STRASBOURG.- The exhibit entitled “Tomi Ungerer and the Masters. Inspiration and Dialogue” held at the Tomi Ungerer Museum represents a high point in celebration of the artist’s 80th birthday. Approximately 300 works will be shown throughout the museum, a display that has been assembled from both private and public collections and the museum’s permanent collection treating the innovative theme of the illustrator’s work and its ties to the history of art. Indeed, specially selected pieces of his work take on numerous graphic, plastic and cinematographic references. A rich iconographic repertory of artists representing all styles and periods is therefore on view: the German Masters of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance [Baldung-Grien, Dürer, Grünewald, Holbein], Doré and German artists of the 19th century [Caspar David Friedrich, Ludwig Richter, Moritz von Schwind, Carl Spitzweg], Alsatian artists [Hansi, Loux, Sattler, Schnug], Dadaism and Surrealism [Arp, Ernst], satirical sketch artists [Busch, Daumier, Dubout, the caricaturists of Simplicissimus and Anglo-Saxon cartoonists Grandville, and Töpffer]. The exhibition also incorporates Bellmer, Dix, Ensor, Félicien-Rops, Goya, Grosz, Jones, Kubin, Lindner, Posada, Toulouse-Lautrec, von Bayros, Weaver and Wyeth. Dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt wrote that Tomi Ungerer “imitated no one, but borrowed quite readily”. This multitude of influences is an undeniable component in the originality of his art.

A catalog published by the Museums of Strasbourg will be featured alongside the exhibition. A conference “Images modèles, images déplacées” has been organized for December 1st and 2nd in the Auditorium of the Museums of Strasbourg.

In celebration of the festivities organized around Tomi Ungerer’s 80th birthday the City of Strasbourg is offering free admittance to the Tomi Ungerer Museum on November 18th, 19th and 20th.