What kind of influence has Wunderlich’s work had on contemporary art, fashion, and design?

The single-most important influence Wunderlich probably had on contemporary art was the cross-over from fine art to design. At the time, no artist in Europe who wanted to be taken seriously would touch anything that resembled design, but Wunderlich believed everything an artist touches is art, regardless of whether the object ended up in a museum or on a dinner table.

Wunderlich designed china for Rosenthal, which was then finished with a design by Versace. He designed objects that were art but could also be used, like the famous chess-set from 1984. He designed furniture, silverware, bottle openers and candlesticks. Unlike other artists who venture into design to make it available to the masses, Wunderlich always considered his objects fine art. It was not his desire to be in every household, on the contrary. But he wanted to show that art has roots in real life and can be reflected in everyday objects. He wanted to create art that people could connect with. He didn’t shy away from objects that were commonly considered craft, like the motif of the Three Monkeys. He made it his own, thus showing that it’s not necessarily the subject that makes the art, but the style, the handwriting of an artist and his view of the world.

How does Wunderlich feel about being deemed “the most important representative of ‘Magic Realism’”?

Wunderlich explicitly dislikes any labels, especially being a representative of “Magic Realism”. For one, because he never considered himself part of a movement and also because “Magic Realism” was widely based on the personal dreams and fantasies of the artists, while he tried to remove his work as much as possible from his personal life.

In my opinion, his work is much stronger without the context of that movement. One aspect of his work that lies outside the stencil of “Magic Realism” is the autonomy of his two-dimensional and three-dimensional work. When looking at artists throughout the last two centuries we find that most have one main creative outlet. Most artists are either painters or sculptors, two-dimensional or three-dimensional thinkers. Many of them attempt to venture out into the other world, but it’s always obvious which one is the dominant form of expression.

One of the most prominent artists of the 20th century was Max Ernst, and his sculpture work was just as important as his painting. With Paul Wunderlich, we have found an important representative of a specific and very small group of artists that have conquered the challenge of creating two equally important bodies of work, and I have a feeling that Wunderlich would like this label much better.