Yann Kebbi

Next on the list of Carlos San Millan’s inspiring painters: Yann Kebbi. Kebbi was born in Paris in 1987. After receiving a degree in illustration, he continued his studies in Paris, where he spent his time creating prints, monotypes, and pencil sketches. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. He lives in Armenia.

Hey – there’s a little monotype workshop coming up Oct 12. You wanna get inky? Click here to learn more.

Kebbi has illustrated a couple of published books: The Structure Is Rotten, Comrade, and Americanine: A Haute Dog in New York.

The Structure Is Rotten, Comrade is illustrated with a seemingly naive hand. The figures are stiff and the color is roughly scrawled in patches, unrefined. The illustrations look incomplete. But the expressiveness of the illustrations are doing what paintings since the early 1900s were allowed to do, and they are in sync with the writing. The compositions and sequencing are clever, effective, and graceful. Here Kebbi has used an awkward, raw, and gestural style to produce a deft and varied articulation of tone. His illustrations add an emotional and visual charge to the writing. I can’t wait to see my book!

Below is an excerpt found on pen.org

Frunzik: “That’s right, and that brings us to the end of our walking tour. Just in time for my appointment with dad at RAD. Apologies for the mess. Don’t mind the homeless. Be careful not to step on one.”

Homeless Man: “Look what you’ve done with your crazy plan to redesign Yerevan.’’

Frunzik: “I’m sensitive to your plight, so is RAD, and so is dad. You convey something of our own fears about being lost and vulnerable in a big city. Change is not easy, but look on the bright side: You’ll soon move into a bigger apartment. I promise you that.’’

Homeless Man: ‘’When will that be?’’

Frunzik: “In five years, if we’re on time and budget.”

Homeless Man: “But nothing is ever on time and budget here.’’

Frunzik: “You can’t reinvent the Caucasus overnight. It took Le Corbusier more than five years to build the Unité.’’

Homeless Man: “Destroyer of homes. Where am I supposed to live in the next five years? Thousands have been displaced because of you. They demolished my apartment in Old Yerevan to satisfy the whims of an oligarch on Northern Boulevard. They promised us homes and gave us nothing.’’

Frunzik: “I realize it’s no fun sitting on an Alvar Aalto stool all day, but it’s not all doom and gloom. I’m negotiating with the city banks to offer you a competitive mortgage: 11 percent fixed rate, and you’ll have three toilets instead of one.’’

Homeless Man: “I want my old apartment. I want my old toilet. I don’t need more than one bathroom. Haven’t you heard about the theory of diminishing marginal utility?’’

Frunzik: “Look at my glasses. Do I look like an economist to you?

Frunzik: “And this isn’t only about YOUR bathroom. This is about the image of a city.

“There are people watching. There are reputations at stake here. Now take this money and Let. Go. Of. My. Leg.”

Homeless Man: “Thank you. May they bury you under three hundred tons of cement.’’ 

AJ Powers is teaching a Political Cartooning short-workshop Nov 10. He’ll talk about point of view, sequencing, and other elements that make an illustration interesting. Want to draw out those ideas? Register today!

Reviews of the book:

“Kebbi’s outlandish, raw colored-pencil art [is a perfect match for] Berberian’s sardonic voice and apocalyptic sense of humor. This bizarre art-comic will tickle intellectual funny bones.”
– Publishers Weekly

“Berberian’s writing is propelled by artist Kebbi’s color pencil art, which embraces the chaotic narrative fully. Smart and wild in equal measure, The Structure Is Rotten, Comrade is excellent reading.”
– The A.V. Club

“Kebbi renders a violently chaotic world consisting entirely of colored pencil lines charged with gestural energy.”
– PopMatters

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The second book, Americanine: A Haute Dog in New York, is actually the first Kebbi wrote. The premise is simple: a French dog, upon his return to Paris, recounts his trip to New York city. The book is a delightful sequence of vibrant, kinetically drawn New York sights. A city of fine art illustrated in a fine art style.

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Ok, done with doggies. Below are the drawings Carlos San Millan sent as his favorites by this artist. Some of these remind me of L. S. Lowry.

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There’s still time! AJ Power’s 6 week Beginning Drawing class starts Oct 8. Draw!

Here are three more Kebbi artworks I found. These were so gently emotive I couldn’t leave them out of this post. I enjoy the cross hatching on the paper, and the juxtaposition of the brief, heavily scribbled contour lines and light more carefully drawn mass of hatching lines, but the one that moves me the most is the crowd of people at a museum.

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