Charles Paul Wilp (15 September 1932, in

Witten Witten () is a city with almost 100,000 inhabitants in the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis (district) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Witten is situated in the Ruhr valley, in the southern Ruhr area. Bordering municipalities * Bochum * Dortmun ...

– 2 January 2005, in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

) was a German advertising-designer, artist,

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...

and short-movie-editor.

Study and career

After school at the humanistic Ruhr-high school and after studying at the Jesuit-father François Xavier in

Vannes Vannes (; br, Gwened) is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. It was founded over 2,000 years ago. History Celtic Era The name ''Vannes'' comes from the Veneti, a seafaring Celtic people who live ...

, Wilp went to the

Académie de la Grande Chaumière The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. History The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Acad� ...

in Paris. He completed his wide-ranging education at the TH Aachen in synaesthesia,

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

. He was also student of

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to eac ...

in New York. Wilp developed a few of the most important advertisement campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s: Puschkin („Wodka für harte Männer“, 1963), Pirelli and

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...

(VW-Käfer-Slogan: „Und läuft ... und läuft ... und läuft“). He was also an image consultant for major politicians, like

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...

Aerospace and art

In 1960,

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein w ...

declared Wilp as ''Prince of Space''. Wilp's interest in aerospace influenced also his most famous campaign in 1968 for the soft drink ''

Afri-Cola Afri-Cola is a cola soft drink produced in Germany. The trademark Afri-Cola was registered in 1931 by the company F. Blumhoffer Nachfolger GmbH. The same company also produced Bluna, an orange soft drink. Today the brand belongs to the Mineral ...

'', Slogan: ''„Super-sexy-mini-flower-pop-op-cola – alles ist in Afri-Cola“'' Famous models of 1960s like

Marianne Faithfull Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single " As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the British I ...

Amanda Lear Amanda Lear (; born 1939) is a French singer, songwriter, painter, television presenter, actress, and former model. She began her professional career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s, and went on to model for Paco Rabanne, Ossie Clark, and ...

, Donna Summer, Marsha Hunt were photographed behind windows with ice-crystals.

Artist's friends

The art-book "Dazzledorf" (which presents in its subtitle the town of

as suburb of the world) with samples also of a few of his artists-friends like Ewald Mataré,

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

Mel Ramos Melvin John Ramos (July 24, 1935 – October 14, 2018) was an American figurative painter, specializing most often in paintings of female nudes, whose work incorporates elements of realist and abstract art. Born in Sacramento, California, to ...

, Otto Piene, Heinz Mack, Günther Uecker,

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

gives a good impression of the art and style of this artist. Wilp also had contact with the artists Michael (Mike) Jansen, Helmut Tollmann and Joe Brockerhoff.

Collection

Some of his photos can be found today in Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.

Literature

Wilp, Charles, Dazzledorf. Photography and texts by Charles Wilp. (texts German, English, Japanese, Arabian)o.J. Wilp, Charles, Bundeskanzleramt. Inter Nationes, Bonn 1970, Wilp, Charles, Wilp-Girl 70 : Charles Wilp present 12 Playgirls aus 5 Kontinenten

Works

* ''Konsumrealismus'', Documenta 5 in Kassel, 1972 * ''Kunstblätter „Blick aus dem All“'', 26. April bis 6. Mai 1993 in Oberpfaffenhofen (aerospace-mission D2)

Film-documentation

* ''Der gelbe Wellenmacher''. German TV-documentation by Klaus Peter Dencker, ARD 1977 * monks - the transatlantic feedback. A documentary film about Wilp's collaboration with the first avant-garde pop band The Monks, USA/Germany/Spain 2006

Discography

* ''Prince Of Space, Musik Der Leere'' - (1965, Sight & Sound Production), with

* '' Charles Wilp Fotografiert Bunny'' - (1965, Ata Tak) * '' Michelangelo In Space - The Bunny Remixes'' - (2000, Ata Tak)

Dedicated museums and collections

His native town Witten (situated in the Ruhr region) has just established a Charles Wilp museum called "Charles Wilp Space".

External links

Wilps Website ART AND SPACE / crosx mirror
* https://web.archive.org/web/20070928063205/http://www.fotogemeinschaft.de/v/fotografen/Klaus-Baum/documenta/charles+wilp+ulrike+lehmann_960_2.jpg.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20070928063230/http://www.fotogemeinschaft.de/v/fotografen/Klaus-Baum/documenta/charles+wilp+juergen+klauke+1000ra.jpg.html

Charles Wilp at Discogs

External links to Afri-Cola-campaign

Historisches Afri-Cola Plakat

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilp, Charles Paul 1932 births 2005 deaths 20th-century German photographers RWTH Aachen University alumni Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière Photographers from North Rhine-Westphalia People from Witten