CHAVAL, WOLINSKI Dessins de presse

The Huberty & Breyne exhibition at 21 rue Chapon brings together two major figures from the world of French press cartoons and graphic humour: Chaval (1915-1968) and Georges Wolinski (1934-2015). Spanning nearly half a century of creative work, this exhibition highlights the resonances between their respective œuvres, reflecting a shared freedom of expression and unflinchingobservation of society.

Both artists were among the most popular cartoonists of their time. During the 1950s and 1960s, Chaval was a dominant presence in the pages of Paris-Match, Le Figaro and Le Nouvel Observateur, while Wolinski recorded the upheavals of French society from the 1960s up until the start of the 21stcentury for Hara-Kiri, Charlie Hebdo, Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris Match and L’Humanité. Their drawings reached a huge audience, but never at the cost of complacency. Behind the immediacy of every gag lay a profound reflection on the absurdities of existence.

For both artists, the drawing is pared down to essentials, a few strokes sufficient to conjure up a person, a situation, an entire world. Chaval seeks out the idée juste with surgical precision. AndWolinski, after a prolific early career, also settled for a simple, rounded, instantly recognisable drawing style. 

What truly unites Chaval and Wolinski, however, is their perspective on humanity. Despite the generational gap, the two artists share a common aim: they ask questions, cultivate a sense of the absurd, challenge conventions and – through laughter – expose the flaws in our certitudes. Neithermoralists nor ideologues, they observe their contemporaries with a detachment tinged with a mixture of tenderness and cruelty. Their characters are weak, contradictory and ridiculous – prisoners of their own desires, fears and illusions. In Chaval’s work, absurdity often tips over into a kind of metaphysical vertigo. His is a universe populated by gormless officials, melancholic animals and Beckettian figures, pointing to the futility of social conventions and the vacuousness of human certitudes. Wolinski, for his part, tirelessly explores the contradictions inherent in relationships, desire, politics and power. Yet, beneath the provocation, the eroticism and the laughter, we sense that same awareness of human fragility.

The two artists share a kind of latent despair. Describing himself as an "ironigraphe", Chaval pushed his clear-sightedness to the point of self-destruction, ultimately taking his own life at the age of 52. Through his characters – chatterboxes, little liberated women and discombulated men – Wolinskicontinued to explore themes of loneliness, death, doubt and the impossibility of finding definitive answers. For both men, humour was a way to inhabit the uncomfortableness of existence. 

This exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to encounter two major exponents of French press illustration. Wolinski’s work is rightly celebrated today, and for its sheer originality Chaval’s deserves to be rediscovered.

OPENING 
Thursday 27 August 2026
from 4 p.m to 7 p.m.

EXHIBITION
From Friday 28 August
to Saturday 19 September 2026

PARIS | Chapon - 21
21 rue Chapon 75003 Paris
Wednesday > Friday 1.30 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Saturday 12 p.m. - 7 p.m.