Bernd Zimmer

Nature, largely untouched by man, is the central theme of Bernd Zimmer, who has been working as a painter for more than four decades on motifs such as landscape, vegetation, night sky, weather phenomena and water. However, he does not strive to depict these motifs as accurately as possible, but rather to formulate them freely in the autonomous painting process.

Bernd Zimmer

1948 Born in Planegg near Munich

1968 – 1970 Apprenticeship as a publishing bookseller

1972 Trip to Asia

1970 – 1975 Worked as a graphic designer in various publishing houses

1973 – 1979 Studies of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the Free University of Berlin

1975/76 Travels to Mexico and the USA; then takes up artistic work as a painter

1977 Co-founder of Galerie am Moritzplatz in Berlin; first solo exhibition FLUT, Galerie am Moritzplatz , Berlin

1979 Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship

1980 Exhibition „Heftige Malerei“, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin

1981 Trip to Indonesia

1982 – 1983 Villa Massimo Scholarship, Rome

1983 – 1984 Stay in Rome

1984 Exhibition “A Recent Survey of International Painting and Sculpture”, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

move from Rom to Polling/Oberbayern

1986 – 1987 Stay in Rapallo

1987 Exhibition Berlinart

1961 – 1987 The Museum of Modern Art, New York / The Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco

1988 Exhibition Refigured Painting. The German Image

1960 – 1988 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

1990 Trip to India

1991 Move into the studio in Monteventano/Emilia Romagna

1993 First edition of the artist magazine “PlantSÜDEN” self-published, travel to Libya

1994 Establishment of another studio in Oberhausen near Polling

1995 – 1996 Trip to Polynesia

1996 Stay in Salerno; Creation of the first sculptures in terracotta

1996 – 1999 Travels to Arizona, China, Namibia and Egypt

2003 Exhibition Obsessive Malerei, Museum für neue Kunst, Karlsruhe

2003 – 2004 Travels to Russia, Syria, Asia and Iceland

2007 Move to a further studio in Warthe/Uckermark

2010 Trip to China

2011 Exhibition 1/10 Second in front of the Warschauer Brücke, Berlinische Galerie, Journey to Vietnam and Cambodia

2012 Exhibition Zweite Natur, Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst, Augsburg

2013 Trip to Chile

2014 The Museum of Modern Art, Passau shows new woodcuts “Alles Flies” together with pictures on canvas

2015 Exhibition „Gipfeltreffen“ with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner at the Buchheim Museum, Bernried

large survey exhibition “Die 80’er” at The Städel Museum, Frankfurt

2016/17 Trip to India (Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Tamil Nadu); Exhibition „Geniale Dilletanten“ at Haus der Kunst, Munich/ Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg/ Albertinum, Dresden

2018 Trip to South India (Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka)

2019/20 Intensive work on the realization and implementation of the non-profit STOA169, a hall of columns designed by over a hundred artists from the world

2020 The Museum Fünf Kontinente, Munich opens the exhibition “Tikimania” and shows works by Bernd Zimmer in interaction with objects from the Marquesas Islands.

In September, the 1st construction phase of STOA169 is opened.

2021 The Kunsthalle Jesuitenkirche, Aschaffenburg shows the exhibition “Kristallwelt”.

The 2nd construction phase of STOA169 can be completed and opened in September

Lives and works in Polling (Upper Bavaria) and Monteventano (Italy)