Helmut Wimmer

Helmut Wimmer was a painter who, as the staff artist for New York's Hayden Planetarium from 1954 to 1987, created representations of cosmic vistas which were used during the planetarium shows.[1]

Helmut Wimmer
Born
Helmut Karl Wimmer

(1925-12-08)December 8, 1925
Munich, Germany
DiedMarch 20, 2006(2006-03-20) (aged 80)
Stuart, Florida
Known forPainting
Notable work
Artist's Rendition of a Black Hole (1971)
Spouse(s)Francie Schwaige

Born in Munich, at the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a sculptor and architectural model maker. Taken as prisoner of war by the Russians while serving in the German army, his talents were noticed and he was assigned to a team tasked with the repair of the ornamental plaster works of the government buildings in Gorky.[2]

In addition to work used in planetarium shows, Wimmer provided illustrations for numerous astronomy books and text books, and his work frequently appeared in the American Museum's Natural History magazine. Of particular note is his 1971 illustration for Physics Today, entitled Artist's Rendition of a Black Hole - a "colorful schematic concept of black hole phenomena [which] has been copied extensively, sometimes without proper credit."[3]

He also designed an educational children's board game entitled "Space Hop", which was published by Teaching Concepts in 1973. The game taught players about the sun and its planets, moons, comets and asteroids.

References
  1. Hevesi, Dennis (25 January 2007), "Helmut Wimmer, 80, Painter With Planetarium for a Canvas, Dies", The New York Times, retrieved 19 October 2011
  2. Franklin, K. L., Helmut K. Wimmer (1925-2006), retrieved 13 September 2015
  3. Franklin, K. L., Helmut K. Wimmer (1925-2006), archived from the original on March 31, 2012, retrieved 13 September 2015


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