BASTILLE is a pseudonym for Frank Webber, taken from the name of the Paris Métro station.

Webber was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, on July 14, 1929. After high school, he studied illustration at the Pratt Institute, NYC. He later moved to Paris on a scholarship, to practice metal engraving at the studio of John Friedlander. In 1959 he started to work as an illustrator for French fashion magazines and a few years later, began to specialize in billboard illustrations for high-profile architectural projects. His first homoerotic drawings were published under the name Bal in American physique magazines in the late 1960's. Influenced by the writings of Jean Genet, William. S. Burroughs, and Pierre Guyotat, Bastille developed his style of meticulously rendered gouache paintings around 1980 but he first came to prominence through his association with the Danish perve porn magazine Toy.

Several exhibitions in Amsterdam and New York, as well as numerous publications by Revolt Press, Sweden, introduced his work to an enthusiastic audience.

Bastille died in 1990 of leukemia. After his death, he quickly became the icon of many homo-cult-groups, who had gotten pretty tired of the prudism-wave that dominated queer culture throughout the eighties due to, amongst other things, the Aids crisis. Parties and meetings in his name and radiating the atmosphere in the same way as his artwork were held in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris...