Tomi Ungerer: INCOGNITO

Museum Folkwang presents unpublished works by Tomi Ungerer

Tomi Ungerer enjoys worldwide renown as a provocative graphic artist, as a brilliant children’s book illustrator and as a sharp-tongued writer. From March 18 to May 16, 2016, Museum Folkwang presents over 160 largely unpublished collages, drawings and sculptures by Tomi Ungerer that span a period of five decades.

Tomi Ungerer (born in Strasbourg in 1931) has received significant international acclaim for the books that he creates. However, his artistic work beyond text and illustration has yet to be discovered. Collages have formed an integral part of Ungerer’s oeuvre. The exhibition introduces this important aspect of the author’s creative work to the public for the first time in comprehensive form.

The nucleus of the exhibition is formed by Tomi Ungerer’s collages and some drawings from the last 15 years, which are complemented by important pieces from earlier periods and a selection of the artist’s small-scale objects and sculptures. The overview of his work spanning a period of five decades reveals how some subjects, such as wartime experiences in Alsace, particularly occupied Ungerer in the first years of his career. Other motifs drawn from the artist’s desires and even nightmares appear again and again. A major recurring theme is the body, fragmented, vulnerable, fetish and object of desire.

The exhibition Tomi Ungerer. INCOGNITO has been developed in close collaboration with the artist himself, who has also provided the majority of the exhibits. Other large groups of works are on loan from the Musée Tomi Ungerer – Centre international de l’Illustration in Strasbourg and the Würth Collection.

In cooperation with Kunsthaus Zurich.

A large-format catalogue of 424 pages is available, published by Diogenes. The trilingual volume (German, French, English) features essays and commentary by Cathérine Hug, Philipp Keel, Thérèse Willer and Tobias Burg. (ISBN 978-3-257-02133-2).

The Essen showing of the exhibition is supported by Merck Finck & Co., private banking services.


Public program
The exhibition will be accompanied by a range of public and educational programs. For the dates, please visit www.museum-folkwang.de or subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here.

Press contact
Anna Littmann: T +49 201 8845 160 / anna.littmann [​at​] museum-folkwang.essen.de