Comic Art Museum - Brussels

It has taken this outstanding graphic novel artist just less than two decades to rise to prominence on the Franco-Belgian comic strip art scene. Her powerfully inspired and profoundly humanist work has highlighted the lives of remarkable women, ranging from Kiki de Montparnasse to Benoîte Groult. Strasbourg-born Catel initially illustrated numerous novels and books for children before she ventured into drawing biographies in the form of graphic novels. Her encounter with scriptwriter-author José-Louis Bocquet set her on a completely different course. They both started their collaboration by producing a comic strip book covering the life story of Edith Piaf, closely followed by the graphic novels ‘Kiki de Montparnasse’, ‘Olympe de Gouges’ and ‘Joséphine Baker’. On her own initiative, she set out to interview Benoîte Groult – the feminist French author of ‘Ainsi soit-elle’. In collaboration with the comic artist Claire Bouilhac, she later portrayed the largely unknown life experiences of the French art historian Rose Valland, followed by those of the French actress Mylène Demongeot in ‘Adieu Karkhov’.
Catel has taken European 21st century comic strip art to the heights of graphic literature. The Belgian Comics Art Museum is extremely proud to exhibit her works.
“So Be Catel”!

Exhibition curator: Mélanie Andrieu and JC De la Royère
With the Support of the Brussels-Capital Region