Tomi Ungerer’s Canadian Years (1971-1975)

To many, Tomi Ungerer is best known as the author and illustrator of a host of now-classic 1960s children’s books, including Moon Man and The Three Robbers. But he is also a prolific designer and writer as well as a successful political commentator and erotic artist, and a deft observer of the minutiae of every day life.

In 1971, following the publication of some of his most popular works, Ungerer and his wife left New York and a way of life that no longer appealed and relocated to Nova Scotia, Canada, where they bought and renovated a house in Lockport and kept a smallholding.

While Ungerer continued to publish children’s books, his careful observations of daily life in Canada provided material for two different works in the 1980s: Slow Agony and Far Out Isn’t Far Enough. The first - renditions of his environment executed between 1976 and 1982 from photographs taken by the artist – documents the destruction of all things over time. Far Out Isn’t Far Enough narrates the tale of the illustrator’s life in Nova Scotia.

Drawing on this material, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow - on show at the museum founded in Ungerer’s name in his home town of Strasbourg - is entirely devoted to the work reproduced in these books and other related drawings, paintings and sculpture produced by Ungerer as a result of his time in Nova Scotia. It is the first time some of these observational drawings (a technique that was a fundamental aspect of his graphic work) have been shown.

Featuring over 100 objects, the exhibition begins with works by Ungerer reflecting the socio-political context of the late 1960s: posters contesting the Vietnam War and racial segregation, and satirical drawings aimed at American politics – which offer an explanation for the couple’s decision to relocate.

The main body of the show is devoted to the works which document the Ungerer’s everyday life in Nova Scotia: large-format originals of the Slow Agony series (some never before publicly exhibited), depictions of Nova Scotian flora and fauna, sculptures and panels in recycled wood and the artist’s sketchbooks.

A highlight of the show is a screening of Landleben, the 1974 film by Percy Adlon which documents this period of Ungerer’s work.