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Following a link from objectiftintin.com, the Nouvel Observateur reports that from December the Pompidou Centre in Paris will stage an exhibition to mark the centenary of Hergé’s birth, and the 30th anniversary of the Centre. The article is here, and the mention is towards the end.

From the press release by the Pompidou Centre:

In the first part, five displays present the major periods in Hergé's life. Born at Etterbeek, near Brussels, in 1907, he was named Georges Remi, and it was by reversing his initials that he derived his pen-name. The first display illustrates the period when Hergé was drawing Totor for the Belgian magazine Le Boy-Scout. In 1928, already employed as a jack-of-all-trades at Le Vingtième siècle, he was given responsibility for a new supplement, Le Petit Vingtième. The first issue came out on Thursday 1 November, and was thereafter published weekly with the newspaper.

The second display focuses on the Thirties, a highly creative period that saw the birth of Tintin and of Quick and Flupke. It also saw Hergé's decisive encounter with "Chang." It was Zhang Chongren, then a young Chinese student at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, who persuaded Hergé to be scrupulous in his representation of the countries to which he despatched his hero Tintin.

The third shows how the war and its restrictions â€" among them the paper shortage â€" brought revolutionary technical changes. Hergé's works were limited to 62 pages, which also meant a reduction in the size of the drawings, which now however appeared in colour. It was then that Hergé met Edgar Pierre Jacobs, who became his first collaborator.

The fourth display looks at the events of the Fifties, such as the creation of Studios Hergé, which gradually came to employ some fifty assistants, and the exhibition ends with the glory days of the Sixties. Tintin was famous all over the world, and Hergé was awarded many prizes. It was then too that he discovered abstract art, becoming a patron and a collector.

The second half brings together an astonishing wealth of original documents of all kinds, organised by seven themes:

1. Hergé in his own voice and his own hand: a glimpse of Hergé's world through sound recordings and manuscript notes.

2. Hergé's grammar: a selection of letters to publishers Casterman and Éditions Lombard, accompanied by the graphics they discuss, casts a light behind the scenes.

3. Publications: original editions of Le Petit Vingtième, Coeurs Vaillants, Le Soir Jeunesse and Le Journal de Tintin offer a nostalgic return to the past for some, and a first look at the early comic
albums for others.

4. The making of an Hergé album: documenting the artist's creative process through the different stages in the production of Objectif Lune and On a marché sur la Lune.

5. Le Lotus Bleu: 124 original plates of The Blue Lotus, presented for the first time in 20 years.

6. The Hergé family: a family portrait of Hergé's favourite characters, Tintin and Snowy, Thomson and Thompson, Bianca Castafiore, Chang Chon-Chen, Capt. Haddock and Prof. Calculus.

7. Hergé's travels: with Tintin, the roving reporter he was happy to send all over the world.

And two new publications to coincide with the exhibition:

HERGÉ PAR HERGÉ
Pub. Éditions Moulinsart and Éditions Centre Pompidou
15 x 15 cm - 1024 pages
4 colour printing on 135 g Périgord matt paper
Raw board covers with cloth spine
ISBN 2-87424-099-0
PRICE: 35 euros

Marking both the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou and the anniversary of Hergé's birth (22 May 2007), this catalogue traces Hergé's development as a graphic artist. The text that accompanies this panoramic survey (800 colour illustrations) is by Hergé himself, 200 illuminating quotations from interviews and personal correspondence. There are also photographs documenting Hergé's life.

Juvenilia, preparatory pencil sketches, adverts, book and magazines covers, comic panels and colour schemes all illustrate the wealth of Hergé's genius. Accompanied by his own commentary, they offer a one-to-one encounter with the artist.

With a preface by Bruno Racine, essays by Laurent Le Bon and Nick Rodwell, curators of the exhibition, an essential biography and a bibliography.

LES MYSTÈRES DU LOTUS BLEU
Pierre Fresnault Deruelle
with Jean-Michel Coblence
Pub. Éditions Moulinsart and Éditions Centre Pompidou
large album (32,5 x 23 cm), soft cover with flaps
original artwork with commentary
32 pages
4 colour printing on 135 g matt coated paper
matt lamination
ISBN 2-87424-121-0
PRICE: 9 euros

All the original page artwork for The Blue Lotus is exhibited at the Centre Pompidou. The exhibition is accompanied by this beautiful, slim (32 page) large-format album reproducing pages and panels of the original. A lucid explanatory commentary by Pierre Fresnault Deruelle brings to life the mysterious world that Tintin discovers in China This classic story is a milestone in the history of the European comic album and a landmark in Hergé's own development as an artist.

Jean-Michel Coblence's introduction tells the story of the collaboration between Hergé and "Chang." On the inside covers and the large flaps are reproductions of some of the loveliest cover pages from the Petit Vingtième, showing Tintin in the Far East.

See "Tribute to 'father' of comic boy hero Tintin takes off in Paris" (Yahoo News)

I was hoping someone who's visited the Pompidou Centre exhibit could tell the rest of us how the exhibit was!
I won't be able to visit before it closes on February 19th. I was able to purchase the exhibit catalogue that has reproductions of some of the Blue Lotus originals on display. I saw a photo of the front of the museum with a giant reproduction of the red & white rocket that looked awesome! I need more and the Pompidou website doesn't have a virtual tour! Sniff!

From what I've read online it sounds like quite an exhibition. I'm going on Friday, so I should be able to do a little write-up for the site along with some photos, hopefully!

Just added: Richard's report on the Herge exhibition at the Pompidou Centre. His photos from the Pompidou Centre exhibition can be found in our Tintin Gallery. (Thank you, Richard!)

Enjoy!

Excellent report, Richard! Are you the one pictured next to Tintin in his space-suit?
I am definitely going to try for a visit - how long would you estimate was need to allow for queuing and touring the exhibit? I hope to go and come back in a day on Eurostar, so it would help me to work out connections if I knew how long to give myself. Many thanks!

jock123
Excellent report, Richard! Are you the one pictured next to Tintin in his space-suit?

Thank-you very much - and yes, that's me next to Tintin! I wasn't the only one having my picture taken there, it was a popular spot.

I am definitely going to try for a visit - how long would you estimate was need to allow for queuing and touring the exhibit? I hope to go and come back in a day on Eurostar, so it would help me to work out connections if I knew how long to give myself. Many thanks!

It took around three quarters of an hour to queue and get into the exhibition itself, although it's possible that the children hadn't gone back to school when I went. I think two to three hours would be ample to go round the exhibition (and the gift shop, naturally). I went in a day too, flying from Liverpool John Lennon to Paris Charles de Gaulle, so you'd easily be able to manage it on the Eurostar.

Excellent report Richard!

Sadly I don't think I'll be able to make it to Paris before the exhibition closes, but I hope that the apparent success of this will encourage the organisers to send more out on tour.

Ed

It certainly seems like a fantastic exhibition. I won't be able to make it there, either, unfortunately. I did manage to pick up the catalogue from the exhibition from Bloomsbury in Bath, however, which was quite a surprise!