Harald Küppers passed away on 31 January 2021. Professionally, he owned a repro company for decades, while in his private life he devoted every available moment to the subject of colour. He wrote hundreds of articles in trade journals and newspapers, developed didactic materials, held teaching positions, held patents in multicolour printing, wrote books and researched the subject of colour. He was Chairman of the Reproduction Technology Division of the German Printing Association, a member of the Board of Trustees of the German Colour Centre, worked on national and international colour standards committees, ... this list is certainly incomplete... in short: Küppers was fully committed to the subject of colour, and his work had a lasting impact on the printing industry.
On a walk (as he vividly describes in his memoirs), he suddenly had a colour model in front of his eyes with which one can intuitively and simply understand subtractive CMY colour mixing and additive RGB colour mixing at the same time: the „Rhomboeder model“. The model is vivid, clear and convincing. However, exact colour values or spectra cannot be determined with the Rhombohedron model. It is a visual model - not a mathematical model. Nevertheless, Küppers was convinced until the end of his life that his colour theory was the definitive one - better than CIELAB and others. In this sense, he was argumentative and aggressive until he was over 90.
Clear and concise words belonged to the edgy character head, which he used in his numerous books. Küppers did not hide behind scientific-sounding empty words and technical vocabulary. This descriptive language allowed me a vivid understanding of colour, and opened the door to this interesting, mysterious and fascinating subject.
Harald Küppers was also a role model in the pursuit of chosen paths, the perseverance, the clarity, the explicitness.
I was allowed to meet Mr Küppers twice in person and both times I was very moved by this personality. His passing is a clear loss for the world of colour. Where do people like this still exist?
Holger Everding
Links
- Website kuepperscolor.com
- Wikipedia article „Harald Küppers“
- Interview with Harald Küppers
- In Memoriam Harald Küppers
Obituary by Eckhard Bendin, Dt. Farbenzentrum e.V.
Image: Harald Küppers at the TU Dresden amidst his collection of paint, which he bequeathed to the TU in 2019.
