on a historical and gastronomic safari throughout the Poitou-Charentes – and now the results of his travels, 170 works in Baxter’s distinctive absurdist style and based on the region’s foods and drinks, are on display in Poitiers.
The idea for such as exhibition came after Baxter spotted a peculiar looking cake in the window of a cheese shop in Poitiers. ‘It looked like a meteorite,’ he says. ‘I was told it was a tourteau fromagé, a local speciality in Poitou Charentes.’
The person doing the explaining was Dominique Truco, a museum curator, and over dinner later that evening she and her partner, who writes for the artistic review Actualité Poitou-Charentes, suggested the three of them went on an artistic on safari. Baxter took little persuading. ‘It was the perfect assignment,’ he says. ‘Art, food and wine!’
And so the trio headed to the Ile de Ré, La Rochelle and Rochefort, trying local delicacies and drawing and writing about them. ‘I knew some already, like oysters and cognac, but we found out so much,’ Baxter says. ‘There is Duhomard, an aperitif that has a lobster on the label of the drink - I made a story about that. And scofa, a light cake made of eggs, flour and almonds, made in only two places outside of Poitiers.’
The results of the almost a decade of travels – ‘we did a week here, a week there,’ explains Baxter – is a book published by Actualité Poitou-Charentes, and the works which are displayed through out Poitiers and in the Musée St. Croix, displayed next to paintings done by the grand masters.
Baxter who lives in London, has long been popular in France. Since the beginning his career as a cartoonist (since 1979, he has held exhibitions in four continents) Baxter has been a French favourite, earning him the nickname ‘Tati of dessin’. ‘In the UK, you often hear people say that comic art is childish, that it’s just for kids, but it’s not at all,’ Baxter says. ‘In France, they take the comic form seriously, and I admire that.’
He also has the all important job of promoting the aperitif Pineau des Charentes, around the world - he was made a Chevalier for the Confrerie du Franc Pineau in Angouleme, after they saw a drawing he did inspired by pineau. It is a role he takes very seriously. ‘It is my duty to tell people about it,’ Baxter says. ‘I have a friend who is a wine importer in the UK, and he is now selling it. They sold out the first batch!'
Glen Baxter’s works can be seen in Poitiers until September 12 at Galerie Louise Michel, 25, rue Edith-Piaf; Maison d'Architecture, 1, rue de la Tranchée; Musée St Croix, 3 bis, rue Jean-Jaures; Espace Mendes France, 1 pl Cathédrale et du Cardinal ; L'Art Cella du CRDP, 6, rue Sainte Catherine; Librarie la Belle Aventure, 15 Rue des Grandes Ecoles; and on walls throughout the town.
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