In the economic and political context of the 1960s, Narrative Figuration marked the renewal of figurative art that was both critical and commited. Art became political, an instrument of communication rather than an object of contemplation, and legibility was the keyword. Consumerism was virulently attacked. From 1966 on, Rancillac used photographs and images as the starting point of his work. He drew on his everyday life and current events to create tonic figurative paintings, with vivid colours and effective graphics.
This retrospective monograph focuses on the pivotal series in which the artist's favourite themes are diffracted: comics, anger ("you can paint only on the canvas of your own feelings, obsessive fears and anxieties. the further I go, the more mine are of political nature"), jazz, the conventions of painting, mediatised images, sports, Algeria, women...