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Babylon
Tomi Ungerers provokanter Bildband über menschliche Abgründe – eine schockierende Sammlung großer Zeichenkunst.
110 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1979
18 people want to read
About the author
Tomi Ungerer
302 books184 followersJean-Thomas "Tomi" Ungerer was a French illustrator best known for his erotic and political illustrations as well as children's books.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 21, 2022
Amazing and prescient work. Explosive artwork on every page. Bulbous shapes and provocative depiction of our society on the world stage. Extinction of race within an obscure lens.
March 3, 2025
As the years pass and I discover or finally get to reading some of these these silent or nearly so collections of ₁-₂pagers, domestic and internationally, they humble me intellectually to a frustrating degree so I have this to say to the group of Tomi-types who give little to no words within their complex submissions despite obviously saying something loudly that's sometimes timeless but more often half or totally ungrasped by me.
I understand that these are from a different, nearly bygone, era with specific chronogeographic sensibilities but I believe that some sort of "clue" should be there, within each work, for the rest of an artist's potential audience to try to "get something out of". Often zero and rarely four words accompany each plate but, even getting that German viewpoint of titles from the first editions included for flavor, I was stupefied frightfully often. About half the collection I languished without even the broadest idea about what he was targeting within each fright and especially no reasoning of why he was doing which molestation of physique with the pencil's lines. I could mostly spell out what I was looking at but not why I was looking at it.
Yes. I'm aware that I'm suggesting a sort of dumbing-down by extraplaining but to me, the purpose of art supercedes its appearance, when it's obvious that the collection values its rhetoric above getting laughs- right? I'll say that such guerilla shock⁽ö⁾value art who's statement or message is only grasped by the bright produces dim subversion!
Still, but certainly reluctantly, I "regress" (my words) to looking at some of these horrartists of the visceral-shock appeal like Bolton and otherwise unrememberable others whose 9th Art makes it in my library to be fair. I have my limits of how much I want to feel uncomfortable by looking at something and these works only grace my eyes to not be biased by my sensibilities. So, if I'm getting grossed-out -AND THIS QUITE FREQUENTLY GETS TO APEX DISGUSTING PHYSIOANATOMICALLY- I want it to at least have been in the service of art narrative enjoyment or transference of message. I don't relish the unwelcome thrill of uneasiness. This is for M.D. constitutions otherwise that are into "horror movie operating room" chillers in carnal rural circus fashion.
I understand that these are from a different, nearly bygone, era with specific chronogeographic sensibilities but I believe that some sort of "clue" should be there, within each work, for the rest of an artist's potential audience to try to "get something out of". Often zero and rarely four words accompany each plate but, even getting that German viewpoint of titles from the first editions included for flavor, I was stupefied frightfully often. About half the collection I languished without even the broadest idea about what he was targeting within each fright and especially no reasoning of why he was doing which molestation of physique with the pencil's lines. I could mostly spell out what I was looking at but not why I was looking at it.
Yes. I'm aware that I'm suggesting a sort of dumbing-down by extraplaining but to me, the purpose of art supercedes its appearance, when it's obvious that the collection values its rhetoric above getting laughs- right? I'll say that such guerilla shock⁽ö⁾value art who's statement or message is only grasped by the bright produces dim subversion!
Still, but certainly reluctantly, I "regress" (my words) to looking at some of these horrartists of the visceral-shock appeal like Bolton and otherwise unrememberable others whose 9th Art makes it in my library to be fair. I have my limits of how much I want to feel uncomfortable by looking at something and these works only grace my eyes to not be biased by my sensibilities. So, if I'm getting grossed-out -AND THIS QUITE FREQUENTLY GETS TO APEX DISGUSTING PHYSIOANATOMICALLY- I want it to at least have been in the service of art narrative enjoyment or transference of message. I don't relish the unwelcome thrill of uneasiness. This is for M.D. constitutions otherwise that are into "horror movie operating room" chillers in carnal rural circus fashion.
February 24, 2022
A provocative collection of sketches/political cartoons. I had not heard of Tomi Ungerer and picked this up on a whim. The satire mostly encompasses topics such as anti-capitalism, war, (perceived) social decline, and drug abuse. I can’t say that I agree with (or even understand) the creator's stance on some of those topics, specifically those around feminism, but the art is captivating. Surreal, hellish landscapes. People reduced to decaying blobs representative of existential dread and dispair. Very interesting stuff.
August 7, 2022
More nightmares in dreamy lines.
December 16, 2022
Genuinely severe linework of images that are disturbing as hell. Absolutely excellent.
December 20, 2022
Brutally honest, so creative.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews