home sales Tessier & Sarrou offers up to June 24, next 21 original boards of the cartoonist and screenwriter Italian Milo Manara. This lover of the erotic dream that admits to being drawn to stories naughty since the age of 25 years has taken advantage of the confinement to lie down on the paper of the watercolours which will pay tribute to women who continued to fight in the first line is and for the life in the context of health as we know it. The proceeds of the sale which shall be conducted only online will be donated for the benefit of the civil protection franco-italo-belgian. Estimated each to 2 000 euros, these works are, to Manara, the opportunity to say thank you to these heroines of the everyday. As recalled by the expert Alain Huberty, " as they are called Claudia, Philis or Molly, they are known or unknown, the women in lascivious poses of Milo Manara are null other such elegant and desirable, strong and determined, always superb. This is exactly what makes the strength of this artist. These women of paper are both alive and armed with a little something extra that pushes them backward, and that warms the heart. "The legend of the comic tells the story to The Point how was born this new series, his vision of containment and its consequences.
Cassiera © DR
also Read comics – Milo Manara : "The era of sexual freedom is over"
The Point : How did you react to the confinement ?
Milo Manara : To be honest, I can't complain of my isolation. I live and work isolated in a house in the north of Italy, in the countryside, on the slope of a hill and with a garden that has allowed me to enjoy the outside. My job, after all, has always been rather lonely as many of my fellow designers. Everything seemed normal, despite the unusual silence in the valley, the latter being sometimes torn by the sirens of the ambulances.
Why have you started this series of watercolors ?
I could not tell you exactly how I started this series of small watercolours. The only thing I'm certain is that there was certainly no program. In fact, at the office, I simply started to draw a first picture. I immediately felt a sense of loss, a disbelief and a deep anxiety in the face of the health disaster that was announced. The coronavirus has prevented me from continuing my work routine. So, it was Impossible for me to find the concentration of attention on something. And I imagine that the same thing happened to everyone. Take, for example, a lover of books who wanted to take advantage of the inactivity imposed to read thousands, but it couldn't go beyond the first three pages of the first. If I had to sum up my situation, I would say that I was missing one essential thing : serenity.
Protezione Civile © DR
And you got a click ?
It was the 8th of march, in other words, the Day of the woman. I tried to think of a picture for the occasion, but the news that arrived overlapped and prevented me from thinking. Imagine doctors and nurses trying to cope with an unknown virus, often without protection and with the hospitals are filling more and more patients in severe conditions, with facilities of intensive therapy inadequate, and the feeling of not being able to cope with it, to be overwhelmed. It is as that which is born of the first image, spontaneously.
also Read When Picasso was at war with a comic book
the image of your colleague and friend Hugo Pratt, a great admirer of women like you, so you naturally turned to the female figure only ?
In fact, an anaesthetist, was the first to diagnose the presence of the virus, thus, it was obvious that I had to decline the image in the feminine. Also because it was a duty for me to celebrate their courage, their selflessness and strength of these women, exhausted, poorly protected, but who, despite everything, have remained in their place, doing their duty while taking huge risks for themselves and their loved ones. There are many questions to me are coming : how could I be vaguely useful, as a designer, and how could I express my gratitude and my encouragement to them. You know, it's been more than fifty years that I draw and sublime the woman in my creations. But after chewing the beauty and eroticism of women, it was time to celebrate their other virtues. To the side of the caregivers, there was also a lot of other people who continued to do their work, in the interest of all, and who took a great risk of being contaminated : the cashiers, the cleaning services of hospitals, refuse collectors or the police. I drew them one by one, just to thank them and, perhaps even, in the hope that we will remember them when this period will be behind us.
Farmacista © DR
do you Think that this unsettled period will play on your future creations ?
Certainly, everything plays in the creation of an author, especially a milestone such as this one. Perhaps I will mention, not directly, but at an unconscious level, my work is obviously influenced by everything we have experienced these last few months.
Read also In the skin of Caravaggio
Finally, how do you feel about the future as a result of the health crisis we are experiencing ?
The virus has been fair from the point of view of health, striking without distinction the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak. But, from an economic point of view, things are very different, and I'm not just talking about mass graves in the north of Brazil, covered by bulldozers. The financial consequences brought on by the virus will be a lot heavier for some than for others, and I think that the inequality will further widen. I am convinced that if the poor are becoming more poor and, conversely, that the rich become richer and richer, as the oceans are full of plastic, we're on the wrong track.
Biologhe tecniche laboratorio © DR
This global crisis caused by the pandemic could be the opportunity to operate a rebalancing, correction of the deep inequity that exists between different nations of the world, reduce pollution and global warming. I am afraid that we cannot continue on the wrong road and I really hope to fool me. By the way, I think it will not harm the human being all-powerful, to come back to earth and discover that we are not invincible, but, on the contrary, very vulnerable, as we proved the Covid-19. Finally, this period odd will make us open our eyes, I hope, on other priorities, and we will also rethink our relationships between each and the planet. Maybe, who knows, the future will tell us.
Tessier & Sarrou – Milo Manara mobilized for civil protection. Sale exclusively online on drouotdigital until June 24, 2020. On the 30th of July next, in a portfolio called Lockdown Heroes will be available in the bookstore. 25 boards the will and will pay homage to women heroines sublimated by Milo Manara.
