1925-2006
by Kenneth L. Franklin, Former Chair and Astronomer Emeritus of the American Museum-Hayden Planetarium
Planetarium art — indeed, astronomical art – owes a great debt to Helmut Wimmer. After a recommendation from long-time Hayden Planetarium lecturer Henry Neely, Helmut was brought on to the American Museum-Hayden Planetarium staff as Art Coordinator in 1955. Neely had encountered Helmut by chance, and was impressed by his obvious talent and personality. At the Hayden, Helmut developed many innovative art techniques for the Hayden sky shows. It was there that he began to perfect his use of the airbrush. Only superlatives can describe his ultimate career.
Helmut Karl Wimmer was born in Munich in 1925. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a sculptor and architectural model maker. While serving in the German army at eighteen, he was captured by Czech partisans and turned over to the Russians. As a prisoner of war, he was sent to Gorky where his talents were noticed by the overseers. He was soon assigned to a team to repair the ornamental plaster works of the government buildings in Gorky. He was freed in 1949 and made his way to Munich, a story in itself. Seeking what he hoped would be a better life for his wife, Francie, and their daughter, Monica, he made his way to New York in 1954. A second daughter, Nina, was born a few years later in the U.S. He soon began his career at the American Museum-Hayden Planetarium, retiring from there in 1987.
Though skilled in painting, his seeking a view of the third dimension required something beyond the ordinary paintbrush. He could achieve better results by using the airbrush, even though it was unfamiliar to him at the time. He used masks and templates to get sharp lines, like edges of spherical stars and planets. Raising the masks would permit a softening of the edges for nebular boundaries. Helmut was bold in his experimentation with different materials and techniques. When an astronomical concept was explained, he visualized its illustration. He then transferred his view to paper. To experiment with composition, Helmut often sprayed plastic over the finished portion of a work. If unsatisfied, he could wipe it off without damaging the good part and add something different. The result was always closer to the desired concept.
Over the years, Helmut drew so many pictures of the earth that he could paint it from any point of view, no longer needing a globe or map. He could also represent constellations from memory. Of course, Helmut learned his English along with his astronomy while he did all the art illustrations for the shows. A problem, however, surfaced in Germany. He could not tell his family and friends there about his astronomical work, because he didn’t have the technical German vocabulary.
One of the Hayden staff members, Franklyn M. Branley, was a very successful author of science books for children. Many of his astronomy books were illustrated by Helmut. This exposure got Helmut numerous assignments from other authors and publishers, including illustrating several textbooks. His skill often earned him a co-author credit on the books he illustrated. His work frequently appeared in the American Museum magazine, Natural History, as well as many others. His colorful schematic concept of black hole phenomena has been copied extensively, sometimes without proper credit. But those of us familiar with Helmut’s work can identify it almost immediately in any publication.
It was the practice at the Hayden to change shows over one night. Technicians would change the various projectors and special effects. Helmut would change all the slides in the several slide projectors, and everywhere else a slide was needed. What went where was in his head. For hours each change night, Helmut would climb a ladder scores of times. It was ultimately made easier when a wheeled scaffold was used, but he had to climb it, too, just not so often. There were times when the staff tried to make the work a bit less onerous by playing his favorite song, “Dark Moon” by Loretta Lynn.
One show was entitled, “Six Men Who Changed the Universe”. For a hallway exhibit, Helmut made busts of the six, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and Hubble. He was a sculptor again, perfecting the clay busts before casting them in plaster. He worked from illustrations of each of the men, except for Ptolemy, of course. In Ptolemy’s case Helmut was accused of making him look suspiciously like Helmut himself.
His humor was infectious, and once used in a show. We had wanted to have a movable earth projected onto the dome. He coated a glass ball with wax. In the wax, he scraped the geographic features. Fluoric acid was to be used to etch the exposed glass. He had almost finished it Friday afternoon, but the technicians etched it Monday morning before he got to work. In shows, we were able to joke that our German artist had succeeded where Hitler failed: He had wiped the British Isles off the map.
Helmut’s last years were troubled by Alzheimer’s disease, and he had suffered a stroke. Although his vigor failed him toward the end of his life, his lively work will last for years, well beyond the end of our own. His significant contribution to the reputation of the Hayden, and to the field of astronomical art, cannot be suggested by this brief note. He is most definitely a pioneer in the field. His name may not have been listed among the staff members of the Museum, but he was always a well-respected colleague of ours.
Helmut Wimmer is survived by his wife, Francie, daughters Monica and Nina, and by three grandchildren.