Jean Thomas “Tomi” Ungerer (1931-2019) was a French writer and illustrator awarded ten prizes and seven orders. His legacy counts a hundred books with 40 thousand drawings created for children and adults. The museum of illustration, founded in his hometown Strasbourg, bears his name. This Gulliver of the illustrating art was born in a family of a watchmaker who died when Tomi was three years old.
Limitless Fantasy
Witnessing the war, Tomi became a pacifist and stood against militarization and segregation, expressing his view in numerous sharp drawings. The limitless fantasy of this extraordinary artist enabled him to produce books on a wide range of themes, from fairy tales to fetishism.
Fig. 1. Gaëtan Bally (Keystone) : © Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich (tomiungerer.com)
Sticking Point
Tomi Ungerer was born at the wrong time and the wrong place. The territory of Alsace was a sticking point for France and Germany since the 1870s. The land belonged to Germany in the 1940s, which means that Ungerer was forced to speak German and listen to Nazi propaganda in his childhood. When the war was over, the future artist was disparaged for his German accent and his Alsatian roots in general.
Beginning of the Career
At the age of 25, Ungerer moved to the USA, and the year later, his first books for children “The Mellops Go Flying” and “The Mellops Go Diving for Treasure” were published by Harper & Row. Already by the early 1960s, Ungerer had produced ten illustrated books for children. The distinctive of his works are simple and touching stories with lots of pictures stimulating the children’s imagination. We especially like his book “Emile: The Helpful Octopus” (1960)!
Fig. 2. betweenthecovers.com
Fig. 3. phaidon.com
Fig. 4. Spread of the book “Emile” (artspace.com)
The Inspiration
In his youth, Ungerer appreciated funny and sharp illustrations of Saul Steinberg (1914-1999) in The New Yorker magazine. Steinberg satirized fascism in times of the war, drew covers of magazines, worked in the advertising and textile industry. As his encourager Steinberg, Tomi Ungerer was a pacifist with dozens of antimilitary posters produced.
Fig. 5. Tomi Ungerer, 1967 (arthur.io)
Fig. 6. Untitled (arthur.io)
Humanity and Hypocrisy
When you learn about the life and works of Tomi Ungerer, it comes as no surprise that his books were a breath of fresh air, an island of skill and sharpness in the sea of talentless tales with perfectly behaved kids acting in a perfect world, which never existed. Since the beginning of the career, Ungerer had produced both books for kids and erotic sets for adults. This fact led to a scandal at the American Library Association conference in June 1969, so Ungerer was blacklisted in the USA and moved to Ireland. Fortunately, even hypocrisy and stigmatization can’t break a talent, as the artist received lots of awards in Europe later, which we mentioned at the beginning of this article.
Fig. 7a. Autobiographic comics by Ungerer (vqronline.org)
Fig. 7b
Fig. 7c
Fig. 7d
The Joy of Frogs
Fig. 8. depop.com
“The Joy of Frogs” and “Das Kama Sutra der Frösche” (1982, 1984) are picture books consisting of humorous, cartoonish drawings in which Ungerer’s imagination and talent are on a par with the skill of Japanese artists. Have you ever wondered if frogs could copulate in a leapfrog sex position? Whether you have or haven’t, Ungerer visualizes the scenes of frogs’ pleasure with great enthusiasm and wittiness.
Fig. 9. Frogs copulating in a leapfrog position (mag.lesgrandsducs.com)
Fig. 10. blogspot.com
Fig. 11. amazon.com
Fig. 12. twimg.com
Fig. 13. twimg.com
Fig. 14. depop.com
Fig. 15. depop.com
Fig. 16. arthur.io
Fig. 17. depop.com
Fig. 18. twitter.com
Fig. 19. twitter.com
Fig. 20. Frogs at the left corner of the image play with a mask reminding of Tengu mask with a long nose (twitter.com)
Fig. 21. amazon.com
Fig. 22. goodreads.com
Fig. 23. amazon.com
Fig. 24. rusuban.ocnk.net
The Orgy of Fishes by Marcus Behmer
Speaking of the frogs’ joy, we can’t not recall and share with you the captivating work of German writer and graphic designer Marcus Behmer (1879-1958) who depicted the joy of fishes much in modernist style.
Fig. 25. “Kalos (The Orgy of Fishes)”, 1928, Berlin (galeriebuchholz.de)
Batrachomyomachia
Fig. 26. Kama Sutra Der Frosche (arthur.io)
Fig. 27. Kama Sutra Der Frosche (arthur.io)
Fig. 28. Kama Sutra Der Frosche (arthur.io)
