Chaumont Festival 2006: Quarez, Tomaszewski, and German Graphic Design

The 17th International Poster and Graphic Arts Festival took place in Chaumont, France, from May 13 to June 25, 2006, across venues including a Jesuit chapel, town hall, garage, and media library. The festival featured the international poster competition and a program of exhibitions linked by subtle connections. Michel Quarez (born 1938), a singular graphic painter, exhibited at the baroque chapel under the ironic title 'Quarez chez les Jèses.' He briefly studied under Henryk Tomaszewski in the early 1960s. Tomaszewski, who died in 2005 at 89, was a key figure of the Polish school of graphic design, honored with two exhibitions curated by Pierre Bernard, a former member of the Grapus collective. Frieder Grindler (born 1941) showed photomontages at the town hall, recalling the political-surrealist darkness of Polish graphics. A strong German presence included five young Berlin studios: Angela Lorenz (electronic music), Anschlaege.de (alternative social action), Atak (illustration), Fons Hickmann M 23, and Cyan (general communication). Cyan, founded in 1992 by Daniela Haufe and Detlef Fiedler, unexpectedly shared Quarez's use of fluorescent inks, though in different formal registers. A concurrent Cyan exhibition at Galerie Anatome in Paris (May 12 to July 22, 2006) showcased their editorial work, including a spiral-bound catalogue for Olafur Eliasson's 2003 Venice Biennale.