Born in the former GDR, Georg Barber has been using the pseudonym ATAK since the end of the 1980s, a punk period during which he covered the walls of East Berlin with graffiti and trained as a sign painter. Today, a leading figure in contemporary comics, a professor of illustration and the author of remarkable children’s books, ATAK uses a wide range of influences: in each drawing, in each publication, he freely interweaves eras, genres and references from art history and popular imagery.
With the Still Life series created for the Fotokino Studio, he uses the codes of the still life to host the countless objects of his personal collection (some of which are present alongside his paintings), but also takes advantage of them to erect real graphic altars dedicated to his heroes. In this new set of paintings, you will come face to face with Tintin, Caspar David Friedrich, Cheburashka, Gumby, Dick Tracy, Audubon, Little Nemo or Jockum Nordström. So many visual quotes from ATAK’s personal museum.
For this occasion, we have published an original risograph in 3 colors signed by ATAK and available on our online store.
You can also find reproductions of some paintings from the Still Life series in one of the four fanzines published for Laterna magica 2020.
You can have a look at this interview with Georg Barber conducted by the Goethe-Institut Marseille:
