Jupp Küpper: Painting your way out of alcohol addiction

"For you," says Josef Küpper as he says goodbye and hands the guest one of his pictures. His hearty laugh makes it clear how good it makes him feel to give someone a present. How happy he is. And how proud he is. He has every right to be. After all, not many people are still as productive at 90 as this petite man. What's more, with pictures like this one, he has managed to get his worst enemy under control: alcohol. Josef Küpper, who everyone just calls "Jupp", has been "sober" for almost 20 years thanks to his painting.

On this day, Jupp Küpper is still working on new paintings with Michael Plöger in the studio at Haus Mühlgrund in Verl in the district of Gütersloh. Once a week, the painter from Bielefeld comes to the Bethel facility for chronically dependent people with multiple impairments; the artistic programme is made possible by donations. At each meeting, Michael Plöger paints a portrait of Küpper; over the years, this has resulted in an extensive collection. Working together also enriches him. "Jupp has tremendous energy, great inner strength and huge passion," reports Michael Plöger: "His feelings are transferred one-to-one to the paper."

Whereas Küpper used to use colourful felt-tip pens for geometric, contoured depictions, he now paints with pastels. Sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract. He creates three pictures per session. When they are finished, Jupp Küpper is exhausted. "When I'm painting," he says, "I have to concentrate very hard. So much so that "I no longer think about alcohol and cigarettes". When he realised this many years ago, he realised that painting was his way out of addiction. Since then, Jupp Küpper has pursued it with great discipline; he paints many pictures and the studio sessions with Michael Plöger are sacred to him. He is only rarely absent. Because "the pressure of addiction," he says, "does get weaker over the years. But it's still there".

Jupp Küpper has had an eventful life. After an apprenticeship as a carpenter, he was drawn out into the wide world. In Africa, he enlisted as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion and fought in cruel, dirty wars for almost ten years. To forget, he turned to the bottle. And alcohol became his worst enemy.

He drank and smoked excessively for decades. When Jupp Küpper came to Haus Mühlgrund almost 30 years ago, he initially continued to drink before finally discovering painting for himself. He finally found a fulfilling activity to which he could devote himself completely; and thus also a way to deal with his nightmares in a different way. Painting also improves his concentration and motor skills, and finished pictures fulfil him with satisfaction and pride.

Despite his alcoholism, being 90 and in relatively good health is something of a miracle, even for him. "I never thought I'd live to be this old," he says - and reaches for the chalk. Jupp Küpper will continue to paint for as long as he can.

Text: Philipp Kreutzer | Photos: Christian Weische