SPOKEN STATE - FRANCE
L'Appel du 18 Juin (The Appeal of June 18)
Charles de Gaulle · 1940
The Work
MEDIUM
Acrylic on Dibond aluminium
DIMENSIONS
915 × 610 mm (2:3 ratio)
COLOURS
Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White, Cadmium Red (Hue)
SPEECH
L'Appel du 18 Juin (The Appeal of June 18), 1940
SPEAKER
Charles de Gaulle
LOCATION
BBC Studios, London
About the flag
The French Tricolore — blue, white, red in equal vertical stripes, ratio 2:3
Historical Context
The moment: De Gaulle's BBC broadcast from London, June 18, 1940 — the day France signed an armistice with Nazi Germany
On June 22, 1940, France signed an armistice with Nazi Germany, surrendering the northern half of the country and establishing the Vichy regime in the south. The French defeat was total and humiliating — the fall of a nation that had been a world power for centuries.
Four days earlier, on June 18, an obscure general named Charles de Gaulle — who had fled to London — delivered a radio broadcast on the BBC that would become one of the most important speeches in French history. Few heard it at the time. But its words were immediately reproduced, distributed, and became the founding text of the French Resistance.
De Gaulle's argument was simple and radical: France had lost a battle, not the war. France was not her government or her territory — France was an idea, a flame that could not be extinguished. The speech established de Gaulle as the leader of Free France and eventually as the dominant figure of 20th-century French political life.
The Appel du 18 Juin is now commemorated as a national day in France. The original broadcast recording was lost; what survives is a later re-recording by de Gaulle. This work is constructed from all known versions of the text.
The Speech
"Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not and shall not die. Tomorrow, as today, I shall speak on the radio from London."
Context
General Charles de Gaulle, BBC broadcast from London, June 18, 1940. Delivered hours after France's request for armistice became public. Heard by relatively few at the time; now recognised as one of the most consequential speeches of the 20th century.
L'appel du 18 juin 1940 – De Gaulle
L'appel du 18 juin 1940 – De Gaulle
Process
Each Spoken State work begins with the speech. The text is transcribed, counted, and mapped to the geometry of the flag — word by word, colour field by colour field — before a single brushstroke is made.
1. The Aluminium Dibond is sized to the width of McGinty’s 30 year old T Square. The surface is lightly sanded, primed and 4 coats of gesso with a final two coats of Titanium White to create the the surface on which to work. The Surface becomes a drawing board.
2. The French Tricolore's clean vertical stripe geometry made it ideal for a text work — three distinct colour columns with clear boundaries.
3. De Gaulle's text (340 words) required careful spacing to fill three equal fields. Word density was calibrated so the text breathes within the colour rather than crowding it.
4. The ratio of 2:3 (wider than most flags in the series) required adjustment of the standard 915mm Dibond width.
Limited Edition Prints
The Original Flag Painting is scanned using a museum quality, high resolution Cruse scanner.
Limited edition museum quality archival prints are available, signed and numbered by the artist.
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