No Angel

Paul Wunderlich

Paul Wunderlich’s exploration of the surreal is evident in his color lithograph “No Angel,” in which a long, thin figure sits in a chair in a posture of something near to boredom or defeat, hands pressed between knees, feet akimbo. The upper half of the mythical being is rendered machine-like, their wings hardened stone offset against a vibrant teal wall, the nearly-hidden, fire engine red seat of a wooden chair propping her up.

Is the figure in a cell? Are they awaiting an unknown fate? Wunderlich leaves that to the viewer’s imagination, and he is often wont to do. In any case, his ability to coax such nuance from the stone makes him among the best German lithographers of the 20th century.