Tomi Ungerer

This extravagant book presents 330 of Tomi Ungerer’s illustrations, paintings and collages, many of them previously unpublished. When Ungerer moved from the Alsace to New York in the mid-1950s and began working as a graphic designer and illustrator, a crazy new world opened itself up to him, which the artist transformed into what are perhaps the most remarkable and powerful works of his career—expressive and universal pictures that present the land of opportunity in an inimitable manner.

Tomi Ungerer (born 1931) failed his final school exams yet subsequently hitchhiked throughout Europe and published his first drawings in the legendary Simplicissimus magazine. He began his extensive career as an illustrator, children’s book author and artist in New York. In 2003 Ungerer was appointed the first Ambassador for Childhood and Education by the Council of Europe, and in 2007 the Tomi Ungerer Museum opened in Strasbourg, making him the first living artist with a museum dedicated to his life and work in France. In 2014 he received France’s National Order of Merit, and in 2018 he was appointed Commandeur de la Legion d’Honneur by French president Emmanuel Macron. Ungerer lives with his family in southwest Ireland and Strasbourg.

From early childhood drawings of the 1930s to collages and objects from the last decade of the artist’s life, Tomi Ungerer: It’s All about Freedom presents a comprehensive cross section of Ungerer’s vast oeuvre for the first time, revealing the political and stylistic lines and breaks in his career as a “freewheeling artist.” With an abundance of illustrations, the book includes many unpublished and unseen works from the Ungerer estate, and celebrates his unceasing passion for experimentation across genres and the interplay between drawing, collage and assemblage.
Accompanying essays—by the artist’s daughter Aria Unger, Thérèse Willer, Belinda Grace Gardner and Thomas David—examine the continuities and motifs across the many genres Ungerer traversed.
Tomi Ungerer (1931–2019) published his first drawings in the legendary Simplicissimus magazine, and began his extensive career as an illustrator, children’s book author and artist in New York. In 2003 Ungerer was appointed the first Ambassador for Childhood and Education by the Council of Europe, and in 2007 the Tomi Ungerer Museum opened in Strasbourg, making him the first living artist with a museum dedicated to his life and work in France. Ungerer lived on a farm in southern Ireland from 1976 until his death in 2019.