Bernd Zimmer - ALLES FLIESST

GALERIE JAHN is showing works by the artist Bernd Zimmer in the “Alles fließt” (Everything flows) exhibition from 25.02. – 08.04.16. He has been absorbed with the landscape, vegetation, night sky and water for more than 3 decades. This “Alles fließt” exhibition focuses on the element of water and the oeuvre includes motifs such as waterfalls, shore scenes and dense vegetation. However, Bernd Zimmer does not strive for a photorealistic visualisation of the motifs in the process but a free artistic formulation in an autonomous painting process that reveals a unique understanding of nature. This becomes clear in Zimmer’s description of his shore scenes too:

“I perceive the apparent reality, or better the representationalism of the world in or through the reflection on the water’s surface in a new way; presence and reality is illustrated by the reflection’s image. A tree standing on the shore tends to have something ordinary, mundane about it, I practically overlook it, barely notice it. The tree is by nature a fully-fledged living being, self-sufficient and unique to an extent that we can barely comprehend but want to see in its many facets. As soon as it is reflected in the water, and visible to me, it takes on a different, new form. It fleetingly lies on the water’s surface developing a new presence as a result, hinting that another structure of truth exists behind the reality and therefore demanding my specific attention.”

(Bernd Zimmer, in: Walter Grasskamp, Gespräche mit Bernd Zimmer, Munich 2008, page 36)

Bernd Zimmer (born in Planegg near Munich in 1948) is one of the most important representatives of the so-called “Heftige Malerei” works. He studied philosophy and religious studies in Berlin and is a co-founder of the legendary “Galerie am Moritzplatz”. The “Neue” or “Junge Wilde” (i.e. New Fauves) artists create a new art movement here that is direct, wild and expressive at the same time and celebrate major success on the international art scene.