Charles Paul Wilp

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Charles Paul Wilp (born September 15, 1932 in Witten ; † January 2, 2005 in Düsseldorf ) was a German advertising specialist , artist , photographer and director of short films .

Family and youth

Wilp was born on September 15, 1932 as the son of a master roofer in Witten and spent his first years there. He himself claimed that his father Paul Max Wilp was active in the oilseed business and brought rapeseed to Europe, his mother was allegedly a pianist and accompanied silent films in Babelsberg .

From the beginning of 1943 until after the occupation of the city of Steinheim in Westphalia, Charles Wilp was a student at the Rector's School there (middle school). His mother was a farmer's daughter from the village of Entrup in the Höxter district . In Steinheim in Westphalia he lived with his great aunt (on his mother's side) named Thiet.

Education and advertising career

After finishing school at the municipal high school for boys in Witten and as a Jesuit student of François Xavier in Vannes , he attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. Wilp then went on to study synaesthesia , journalism , art and “impact psychology” at the TH Aachen . He photographed for advertising campaigns such as Puschkin (“Vodka for tough men”, 1963), Stiebel Eltron , Pirelli and Volkswagen (VW Beetle slogan: “And runs… and runs… and runs”). Wilp said, “Advertising is part of the product like electricity is part of a light bulb” . He understood this as conveying scientific knowledge. He also advised politicians such as Willy Brandt on image issues.

In 2004 Wilp was inducted into the Hall of Fame of German Advertising .

Space travel and art

In 1960 the artist Yves Klein declared him Prince of Space . Wilp's enthusiasm for space travel also influenced his most famous campaign, in 1968 for the soft drink Afri-Cola with the slogan : "Sexy-mini-super-flower-pop-op-cola - everything is in Afri-Cola"

Famous models from the 1960s such as Marianne Faithfull , Amanda Lear , Donna Summer , Marsha Hunt , Petula Clark were depicted behind a pane of glass partially covered with steam condensate on advertising motifs in line with the rap-like slogan . According to Wilps, the idea for this came about during a visit to the Marshall Space Center in Huntsville (Alabama) , where the Saturn V rocket was built at the time: The frozen, liquid oxygen stored in the workshop led to the formation of ice flowers on the windows of the moving cabins, had hung pin-up photos of the 60s beauties behind the employees .

The four-language illustrated book Dazzledorf gives a good overview of Wilp's work in and around Düsseldorf with photos by artists such as Ewald Mataré , Georges Mathieu , Yves Klein , Andy Warhol , Mel Ramos , Otto Piene , Heinz Mack , Günther Uecker , Joseph Beuys , Anatol Herzfeld as well as numerous documentary recordings of Düsseldorf, the art scene and social life from the 1950s to 1970s.

Wilp was involved in the sales success after the successful Afri-Cola campaign and was thus able to continue his passion for space. In the 1980s he visited the star city near Moscow, the training center for Russian cosmonauts, and successfully completed the program for the “space flight certificate” there.

There was no space flight, but Wilp worked on numerous parabolic flights on the production of art in weightlessness - a concept that he traced back to Michelangelo , who was hanging on his back when he was painting the Sistine Chapel . He processed his experiences in collages , using material from space travel. Bill Gates acquired one of Wilp's space artworks.

On the roof of his house in Düsseldorf-Wittlaer , district Bockum , Wilp got inspiration in a UFO- shaped habitat . This was the Futuro, developed in 1968 by the Finnish architect Matti Suuronen . In 1970 Christo wrapped the so-called flying saucer as "wrapped living space" in an art campaign. In 1993 his art prints flew into space during the D2 mission . - As a self-proclaimed “ARTronaut”, he dealt with art and space travel at the same time.

As part of the Perry Rhodan WeltCon 2000 , Wilp exhibited some of his works in the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz from December 17-19 , 1999 .

Wilp died of cancer on January 2, 2005 in his home in Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth . Some of his photos are now in the Preußischer Kulturbesitz picture archive , Berlin.

Exhibitions

Futuro house in front of the former Charles Wilp Space in Witten
  • In 2008 the exhibition Zero G. The Artronaut Charles Wilp was opened in the Braunschweig University of Art. It was curated by Marie-Luise Heuser , Annette Tietenberg and Ingrid Schmidt-Winkeler. The scientific and interdisciplinary conference Planetary Perspectives was held to accompany the exhibition . The contributions have been published.
  • In 2010, the Director of Solar System Research at ESA / ESAC in Madrid and Manager of the Rosetta Mission, Gerhard Schwehm, spoke about the importance of art in space travel - Charles Wilp, in the lecture series Culture and Space Travel at the Haus der Wissenschaft in Braunschweig .
  • In 2008 an exhibition of his works took place in the Epson Kunstbetrieb gallery .
  • In his hometown Witten, a museum with his works was set up in 2012 under the name Charles Wilp Space in a disused pump house of the local waterworks. The outer eye-catcher was a Futuro, like the one Wilp used in Düsseldorf. The museum was closed a few years later and the exhibits were sold and loaned to various international museums.

Fonts

  • Dazzledorf. Düsseldorf suburb of the world. Photographed for 20 years. Photography and text by Charles Wilp. Captions in German, English, Japanese, Arabic. Dreieich, Melzer, undated
  • Federal Chancellery. Presented by Charles Wilp. Inter Nationes, Bonn 1970.
  • Wilp-Girl 70: Charles Wilp present 12 playgirls from 5 continents; He calendar; A picture book of data. Er-Verlag, Großhesselohe 1969.

Works

  • Consumer Realism , Documenta 5 in Kassel ( Department: Parallel Imagery: Advertising ), 1972.
  • Art sheets "Blick aus dem All" , April 26 to May 6, 1993 in Oberpfaffenhofen (space mission D2).

CD

Music for commercials:

  • Bunny , 1999, Ata Tak
  • Michelangelo in Space (The Bunny Remixes) , 2004, Ata Tak

Documentary film

  • 1977: The yellow wave maker. Charles Wilp . Production by Saarland Radio / Television (45 minutes), script and direction: Klaus Peter Dencker.
  • Monks - The Transatlantic Feedback . Documentary and a. about Wilp's collaboration with avant-garde pop group The Monks, 2006.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Even today, campaigns are ascribed to Wilp that he only supplied as a photographer, even in the lexical area" - Harald Keller: " The great Afri-Cola rush " FAZ of February 28, 2008
  2. ↑ Christoph Gunkel, spiegel.de, EINES TAGES from September 15, 2009, scandal advertising, see! Here! There! Nuns on drugs, sex with Hitler, bleeding children's heads - advertisers love shock effects because they want attention.
  3. ^ Charles Wilp: Düsseldorf 'Suburb of the World'. Dazzledorf. Publisher Melzer, Dreieich, 1977
  4. ↑ Figure "wrapped living space", Collection Ernst and Doris van Dorp, Bonn, in Dazzeldorf , Melzer Verlag, 1979, pp 84-85
  5. ↑ http://www.kultur-raumfahrt.de/bilder/wilp2008.html . Concept: Marie-Luise Heuser and research group for culture and space travel : http://www.hbk-bs.de/forschung/forschungsprojekte/zeroalt/index.php
  6. ↑ Thomas Wagner: Zero G or The Rush of Weightlessness . In: Stylepark . November 14, 2008 (about the exhibition). ; Manfred Schwarz: The soaring flights of Charles Wilp - WamS from November 2nd, 2008
  7. ↑ The program for the conference: http://www.kultur-raumfahrt.de/prog/pp_ws0809.pdf
  8. ↑ http://www.hmkv.de/_pdf/2010_arc_Pressestimmen_kritischeberichte.pdf
  9. ↑ See http://www.kultur-raumfahrt.de/prog/kur_ws0910.pdf
personal data
SURNAME Wilp, Charles Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 2, 2005
Place of death Dusseldorf