His red-flagged rollers or his snipe with his fist raised have gone down in history. Internationally known, the Breton poster artist Alain Le Quernec has been accompanying social and cultural movements for more than half a century. The director Pierre-François Lebrun drew his portrait in a documentary currently available in replay on France3 .
Born in 1944, Alain Le Quernec studied art in Paris. In the 1970s, he went to Warsaw where he trained with Henryk Tomaszewski, considered the father of the Polish poster school. An encounter that had a decisive influence on his artistic career. "Anything that appears on a poster must be justified. There must be no useless things." explains one of the master's former students in the film.
On his return from Warsaw, he was appointed professor of drawing in Quimper. Parallel to his work as a teacher, he made exhibitions and responded to commissions for posters. His first poster to be printed in large numbers is Marianne Espoir, an electoral poster of the Socialist Party for the 1973 legislative elections.
But it is with an Amnesty International poster from 400?000 copies that he makes himself known beyond the Breton lands. Social struggles, electoral posters, plays, he accompanies through his work the social, political and cultural movements of the second half of the 20th century e century. In the 1990s, he began to work in press cartoons, collaborating with the newspaper The World .
Alain Le Quernec's work is currently exhibited at the Centre du graphisme in Échirolles, near Grenoble. There are about a hundred posters, editions, more personal works, preparatory sketches and press drawings. And when Alain Le Quernec has to define his profession, this is his answer..
"?Mon métier??
Affichiste?? The word is old-fashioned.
Graphiste?? Too technical.
Artiste?? Too pretentious.
Publicitaire?? No insults, please.
I'm not sure there's a word to define this job. I'm not sure there is such a thing as a job.?»
