Holger Koppelmann

Holger Koppelmann (* 1949 in Brunsbüttel ) is a contemporary German marine painter .

Life

Born in Brunsbüttel on the Elbe in 1949 and grew up there, he initially trained as an electrician after finishing school. From 1967 until he retired, Holger Koppelmann worked as a telecommunications technician, initially for the Deutsche Bundespost and later for Deutsche Telekom. In addition, however, he discovered marine painting for himself. Holger Koppelmann comes from a family in which shipping has a long tradition. His grandfather was a skipper and ship owner in Neufeld an der Elbe, his father worked as a boat operator for the water engineering department in Brunsbüttel. As a child, Koppelmann laid the foundation for his now very extensive archive of maritime literature.

Koppelmann began painting in 1970. After the first tentative attempts, several courses followed at the adult education center , which, in his own words, “didn't work”. From then on, Koppelmann went his own way, studied the work of well-known marine painters such as Walter Zeeden , Carl G. Evers , Derek GM Gardner and Laurence Dunn , and developed his typical painting style in the process.

His pictures are mainly made using mixed media. Koppelmann himself describes his style as "technical marine painting". The ships are shown correctly and in detail. He also makes profile drawings on a scale of 1: 500.

His clients include private collectors as well as well-known shipping companies. He also produced a large number of illustrations for books, shipping journals at home and abroad, and cardboard cover pictures for a large plastic model maker. In addition, his works are represented in many shipping museums, including the International Maritime Museum , Hamburg, the Shipping Museum Husum, the Wreckmuseum Cuxhaven, the Maritime Museum Taiwan , Taipei and also the Transport Museum Dresden .

In addition to numerous other exhibitions, Holger Koppelmann has been showing his works regularly since 1986 at the “Art Maritim” in Hamburg.

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1986: Wreckmuseum Cuxhaven (solo exhibition)
• 1986–2010: Participation in the "Art Maritim" at the Hanseboot in Hamburg
• 1991/1992: Forum of German marine painters on the Rickmer Rickmers
• 1998: Shipping Museum Rostock, exhibition "Shipwreck and Salvage" (solo exhibition)
• 2000: Brunsbüttel local history museum, "Dream ships yesterday and today" (solo exhibition)
• 2002: Aeronauticum Nordholz (solo exhibition)
• 2005: Shipping Museum Husum "Shipping on the Kiel Canal" (solo exhibition)
• 2007: Germanischer Lloyd Hamburg (solo exhibition)
• 2012: Maritime Museum Brake (solo exhibition)

Publications

• 1990–2003 some front pages of a well-known German shipping journal
• Hamburg South America Line, Kludas / Cooper / Pein
• South America trip, Otto J. Seiler
• The glamorous era of luxury ships, Kludas / Beer
• 125 years of Cassens Werft, Detlefsen
• German marine painting 1830–2000, Lars U. Scholl