The Grand Master of Anything Goes.

February 4, 2013 5:48 AM

(NSFW) Clovis Trouille was a French anti clericist and anarchist painter.
He could be called the spiritual godfather of Lowbrow Art or an Angel of Bad Taste. ( Some Repeats.)
It was one of his paintings that inspired Ken Tynan in 1969 to call his review Oh Calcutta.
posted by adamvasco (11 comments total)

I'm trying to favorite this harder but the button must be broke.
posted by Sailormom at 7:13 AM on February 4 [1 favorite]

Excellent post, and I was glad to learn this:

In Oh! Calcutta! Calcutta! (The French phrase "oh quel cul t'as" translates roughly as "oh what a lovely backside you have")

posted by languagehat at 7:57 AM on February 4 [3 favorites]

I am a terrible decorator and so have delegated all decisions of taste to my boyfriend. But I will be damned if a painting of cardinals in lingerie won't hang over outr mantle.
posted by munchingzombie at 8:22 AM on February 4

I see some elements of his work (top left) still have strong echos today.
posted by FatherDagon at 8:29 AM on February 4 [1 favorite]

I see some elements of his work (top left) still have strong echos today.
Wut!
''Remembrance'' was painted in 1930 and shows allegorically the twisted body of France (the woman - she has the French colours on her arm; throwing away a bunch of worthless medals because France lost over 1.5 million people and twelve years later the perverse clergy (themselves part of the stultifying French social problems, continue to anoint the elite who were responsible for that conflict and ensuing carnage.
Please explain the allegory of your comic book heroine Cat Oman?
posted by adamvasco at 9:03 AM on February 4

That "nice ass" pun was also made by Marcel Duchamp in L.H.O.O.Q.. El ash oh oh koo or Elle a chaud au cul.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 9:03 AM on February 4 [1 favorite]

Please explain the allegory of your comic book heroine Cat Oman?

The pose of France in the painting is too natural and adheres to rational anatomy too closely to make much of a match to that particular cover. Also, Cat Oman is the best autocorrect I've seen all day.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:18 AM on February 4

Please explain the allegory of your comic book heroine Cat Oman?

He's joking, drawing a parallel between the physical contortions of the woman in the upper left of the painting and Catwoman.Or he's talking about that thing about Catwoman being a metaphor for the religious - all dressed in severe black - stealing from the bourgeois, not for the benefit of the commonfolk but to satisfy their own sick (Note the whip, echoing the scourge) and greedy compulsions.

Or he's just joking.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:19 AM on February 4

He's joking, drawing a parallel between the physical contortions of the woman in the upper left of the painting and Catwoman.

see also the Escher Girls

The Catwoman tag there is instructive
posted by chavenet at 9:31 AM on February 4

Loooove this! Thanks for posting!
posted by Our Ship Of The Imagination! at 11:05 AM on February 4

There's something in the art of certain French and Spanish artists, the sheer naughty-boy joy in sexualizing and profaning priests and nuns, that's just inaccessible to me with my upbringing as an agnostic/jewish American.
posted by benito.strauss at 1:01 PM on February 4