Axel Wunsch

Axel Wunsch was trained in industrial dying processes from 1956 to 1958 and then worked for five years as a yarn dyer. He attended Willy Wittig’s art circle for painting and drawing in Chemnitz (then called Karl-Marx-Stadt) and studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (HGB) in Leipzig from 1963 to 1968, learning the applied graphic arts with Wolfgang Mattheuer. After obtaining his degree, Wunsch distanced himself from commercial in favor of creative art, and with this objective returned to Chemnitz. In 1969, Wunsch showed his work for the first time in a larger-scale exhibition with Volker Stelzmann in the cooperative gallery Kunst der Zeit in Chemnitz. As early as 1963, he took over the drawing course at the Chemnitz art circle from his former teacher. Since 2000, Wunsch has also taught painting at the Förderstudioklasse Zwickau.

A studio in a back courtyard of the industrial suburb Kappel, which Wunsch occupied from 1973 on, soon became a meeting place for artists and friends of the arts. Lutz Voigtmann and Uwe Bullmann had their ateliers in the same building and the artists created a friendly and inspiring ambiance together. In the mid-1990s, Wunsch got involved in transforming a combined residential and commercial complex which included artist studios, a printing press, workshops, and a publishing house. Together with Bullmann, he also founded the Hofgalerie there.

In the 1970s, the artist travelled for research purposes to Siberia, Hungary, Irkutsk, Finland, West Germany, and Yugoslavia, and in 1983 to Mongolia. In his work, Axel Wunsch experiments with painting, drawing, graphics, and sculpture. He draws mainly upon simple materials to mingle genres with a light and playful touch.

text: Elke Neumann, translation: Darrell Wilkins