President’s letter
Paul Wunderlich
Paul Wunderlich died last year on 6 June. He was 83. In my opinion he was one of the great printmakers of the second half of the 20th century. His imagery carries echoes of the surrealists and particularly the slightly hyperreal aspects of Salvadore Dali’s work. He began printmaking as a student in Hamburg in the 1940’s just after the second world war. He has produced etchings, dry points and monoprints, not to mention paintings and sculptures, but his great strength was as a lithographer. Using many, but appropriate adjectives, his lithographs are characterised by confident, delicate, sinuous and graceful lines and curves, subtle shading and an interesting mix of monochrome and colour. The subtle shading in his lithographs, was achieved, I guess, by applying tusche onto the stone with an airbrush. He perfected his technique in the 1960s.
I first saw his work at a solo exhibition at Magda and Doug Sheerer’s Dusseldorf Gallery in 1980 when it was located in Allendale Square. Displayed in the exhibition there were several lithographs, taking motifs from Manet’s “Le dejeuner sur l’herbe”. A portion of one of those prints is reproduced below. It provides an excellent example of his crystal-clear imagery subtle shading technique and graceful linear work.
In the 1990s he worked on a series of dry point etchings. Although these differ from his lithographs and lack colour, they still display his fluid linear style. You will find many examples of his work by searching in Google ‘Images’. He became an important and well recognised figure in Germany and in 2007, Chancellor Merkel opened a new administrative centre in Eberswalde – Wunderlich’s birthplace. The centrepiece of the new complex is the “Paul Wundelich-Haus” in celebration of one of the city’s great sons.
Until next time, happy printmaking.
Chris Pullin. President.
