Paul Wunderlich (Eberswalde, 1927 – Saint-Pierre-de-Vassols, 2010) was a painter, sculptor, and above all a leading figure in German graphic art in the second half of the twentieth century. His images, often featuring female figures, elongated anatomies, enigmatic objects, and references to mythology, belong to a universe in which technical precision and fantastical imagination support one another. Reality remains recognizable, but is transformed by impossible proportions, unexpected juxtapositions, and suspended atmospheres.
Hamburg and the discovery of graphic art
After the war, Wunderlich studied at the Hamburg art school, focusing on drawing, engraving, and lithography. As early as 1951, he received a teaching appointment at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, where he taught graphic techniques and also worked as a printer. His collaboration on editions for artists such as Oskar Kokoschka and Emil Nolde gave him firsthand knowledge of printing plates and processes.
This experience is essential to understanding his work. Wunderlich does not regard graphic art as a mere means of reproducing a painting: he explores its specific possibilities, from the quality of the line to tonal nuances. The technical process becomes part of the language and allows him to achieve a particular formal clarity, even when the subject takes on unreal qualities.
The figure between Surrealism and fantastic realism
After an initial phase influenced by gestural and informal explorations, the artist turned toward a more defined figurative style. The human body, especially the female body, became one of his central themes. The figures may appear elongated, fragmented, or paired with objects of ambiguous meaning; eroticism coexists with references to art history, literature, and myth.
LThe affinity with Surrealism and fantastic realism does not imply a simple revival of their formulas. Wunderlich constructs carefully controlled images in which strangeness often arises from a slight variation in proportion or an impossible relationship between realistic elements. In 1960, some of his graphic artworks were seized in Hamburg on charges of obscenity, an episode that testifies to the tensions between his practice and the moral climate of the time.
Paris, lithography, and sculpture
Between 1960 and 1963, he stayed in Paris, further developing his lithography at specialized workshops, including Desjobert's. On his return to Germany, he was appointed professor of printmaking and painting in Hamburg, a position he left in 1968 to devote himself fully to his own research. In the meantime, he expanded his practice to sculpture and objects, transferring the same elegant, fantastical anatomies of prints into three-dimensional space.
His artistic collaboration with photographer Karin Székessy helped enrich his repertoire of figures and poses. Photography can serve as a starting point, but it is reworked until it loses the character of a mere document. The body becomes a mental image, subject to transformations that unite classical beauty and modern unease.
Original prints and collecting
Wunderlich is particularly admired for his lithographs, often created with remarkable subtlety in tonal transitions and color overlays. In lithography, the image is created from a flat matrix, traditionally based on the repulsion between water and greasy substances. LEtching, on the other hand, uses a metal matrix etched chemically: the two processes should not be confused, just as an original print is not the same as an offset reproduction.
Signature, edition size, publisher, dimensions, and references to printmaking catalogues are important for identifying a print. His artistic legacy lies in showing how technical virtuosity can become a tool for imagination, giving shape to elegant, unsettling, and instantly recognizable images.
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