Albert Uderzo died on March 24th 2020 at the age of 92. One year after his death, the Musée Maillol welcomes the public to the first ever major exhibition devoted to his work, in Paris from 27 May to 30 September 2021.

Albert was one of the undisputed masters of the golden age of comics, but the immense impact of his work and the incredible volume of his characters, comic strips and drawings have not been fully explored. The Uderzo family and a team of museum specialists have come together to create this unique exhibition.

While of course Asterix will feature prominently, the exhibition, featuring some 300 works and personal documents (many for the first time) allows visitors an insight into the diversity of graphic styles of the man who, as a child, dreamed of becoming the Walt Disney of rue de Montreuil.

The exhibition follows a chronological journey from the artist’s working-class background in the Bastille district of Paris in the 1930s, to the almost worldwide success of his work. Alongside his friend and accomplice René Goscinny almost 380 million Asterix albums were sold worldwide. The installation reveals the multiple facets of a cartoonist first close to Disney, then inspired by American comics, until finally rivaling the masters of the 9th art. 

The exhibition guides visitors through the creation of Asterix the Gaul and its 32 albums. Seeing the original illustrations of these adventures which form an integral part of French national heritage cements the significance of exhibiting these comics in 21st Century museums.

Large sections of the exhibit are dedicated to Oumpah-Pah, a prequel to Asterix both in graphic and narrative terms. The exhibition also features Tanguy et Laverdure, a legendary aviation series in which Albert Uderzo, entirely self-taught, created a totally unknown aircraft that was different from the Mirage III-C, for tactical reasons as a result of the Cold War.

The Musée Maillol and Sylvie Uderzo, curator of the exhibition, assisted by Artcurial Culture, are paying tribute to the most widely translated French author in the world, and his friend René Goscinny.

“What Albert didn’t realize was the reality of his journey, the incredible arc that had taken him from ground zero to the stars. As we found ourselves within his drawings, his characters and his famous signature, we wondered what he would have liked us to do. Paying tribute to his formidable career quickly seemed to us an obligation and a necessity. Like a magic potion.”

Ada and Sylvie Uderzo