Illustrator & Graphic Novelist
born 1975, Germany
„For the Blacklight project, I began experimenting with toner and nitro thinner, creating grey washed surfaces and drawings on them with charcoal and chalk. The result was both flat and dynamic. It had an almost photographic, documentary character, but depending on the degree of abstraction of the drawing, it could also tip over into expressionism, nightmarishness.“
David von Bassewitz is one of the most influential illustrators of his generation. His graphic narratives are influenced by film, both in terms of image composition and editing. The narrative itself, as Bassewitz once described it, does not take place on a canvas or paper, but exclusively in the viewer’s mind.
Von Bassewitz studied film and media studies at the University of Erlangen and illustration at the University of Applied Sciences in Würzburg. In 2010 he was named Best Illustrator by the Art Directors Club Europe. His illustrations appear in Die Zeit, stern and Le Nouvel Observateur and have been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London, among others. He has been a lecturer at the Art Directors Club for Germany (ADC) since 2014. David von Bassewitz published his first graphic novel, “Vasmers Bruder”, in 2014.