BIRTHDAY RETROSPECTIVE: FUTURE ARTIST KLAUS BüRGLE REMEMBERED

I was saddened to learn of the death of Klaus Bürgle the pre-eminent German futuristic artist. He died in summer last year.

I first came across Herr Bürgle in the cover of this book I found in a second-hand bookshop in Berlin. I was instantly smitten.

I wrote a long post about him shortly after in 2010 called Back to the Future and Herr Bürgle did me the honour of signing my copy of the above book, together with his own hardback retrospective from his home-town art gallery.

A contemporary of McCall and Valigursky, Klaus Bürgle was part of that golden generation of artists who gave us such vivid paintings of a utopian space age filled with optimism akin to that which Gerry Anderson also gave us.

This grand canvas, pictured below, from the German journal Das Neue Universum [The New Universe] issue 87 from 1970 ably captures Herr Bürgle's epic vision of mankind's adventures in space as it takes the next step towards Mars. 

This painting also formed the basis of an art gallery retrospective poster in 2010 called „Zurück in die Zukunft: Technische Fantasien und Visionen“.

Remarkably the central ship is very reminiscent of a Nuclear Ferry, the most iconic if all the Project SWORD toys.

As such, it would sit perfectly alongside Bob McCall's earlier Earth to Moon Shuttle pictured below in the British Look and Learn comic:

Gone but not forgotten, Klaus Bürgle's hope for a brighter future lives on in his epic visions of space filled with beautiful machines.

The 2010 „Zurück in die Zukunft. Technische Fantasien und Visionen“ exhibition poster I mentioned above is still available but in very limited numbers - only 5 left - from the Museum in Herr Bürgle's home-town of Göppingen.

They cost 3 Euro's each. Shipping, in a rolled package, to the UK is 12 Euros. Please contact the Museum direct for payment details, other shipping destinations and further details at kunsthalle@goeppingen.de