Prints : Ever Meulen

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"Automium" - Ever Meulen

EVER MEULEN : CHILDHOOD IN THE ATOMIUM’S BENIGN SHADOW

When he was twelve years old, Ever Meulen made three visits to Expo ´58. Since that time, he has returned regularly to study the Atomium. The monument has already featured in some of his drawings, but on this occasion he unites it with other childhood passions.

Ever Meulen speaks with great feeling about his reaction to the Atomium. “It was a summer filled with sunshine, and I have nothing but positive memories of Expo ´58. The Atomium was its most spectacular element.” He left his home village in western Flanders in order to study graphic arts in Brussels. “I wasn’t long in taking the tram to revisit the Atomium. I’ve always liked Heysel, a place had visited as a young lad on my trips to the Motor Show.”

As a child, young Eddy dreamed of being an author like those whose work he devoured in the pages of “Tintin” and “Spirou.” “They were incredibly important to young people in those days. They brought me great happiness. I lived in an isolated village in western Flanders and so, for me, bande dessinée was Brussels, and it was francophone. Tintin’s giant head looked down at me from its vantage point in the gare du Midi; I was forever being exposed to images that seemed to come straight from Franquin when I walked the streets of Brussels.”

In his “Automium” screenprint, Ever Meulen commemorates the passions that have stayed with him since childhood: automobiles, Expo ´58, a “ligne claire” style and a “´fifties” colour palette. “After a period of time during which I drew no cars at all, because I was always being approached to do them, I eventually came back to what I knew had always been a passionate interest for me. In combining forms that may seem like unlikely bedfellows, I “customise” my automobiles as I go along. I wanted to work in bande dessinée because I really enjoyed drawing cars, architectural forms, people in the street… Bande dessinée gave me the means to do all that. I don’t create BDs in the classical sense, but I tell my stories through my drawings.”

The master illustrator sees the Atomium as a statue. “It was a strikingly original thing to do at that time. I showed it to lots of visitors – Americans and others – and everyone was impressed. I continue to find it impressive. I went back there at the beginning of this year, on a bright day when the sky was very blue. It was wonderful to be there, and I really believe that the screenprint has absorbed what I felt in those moments. I’m glad that the Atomium exists, that its place is in our garden, here in Brussels.”