Paul Wunderlich (10 March 1927 in

Eberswalde Eberswalde () is a major town and the administrative seat of the district Barnim in Brandenburg in north-eastern Germany, about northeast of Berlin. Population 42,144 (census in June 2005). The town is often called Waldstadt (forest town), beca ...

– 6 June 2010 in

Saint-Pierre-de-Vassols Saint-Pierre-de-Vassols (; Provençal: ''Sant Pèire de Vassòus'') is a commune in the Vaucluse ''département'' in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Its inhabitants are known as ''vassoliens'' (male) and ''vassolie ...

) was a German painter, sculptor and graphic artist. He designed

Surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

paintings and erotic sculptures. He often created paintings which referred to mythological legends.

Background

Wunderlich was the second child of Horst and Gertrude (née Arendt) Wunderlich. After a time as Flakhelfer and a prisoner of war, he moved to his mother in

Eutin Eutin () is the district capital of Ostholstein, Eastern Holstein county located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. As of December 2022, the town had some 17,000 inhabitants. History The name Eutin (originally Utin) is of Slavic ...

, graduated from the Johann Heinrich Voss Gymnasium, and then visited the Palace School of Art in the Orangery of Eutin Castle. In 1947 he became a student at the Landeskunstschule in Hamburg, where he was in the Free Graphics class of William Tietze. His classmates included

Horst Janssen Horst Janssen (14 November 192931 August 1995) was a German draftsman, printmaker, poster artist and illustrator. He had a prolific output of drawings, etchings, woodcuts, lithographs and wood engravings. Janssen was a student of Alfred Mahlau a ...

and Reinhard Drenkhahn. After a hiatus, Wunderlich began studying again in 1950 with Willem Grimm and graduated in 1951. He then worked as a lecturer at the

Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg The , also known as HFBK Hamburg, is an arts university in Hamburg, in northern Germany. It dates to 1767, when it was called the ; later it became known as . The main building, in the Uhlenhorst quarter of Hamburg-Nord borough, was designed by ...

, teaching lithography and etching. Also in 1951 he printed for

Emil Nolde Emil Nolde (born Hans Emil Hansen; 7 August 1867 – 13 April 1956) was a German painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and was one of the first oil painting and watercolor painters of the early ...

("The King and his men", etching) and in 1952 for

Oskar Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright and teacher, best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expre ...

, the graphics suite "Ann Eliza Reed" of eleven lithographs. With the earnings he spent three months in Ibiza. In 1955 he received a scholarship from the Cultural Committee of German Industry . After an early, essentially realistic creative period from around 1959, he developed his characteristic style. His early works show a dismembered body, disproportioned in front of an empty background. In the 1960s he was influenced by art movements such as

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

and

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

. In 1960, the cycle of lithographs "qui s'explique" was seized by the Hamburg prosecutor for indecent depictions. Wunderlich received the 1961 Prize of the Youth for graphics. With the prize money, he moved to Paris. In 1962, he worked in the workshop Deskjoberts in Paris. In 1963 he returned to Hamburg and as a successor of George Gresko was professor at the Hochschule until 1968. In 1969 he started the creation of bronze sculptures and statues, influenced by

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

. In 1976, he issued a limited edition of multicolored heliographs that illustrated James Joyce's ''Giacomo Joyc''e. Wunderlich destroyed some of his art after having spent some time on it. He had looked at it and decided he no longer liked it. At another time his art had gotten him in trouble, officials came knocking on his door and ruined years worth of his work for being too strange.

Personal life

Paul Wunderlich married photographer Karin Székessy in 1971, and the couple pursued art projects together. Fritz J. Raddatz documented and wrote comments on his work. Wunderlich lived and worked in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

and Saint-Pierre-de-Vassols (Provence).

Death

Wunderlich died in

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

on 6 June 2010 at the age of 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wunderlich, Paul 1927 births 2010 deaths 20th-century German painters German male painters 21st-century German painters 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists German male sculptors 21st-century German sculptors 21st-century German male artists University of Fine Arts of Hamburg alumni Academic staff of the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg Luftwaffenhelfer German prisoners of war in World War II