Over the last five years, the world has changed a lot. A global pandemic ground much of the global population to a halt with travel the most restricted it's ever been in my lifetime – and most likely yours too. Russia’s war on Ukraine and now Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza are causing shockwaves around the world, reshaping the statuses of countries and the rights of their citizens.
The Diverse World Of Ballpoint Art
21.12.2023 - 18:19 / forbes.com
In the autumn of 1948, Marcel Bich, owner of a company located north of Paris that produced ink cartridges for fountain pens, pushed a wheelbarrow in his garden in the village of Rhuis. He considered the new ‘ball point’ pen launched by the Reynolds company in the United States, and was mystified by the allure of this expensive instrument that produced what he considered as shoddy writing. He turned around, peered at the wheel imprint left by his barrow on dirt, and was flooded with a realization. The ball point pen did the same as the wheel—it left an imprint by rolling, not by scratching. He knew this could lead to more fluid, easier writing.
In the wake of this wheelbarrow epiphany, Bich created the BIC ballpoint pen in 1950, and since then over 100 billion such pens have been sold throughout the world. They are known for their ubiquity and practicality in conveying written language.
They have also been used for decades as tools of art.
Italian Argentine artist Lucio Fontana created early ballpoint art. In 1949 he drew with a pen named after Hungarian named László Jósef Biró, who also lived in Argentina. Biró had taken refuge from Nazi persecution by fleeing to Buenos Aires. There, he created a prototype ballpoint pen—later improved on by Marcel Bich. In 1961, Fontana drew his image titled “Nudo Femminile Seduto” (seated female nude) with red BIC ink on paper.
In 1990—in a style reminiscent of the artist Christo—Jan Fabre covered the Tivoli castle in Mechelen in Belgium with sheets decorated in BIC blue ink.
Before his passing, Bruno Bich—son of Marcel Bich and former Chairman and CEO of BIC—wrote in 2018 that with regard to the ballpoint pen, artists “...appreciated its quality, the ease with which it was possible to obtain it and its ability to quickly execute scribbled sketches or major works.” He called the BIC Cristal pen “humble and nomadic.”
In 2016, BIC joined with the national higher school of arts in Paris (l’École nationale supérieure d’arts de Paris-Cergy [ENSAPC]) to create a prize for contemporary art creation.
In 2018, an exhibit of BIC art at the CENTQUATRE-PARIS cultural center highlighted ballpoint works from throughout the world. Image diversity was ubiquitous—a fantastical creature pushing a bicycle (Indonesian artist Noviadi Angkasapura); a square based cityscape (Senegalese artist Mamadou Cissé); an evocative Great Wall scene titled “Dragon Backbone” (Chinese artist Liu Kai), and the “Boatwright” image of naval architecture in progress (American Stephen Schultz from the state of Idaho). French designer Mad Meg drew a ballpoint family (including a cat), while Parisian street artist Pixal Parazit replicated a fingerprint in ink.
This past April, Alix Dufour, Global Brand Manager
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