In memory of Thomas Nast, the Landau-born draftsman and „father of political caricature in the USA“, the Thomas Nast Association, in cooperation with the City of Landau, awards the Thomas Nast Prize for satirical drawing again this year. The winners have now been determined: the “Big Thomas Nast Prize” will honor the well-known caricaturist Frank Hoppmann, who draws for WELT AM SONNTAG, the music magazine Rolling Stone and the satirical magazine Eulenspiegel, among others. Further awards go to Burkhard Fritsche (1st prize) and Phil Umbdenstock from Alsace (2nd prize). The award ceremony will take place on Tuesday, December 4th, from 7 p.m. in the Small Hall of the Art Nouveau Festival Hall and is organized by the City of Landau. The prizes are endowed with 5,000 euros (Grand Thomas Nast Prize), 1,000 euros (1st prize) and 500 euros (2nd prize). The keynote address will be given by Prof. Frank Überall, the chairman of the German Association of Journalists, on the importance of caricature in the modern media world. Lord Mayor Thomas Hirsch, who works closely with the Thomas Nast Association, is delighted with the top-class award winners. “The jury around club chairman Hubert Lehmann made an excellent choice,” the city boss is convinced. “25 German and, for the first time, Alsatian illustrators have applied for this year’s award – a response that we can be very satisfied with. Thomas Nast died more than 100 years ago; The award of the prize named after him to such distinguished and modern caricaturists as Frank Hoppmann shows, however, that the interest in the famous son of our city is unbroken – and that Thomas Nast’s work has radiated into modern times. “ Club chairman Lehmann is also convinced that in Frank Hoppmann he has found a worthy winner for the Great Thomas Nast Prize. “Frank Hoppmann is particularly brilliant in the field of graphic satire and for me is the legitimate successor of Tomi Ungerer, whom we honored in 2013 with the Thomas Nast Prize. I am delighted that so many talented illustrators have responded to our call and applied for the prize that we are awarding in honor of Thomas Nast. I am convinced that Nast would have enjoyed the numerous submissions from cartoonists who are in his tradition. “ In addition to Hubert Lehmann, the jury that met in Landau’s town hall in October also included Dr. Dagmar Gilcher, Dr. Michael Martin, Gerhard Mester, Edelgard Schneider-Jahn, Dr. Thérèse Willer and Dr. Christof Wolff. The jurors had to evaluate a total of 125 caricatures. Frank Hoppmann, born in Lingen, Lower Saxony, has been working as a freelance draftsman since 2002. In 2009 he was awarded the German Cartoon Prize and in 2015 the “Award of Excellence” from the Society for New Design in New York. In 2017 he was awarded the Los Angeles Times Prize for the portrait of the American President Trump and the “Winged Pencil in Gold” for the portrait of the Turkish President Erdogan at the German Caricature Prize in Dresden. His trademark are figures with huge, disproportionate heads. Hoppmann’s work is characterized by the freedom of his ideas and his special line, commented the jury. In this sense he is ahead of the rest in the history of satirical drawings, just like his predecessor Thomas Nast once did. Burkhard Fritsche, who goes by the stage name BURKH, was born in the Eulenspiegel town of Mölln in Schleswig-Holstein. He lives and works in Cologne and has published several cartoon books with his drawings. In addition, his caricatures have appeared in the satirical magazines Titanic and Eulenspiegel, but also in the WELT and the taz. He prefers to draw figures with long noses. The jury’s verdict said that Fritsche’s work was both: confident and humorous and hilarious. His view of the things he is aiming for is so free of moralism, teaching and prejudice that it is a real joy. Phil Umbdenstock, geboren in Saint-Avold, ist einer von vielen Zeichnern und Illustratoren, die das Elsass hervorgebracht hat. In diesem Jahr wurden mit der Ausschreibung des Thomas-Nast-Preises erstmals auch ausdrücklich Zeichnerinnen und Zeichner aus der französischen Region Grand Est angesprochen. Umbdenstock lebt und arbeitet im elsässischen Munstertal. Er zeichnet nicht nur für die Presse, wie für die elsässische Tageszeitung Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace, sondern entwirft seit vielen Jahren auch Cover für eine progressive französische Rockband. Sein Zeichenstrich, so die Jury, sei mal zärtlich, mal gallig-bitter, und der Humor und der Schalk, die dabei aufblitzten, seien Mittel der Rebellion ebenso wie der Überlebenshilfe. A selection of the best drawings submitted for the Thomas Nast Prize 2018 will be shown at the award ceremony and presented in a catalog. (red.)
