Journal

Interview with Christine Barrat

Caroll Maréchal and Clémence Imbert traveled to Le Rheu, near Rennes, to meet a key figure in the spread of the Mac among French artists: Christine Barrat. After completing her thesis on Klimt’s The Kiss, Christine Barrat was surprised to receive an offer from Apple to head the Apple Graphic Studio from 1986 to 1993. There, she cultivated an audience Apple hadn’t anticipated: creators. The Graphic Studio, attached to the Communications department, was a space for training and experimentation. The projects developed at the Graphic Studio in Les Ulis—where Christine Barrat had managed to install not only Apple equipment but also state-of-the-art scanners and printers—allowed Apple to make its mark in cultural circles. The Graphic Studio was also behind training workshops organized in French art schools for students and teachers. Finally, the “Création et Infographie” festival (1993) and its competition, held at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, marked a defining moment for digital art in France. Christine Barrat retains extensive archives of her work at Apple, as well as original works by the artists, illustrators, and graphic designers supported by the Graphic Studio, including Philippe Bessas, Bertrand Flour, Yves Le Marrec, Laszlo Rajk, Frédéric Voisin… The Graphic Studio was a uniquely French institution, with no equivalent anywhere else in the world. A huge thank you to Christine Barrat for so generously sharing her memories with us and for agreeing to open her archives to us for this first meeting.