Previously unpublished works by Tomi Ungerer in the Falckenberg Collection

Tomi Ungerer (1931 – 2019) is not only an influential draughtsman, illustrator and children's book author of works such as The Three Robbers, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow and The Fog Man, but also the creator of posters against the Vietnam War and discrimination against People of Colour. His oeuvre also includes milieu studies from Hamburg's Herbertstraße, large-scale collages and illustrations of war traumatic memories. A cross-section of this multifaceted oeuvre will be shown by the Hamburg Deichtorhallen in the Falckenberg Collection from 27 November, the artist's 90th birthday, under the title Tomi Ungerer – it's all about freedom. The exhibition is the result of a cooperation with the Tomi Ungerer Estate and the Musée Tomi Ungerer in Strasbourg.

Starting with drawings from Ungerer's childhood in the 1930s to works from the last years of his life, Tomi Ungerer – it's all about freedom comprises around 400 exhibits, many of them previously unpublished. The exhibition will be complemented by a room specially set up for children, in which the cosmos of Ungerer's children's books will be on display, as well as by films with and about the illustrator. The title of the event derives from Ungerer's conception of himself as a »free-wheeling artist«, whose work moves freely between drawing, collage and assemblage and thematically always rebels against political events and the exertion of power. Ungerer usually incorporated the events that took place in his various places of residence into his depictions – thus his very personal historiography ranges from Strasbourg, where he grew up, to New York, where he lived for a good 20 years, to Cork in Ireland, where he spent the end of his life. The exhibition of Tomi Ungerer's work, which spans nine decades, is open until 24 April 2022.