The Arles Drawing Festival pays tribute to Tomi Ungerer

The exhibition, which was dedicated to him during the second edition of the festival, highlights the sometimes sharp humor of illustrator Tomi Ungerer, whose children’s books made him world famous.

After the dedication to Sempé last year, the Drawing Festival in Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône), opened its second edition on Saturday 20 April to 19 May, highlighting an exhibition dedicated to the renowned French international designer Tomi Ungerer.

An artist whose last three books were published in France by Frédéric Pajak, the artistic director of the festival, before his death in 2019. “With his typical humor, Tomi Ungerer chose “In extremis” as the title for the last one”, He said.

The exhibition highlights this sometimes sharp humor of the French illustrator, apart from his children’s books that brought him world fame: “One of his great frustrations is that he has not been recognized, especially in France, as he would like to be, with his political posters among other things.”Frédéric Pajak entrusts us.

Part of the exhibition, for example, is dedicated to the work.Funa satire of social evenings in New York, where the artist lived part of his life, in which people are depicted as grotesque and clumsy monsters.

“Show the drawing in all its forms”

In addition to this exhibition, this second edition of the festival presents 43 artists with different styles, from the abstract acrylics of Stéphane Calais, produced directly in the Trinitarian Chapel in the center of Arles, to the engravings of the 19th century, including the caricatures of René Goscinny who was not yet Asterix’s father.

“I wanted to show the drawing in all its forms, both abstract and figurative. Every artist present at the festival found their own personal style, an outlet in drawing.”explains Frédéric Pajak.

The exhibition “Today’s cartoonists” is exclusively dedicated to four contemporary designers who combine drawing techniques and their view of the world.

With 11 locations concentrated in the pedestrian center of the city of Arlesian and an additional week of festivities compared to the first edition, Frédéric Pajak is aiming for the symbolic limit of 100,000 visitors this year, after gathering 66,000 curious in 2023.

For the rest, “two thirds of the third edition are already fully conceived”, confides. Belgian Jean-Michel Folon should be in the center of attention.