Thomas Ott - From Scratch

Cryptic pictorial worlds full of jet black humour

A first survey publication including as yet unpublished works

Exhibition at the Cartoonmuseum Basel: 22 March to 22 June 2025

Thomas Ott is one of the most prominent illustrators and cartoonists worldwide. His works are represented in numerous collections and museums and some of his stories have been adapted for film. Ott’s blacker than black scrapeboard works combine a pictorial idiom oriented around film with nightmarishly dismal stories. His masterful guidance of the line and the opulent three dimensionality of the images scratched with the cutter form an oppressive contrast with the non-verbal character of the stories.

The publication is a first ever survey of Ott’s multifaceted oeuvre, from the first works for the magazine Strapazin to the celebrated comic albums, such as Tales of Error, to animations and live-action films, and to the drawings from La Grande Famiglia and Das ottologische Zimmer that are embedded in installations.