Continued
and a role model for the young Gerard.
Hoffnung’s figures, round-faced and topheavy, have faint echoes of the work of the
great Wilhelm Busch and shades of a kindlier
version of Grosz. (Who said Germans have
no sense of humour? Not true of any I
know.) Those faces remind also of those
in the superb sculptures of Ernst Barlach which can in turn trace their ancestry back
to the woodcuts and woodcarvings of late
medieval Germany, best seen in the work of
Tilman Riemenschneider of Wurzburg.
“I still haven’t found wha I’m
t
looking for”
Hoffnung is the German for ‘hope’ (a
cartoon collection of his work was published
in Germany under the title Hoffnungslos ie
Hopeless). The surname was fitting, as all
that Hoffnung did was positive and pleasuregiving, looking to a brighter future. When
he visited Pentonville, there was always
laughter in the cells. Among the Cartooning
Greats his place is assured.
“Are you into Reggae by any
chance?”
12
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