France
Mazerel

France Mazerel (or Materiel; FR. Frans Masereel) — Belgian painter, representative of the left of expressionism, master of the great graphic cycle"novels".

Born in wetteren (East Flanders) on 30 July 1889. He studied at the Ghent Academy of fine arts (1907-1908). Since 1909 he lived in England, Germany, Switzerland, but mainly in France. Three times (1935-1937, and 1958) visited the Soviet Union.

During the First world war converged in Geneva to Romain Rolland, joining the group of writers-militarists. Put their drawings in their journal "the Leaf" ("La Feuille"), and other periodicals of the left, producing your graphical language is based on strong black and white contrasts and an equally catchy and rhetorician "black and white" the social symbolism of good and evil. His favorite technique was woodcut. Famous for the large cycles, formed sometimes whole expressionist "graphic novels". Served as artist books (illustrated works of Barbusse, Zweig, etc.); the most famous of his work in this area — epico-lyrical illustrations to Jean-Christophe Romain Rolland (1925-1927).

Master generalists, actively worked as an Illustrator (painting with oil, watercolors, woodblock prints), the theatre and cinema artist, painter and muralist, created sketches for ceramics, but in all of these areas (in contrast to his "novels" and best illustrations) has not risen above the average level of moderate modernism, at first, "partisan", then all the more lyrical and contemplative.

Masereel died in Avignon on 3 January 1972.