When I first discovered the german space artist Klaus Buegle last year I was hooked. A contemporary of McCall and Valigursky, Buergle has that same vision for space and science and creates iconic images that only that generation were capable of. Still alive the 84 year old artist is enjoying a resurgence of interest though his collaberation with the wonderful Retro Futurismus.de website, who have given me permission to post images from their site. The site features amongst other things a fantastic 2010 Buergle calender. His resurgence continues with an exhibition 'BACK TO THE FUTURE - TECHOLOGICAL FANTASIES AND VISIONS' at Schloss Filseck in the artist's home-town of Goeppingen in Southern Germany until the 25th April ( exhibition poster, shown below, available with exhibition book from the venue).
The exhibition poster is based on Buergle's own fabulous 1970 version of the Nuclear Ferry pictured below, MARS 1, which appeared in the influental German magazine Das Neue Universum (The New Universe) #87 1970.
From the year of the moonlanding 1969, the 'Luna Hilton Auf Dem Erdtrabanten' (Luna Hilton on the Earth Satellite) appeared in Hobby magazine #18. I love the moonbase modules blasting off in the distance. But the star is the 6-wheeled bug trundling along the ridge. Those wheels are reminiscent of the Spacex and PAYA Moon Buggy.
Extending the idea to include our friends the 'domes', a similar buggy and a lunar crawler, this fantastic image appeared, believe it or not, in Mickey Mouse comic no. 11 1970.
This amazing painting below 'GELAENDEFAHRT AUF DEM MOND' (Off-Road on the Moon), which shows a range of spheroid lunar vehicles, appeared in Hobby magazine no.3 1962. The rear right digging ball reminds of a Moon Prospector.
This brilliant moon vehicle (below) reminds me completely of a toy I had in the Sixties, the Dinky Lunar Bug. Very SWORD! Unsure what 'AC' stands for but it featured in Hobby magazine no.12 1964.
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Below is one of my favourite Buergle images, a magnificent space bus, which featured in Hobby magazine for the Detroit Car Show 1964. I love the sleek swept design and the huge Nuclear Ferryesque roof window. The vehicle's tapered nose is similar to the 1960's box art on the Chinese Moonship illustrated below the Buergle.
Here is another of my favourites, the Buergle scramble bug, which appeared on the Lothar Streblow book from the famous BOJE series, below, which, as featured previously on the blog, translates as 'The Inhabitants of the Green Planet'. Fantabulous. Those are BIG wasps!
And finally a painting with real vintage, this 1953 painting of an polar airport, which graced the pages of Das Neue Universum no.70. The little yellow ice caterpillar is very reminiscent of the 1960's Moon Explorer by LP shown beneath for your viewing pleasure.
I was so taken with Klaus's art that I contacted his online 'patron' Michael Peters, creator of the fabulous Retro Futurismus website, an archive of various European space artists. Micheal sent me this kind reply:
"hi Paul, thanks very much for the kind words.Yes, please post our images on your blog, some more publicity for our site can only help :) Most of what Bürgle created was based on technical ideas that were given to him by scientists or engineers. He worked as an illustrator for several scientific magazines and book publishers. Usually the magazine articles were about some scientific project or technical idea. There was some text but because none of the rockets, space stations, monorails, or whatever it was had already been built, no photos existed, so somebody had to paint them, and that is what he excelled in - he had a very visionary way to put vague technical ideas that scientists/engineers had into a photo realistic painting. He was so influential (similar to Bonestell, McCall and his US colleagues) because he could turn these ideas into fascinating visions.
Anyway, I don't think the two vehicles that you refer to were Bürgle's original ideas. The six-wheeled moon car, as all of the Boje SF book covers, was painted in the eighties - I think it is very likely that Bürgle drew on existing designs in this case. Even Lunokhod, the first Russian moon robot from 1970, had several axes and looked vaguely similar.
The arctic airport painting that features the caterpillar is from the early fifties. Caterpillars existed at the time of course - Bürgle just created one with a more futuristic design.
best,
Michael Peters"
Now you're spoiling us, Woodsy!
ReplyDeleteThat Space Bus is just the coolest. Oh, do I want a toy of that! Why is there no Airfix or Aurora kit of this?
And while I'm about it, the six-wheeled vehicle with the "arm" would make a good SPACEX toy too!
I can see exactly what you mean about the "AC" moon vehicle - puts me in mind of that Dinky Lunar Bug too.
Beautiful dynamic artwork - puts me in mind of sf artist Paul Alexander too.
ReplyDeleteI do love his illustration style. Not a bad design in the bunch.
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