This is an English version of an article I wrote for the Japanese art media MON ONCLE. You can read the Japanese version of the article here.
A Leading 20th-Century Belgian Artist Known for His White Humour
Jean-Michel Folon is, perhaps, the best known artist of 20th century Belgium. An exhibition entitled ‘FOLON: AGENCY OF IMAGINARY JOURNEY’ is held at the Tokyo Station Gallery until 23 September, looking back at the diversity and coherence of his work through more than 290 pieces. This is the first large-scale retrospective of the artist in Japan in around 30 years. After the Tokyo exhibition, it will travel to Nagoya City Art Museum and the Abeno Harukas Art Museum in Osaka in 2025.
When it comes to Folon, he is known for his numerous somewhat mysterious paintings in soft, pale colours, which are said to have been influenced by René Magritte. In every work, one can feel Folon’s distinctive worldview, but he was also an artist full of curiosity, constantly exploring various techniques such as ink, coloured ink, watercolour, silkscreen, and aquatint, a type of etching.
The key to Folon’s unique worldview is ‘humour blanc (white humour),’ which refers to looking steadily at the reality of humanity and the world, yet never giving up on turning that reality into positive energy. This is how Maki Asakawa, the chief curator at the Abeno Harukas Art Museum, who played a central role in planning and managing this exhibition, explains it.
Folon has developed this ‘white humour’ in a variety of forms, including not only paintings but also commercial posters, photographs, sculptures and even animations. The first work you see when you enter the exhibition is an animation that was broadcast by the French public broadcaster ‘Antenne 2’ for seven years from 1976 to 1983, at the end of each day.
Steve Jobs Commissioned Folon with an Unprecedented Fee
This is an exhibition that is attracting a lot of attention, but I was looking at it with a different interest to most visitors. I have been covering Apple and its co-founder Steve Jobs for over 35 years. And Folon was one of the few artists to whom Jobs commissioned work.
In 1984, Jobs announced the first Macintosh (Mac), a product that could be said to be the prototype of today’s personal computers. He put all of his fame behind this product. Jobs is said to have discovered Folon during the development process.
He was so taken with Folon’s style that he is said to have paid him $30,000 in advance to create the Mac logo. Furthermore, it seems that he even promised to pay him a royalty of $1 for every Mac sold if he was to use it. Jobs is famous for being extremely tight with his money. There are many episodes that show his stinginess, such as the fact that he did not give his close friend, who had contributed to the company since its founding, any of the company’s shares because he did not like the way he worked. In this context, the offer he made to Folon can be said to be exceptional.Three of the works created by Jobs’ commission are on display at the exhibition.
Jobs had a clear preference when it came to art. He was fascinated by Japanese woodblock prints at a young age, after seeing them displayed at the home of his close friend from high school. He was also greatly influenced by Picasso’s attitude towards art and his words and actions, frequently quoting Picasso and showing his works to his employees as examples, and featuring him as his hero in the ‘Think different.’ advertising campaign.
In 1984, when the first Mac was announced, Jobs was only 28 years old. At the time, the computer industry was a world dominated by technologists, but Jobs aimed to fuse ‘science and art’ through Apple (in his later years, Jobs refined this idea and reworded it as ‘technology and liberal arts’).
Jobs became a billionaire at a young age after the Apple II, the world’s first personal computer for home use, became a worldwide hit. However, he was later relegated to a quiet position by management professionals brought in from outside the company. The Macintosh was a product into which Jobs poured everything he had in an effort to revive the company. It was a work of art, crafted by Jobs, who aspired to be an artist, and into which he put his heart and soul.
While other computers were cold, impersonal machines that stripped people of their humanity — like the machines in Chaplin’s film Modern Times — Jobs wanted to make the Mac a warm, approachable device. He was meticulous about designing the main unit to resemble the size and appearance of a human face, and was trying to create a mascot character.
In 1982, Jobs came up with the idea of creating a humanised version of the Mac, called Mr. Macintosh. This was a mysterious character that lived inside the Mac, and would occasionally pop up on the screen when you were using it. A few months after he started to develop the idea, Jobs is said to have searched around for a creator who could work on this character, and in the process he found Folon.
Jobs, who was captivated by Folon’s work, invited him to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, and showed him the Macintosh, which was still under development. Folon seemed intrigued by this new, human-like computer and accepted the offer. He returned to Cupertino in the spring of 1983, sketchbook in hand.
Among the works he presented were several designs, including ‘The Macintosh Spirit’, where the body of the Macintosh computer was personified as a character flying through the air while holding a keyboard, and Mr. Macintosh, depicted wearing a top hat and a coat reminiscent of the British Mackintosh company’s style.
On display at this exhibition are a piece where the Apple logo appears on the character’s head when he takes off his hat, along with a preliminary study of the character before it was fully realised. Another idea, labelled ‘MAC MAN’, showed a character with fragmented lines emerging from his head, symbolising ideas. Despite the efforts of Jobs and Folon, Mr. Macintosh was only printed once — on a Mac prototype circuit board — and was never included in the final product. At the time, Macs lacked the processing power and storage capacity needed to display animations on screen, as a 400KB floppy disk simply couldn’t hold the necessary files.
However, it seems that Jobs and Folon continued their relationship beyond this project, as a thank-you letter Folon sent to Jobs in 1990 was later discovered and auctioned off.
Additionally, in 1998, when Jobs — having returned to Apple after being ousted — was developing the iMac, the product that would save the company from the brink of collapse, Ken Segall, the man who named the iMac, testified that Jobs was initially very keen on naming the product ‘MAC MAN’.
Shared Vision: What Jobs and Folon Had in Common
So, out of the many other candidates who could have been the creator, why was Jobs attracted to Folon? I think there were three factors.
The first was the extreme simplicity of his drawings. Jobs also sought simplicity in the works of Hasui Kawase and Picasso. It is known that Picasso demonstrated to his employees how many studies he created before producing his famous painting of a bull, and how he gradually simplified it. Many of Folon’s works share this simplicity, with compositions and lines reduced to the point where they cannot be simplified any further.
The second factor is the warm, soft colours often seen in Folon’s favourite transparent watercolour works. As I looked at the various pieces on display, I was reminded of the colours in the evening and morning landscapes painted by Kawase Hasui, a favourite of Jobs, even though the pigments and techniques used were likely different. These colours are pale yet vivid, with a quality that gently envelops the viewer.
The third factor is the presence of the ‘Little Hat Man’ character, who appears frequently in Folon’s paintings and is reminiscent of the exhibition title FOLON: AGENCY OF IMAGINARY JOURNEY. This character is said to represent Folon himself, but because of its simplicity and neutrality, viewers can also relate to it emotionally. The fact that this character is both a tireless explorer and a calm observer aligns with the image Jobs was likely seeking.
I believe that when Jobs and Folon met and talked at Apple headquarters, they probably discovered even more common ground and enjoyed their time together immensely.
For example, the posters for Olivetti typewriters, which Folon created at the request of the Italian company and which were distributed worldwide, set a precedent for Jobs’ attempt in the 1960s to personify the machines he was creating and imbue them with warmth.
In addition to this, the two men shared similar values, such as an interest in architecture and industrial design, a love of nature and Japan, and they held similar views on life — seeing it as a journey without a specific destination, and believing that the journey itself holds intrinsic value. They also shared a countercultural attitude, quietly hoping that humanity would continue to progress in a meaningful way, despite the wave of efficiency and industrialisation. For these reasons, I believe their friendship endured even after the completion of the first Mac.
White Humour is Needed Now More Than Ever
The exhibition, titled FOLON: AGENCY OF IMAGINARY JOURNEY, after Folon’s actual title Imaginary Journeys Agency from his business card, introduces the appeal of Folon’s work in a five-part structure, including a prologue and an epilogue. The prologue showcases the recurring motifs Folon often used, such as the Little Hat Man and glasses, alongside various forms of expression including animation, drawing, and sculpture. The following four chapters are posed as questions, inviting viewers to actively engage with the works.
Chapter 1, Which Way?, features works that explore the confusion of life as a journey, with too many arrows leading to disorientation, and cities depicted as mazes. Chapter 2, What Can You Hear?, presents works that reflect calmly on human activities, including environmental destruction, war, inventions, and space exploration. Chapter 3, What Shall We Talk About?, demonstrates the breadth of Folon’s expression, from magazine covers and posters to commissioned works for Olivetti and Apple, as well as illustrations for Amnesty International’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights book. The final chapter, Where to Next?, acts as an epilogue, contemplating future possibilities.
As we face unprecedented global changes driven by advanced technologies like AI and biotechnology, climate change, and ongoing conflicts, I believe it is more important than ever to observe and embrace Folon’s world of ‘white humour’ — a perspective that allows us to positively transform the world. This mindset can help maintain hope for the future, preventing it from descending into dystopia.
References:Recollections by original Mac team member Andy HertzfeldFolklore: Mister Macintosh