Thomas Ott: From Scratch

Born in 1966 in Zurich, Thomas Ott is German-speaking Switzerland’s most internationally famous comics author. His scratchboard works combine a black-heavy visual language (inspired by the dramatic aesthetics of pulp films and books) with stories that are bleak and nightmarish, resulting in grotesque cryptic tragedies. The masterful linework and opulent vividness of the images that he scratches out with a craft knife form an unsettling contrast with the wordlessness and macabre humour of his narratives.

His first works appeared in the comic magazine Strapazin while he was still studying graphic design at the Zurich School of Design. After graduating, he worked as a freelance comics artist and illustrator. In 1989, Edition Moderne published his scratchboard book Tales of Error. Alongside numerous other comic albums, he produced cinematic works, such as the animation Robert Creep—Une vie de chien, which was created in collaboration with director Claude Luyet and won the Audience Award at the 1994 Solothurn Film Festival. After an eight-year stay in Paris, Thomas Ott began a second degree, studying film at the Zurich University of the Arts, which he completed in 2002. He then made further short films and animations. His most recent works include a diary of a journey along the USA’s popular Route 66 for the Louis Vuitton Travel Book Series and the subtle surreal short story The Forest.

Cartoonmuseum Basel is the first museum to hold a retrospective on this artist, who has been awarded the Swiss Federal Scholarship for Applied Arts three times and, in 2017, became the first comics artist to receive the Swiss Grand Prix of Design. The comprehensive exhibition presents originals from all his comic albums, arrangements featuring groups of works, animations, live-action films, objects, sources of inspiration and sketches.

Events in June
Sunday guided tour
Sunday, June 15, 2025, 2–3pm

I Never Read
Wednesday, June 18 until Saturday, June 21, 2025
Cartoonmuseum Basel is present at the art book fair “I Never Read” with a selection of art books.
Signing with Thomas Ott: Wednesday, June 18, 6pm (vernissage) and Saturday, June 21, 2025, 2pm

Curator-guided tour with artist Thomas Ott
Sunday, June 22, 2025, 2–3pm
The curator’s tour with Anette Gehrig and the artist provides fascinating insight into Thomas Ott’s forty years of creative output. It demonstrates the development of his oeuvre in terms of form and content, along with the scratchboard technique, which Thomas Ott uses for most of his work. Background information on his mise-en-scène presentations, films and sources of inspiration completes this journey of discovery through the great Swiss comics artist’s sombre universe and high-contrast aesthetics.

Accompanying publication
Thomas Ott. From Scratch published by Christoph Merian Verlag, Basel
Abysmal pictorial worlds full of pitch-black humour
First overview publication with previously unpublished works
ISBN 978-3-03969-044-2

Upcoming exhibition
Preview: Opening of the new exhibition 'Alison Bechdel. The Essential'
Friday, July 4, 2025, 6:30–9pm