On the occasion of Bernd Zimmer's 75th birthday, Galerie Thomas presents a selection of works from all of the artist's creative periods, tracing his painterly diversity and development through the symbolic tree motif.
Born in 1948, Zimmer moved to divided Berlin in his mid-20s to study philosophy and religious studies at the Free University. After a stay in Mexico and in the USA, he takes up his artistic activities and from 1977 works together with Rainer Fetting, Helmut Middendorf, Salomé and others. They open their own exhibition space, the Galerie am Moritzplatz.
Later the artists were called the "Neue" or the "Junge Wilden". Their painting was spirited, colorful, expressive and figurative - at a time when abstraction was the measure of all things and figurative painting was considered outdated. Following in the footsteps of the Brücke artists, the Neue Wilde also wanted to free themselves from intellectual painting. Zimmer continues on this path to this day; the artist lives and works in Bavaria.
Nature, trees, the landscape, the cosmos have occupied Bernd Zimmer for over 40 years. A continuous cenral theme are the trees. Our exhibition shows his change in the design of this theme over 40 years. Wildness, expressiveness was the original force of his painting. To this he returned again and again in all excursions into a more controlled representation. Interestingly, the most recent continuation of this path has become a design principle in a single painting. In incredibly powerful, vital color and form, he brings his overflowing design language to the canvas in dynamic images, only to reduce them afterwards so that a convincing essence is ultimately the result as a valid statement. The path of a lifelong painterly development as a design principle in a picture - fascinating. From the fullness to the essence!
