With only three basic materials – a pencil, a pen and a brush – Angel Boligan succeeds in putting his cartoons, humoristic drawings, caricatures, illustrations in all its splendor on paper. A world where colors are not dominant, but are used very carefully as a light support for a graphically strong image.
Boligan is a real master in suggesting movements in his work en in filling the space. Even when only one person is on the cartoon, it takes up the whole space. The movements are suggested by the position of the figure. It seems like they are growing from the bottom of the page, bulge in curved lines and then gradually flow away and evaporate somewhere at the top. Even when the figures are sitting still, you feel the movement, you see them talk on that bench. His figures are not real, the proportions aren’t quite correct and still you feel their presence, as it was someone you could meet on the street corner.
The very special and personal graphic style and technique of Boligan is very well captured in this movie.
What a great technique! With some nervous, fast lines that are sketched on a white paper Angel seems to look to the contours of an image that we don’t see yet. At first it seems like if It are insignificant movements on the paper, but gradually the drawing and its details become clear. In one moment the plot of the story pops up. For the inking in we can determine a similar way of working, but very soon the nervous technique makes place for a very accurate drawing. At the end, with some very well thought over, brush strokes the final color accent is given.
Boligan knows perfectly what he has to draw and what he has to omit to show us the essence of his story. The figures are introverted, they take distance from their creator, from the spectator and from themselves. They are almost never confronting an other face to face: they are in profile, looking backward or downward, and even when they are looking at each other their whole body seems to say: keep your distance.
This is a highly recommended exhibition!
Herman Somers
Still till the 23th of December 2012 in the European Cartoon Center Kruishoutem www.ecc-Kruishoutem.be