Marcel
Bascoulard
Marcel
Bascoulard
Bascoulard
French, 1913 — 1978
A tramp by choice, an illustrator by calling, self-taught Marcel Bascoulard created unique works over several decades without ever leaving his hometown of Bourges. Cross-dressing in clothes he made himself, he soon combined this practice with photography, wanting to record his transformations. "I walk around in women's clothes because I think it’s more aesthetic," he said.
He created a vast gallery of photographic self-portraits between 1944 and 1979, the year he was murdered. With a great sense of self-representation, he faced the camera, isolated by the framing in ever-changing outfits and décors, often holding a broken mirror in his left hand, to which he alone had the key. His looks changed over the years, but his almost spectral pose did not.
Bascoulard's iconoclastic work is represented in the Pinault Collection by a number of his photographs, which were shown in the group exhibition "Dancing with Myself" held in 2018 at the Punta della Dogana in Venice.
He created a vast gallery of photographic self-portraits between 1944 and 1979, the year he was murdered. With a great sense of self-representation, he faced the camera, isolated by the framing in ever-changing outfits and décors, often holding a broken mirror in his left hand, to which he alone had the key. His looks changed over the years, but his almost spectral pose did not.
Bascoulard's iconoclastic work is represented in the Pinault Collection by a number of his photographs, which were shown in the group exhibition "Dancing with Myself" held in 2018 at the Punta della Dogana in Venice.
