Heyoka’s Workbench

Egner

My predilection for the grotesque and surreal can in no small part be attributed to the drawings and writings of Eugen Egner. His surrealism is not of the flamboyant (and in my eyes shallow and boring) type that yells at us from Dalí’s paintings or out of the texts of so many authors who want to be »kafkaesque« (but are not).

The scenes, the characters, the world that Egner unfolds are totally devoid of anything grand and solemn. It’s Hieronymus Bosch relocated into a do-it-yourself store or the shopping street of a dying post-industrial town on Sunday afternoon or the dreary barbecue evening at the IT company’s office.

Egner’s world is twisted and decrepit, its inhabitants preposterous and ugly (and obsessed with wood!). – It’s great art, great entertainment and a good laugh, too.

On Sunday, 10 October, the cartoonist, writer, and musician Eugen Egner turns 70.

Portrait of Eugen Egner (Ink and Water Colours)