Bernd Zimmer was born in Planegg in 1948. Zimmer initially completed an apprenticeship as a bookseller at Carl Hanser Verlag in Munich (1968-1970). He subsequently worked as a graphic design assistant for Carl Hanser Verlag (1970-1972). In 1973, he moved to Berlin and began working as a book designer at the Klaus Wagenbach publishing house. In parallel, he studied philosophy and religious studies at the Freie Universität (Free University) Berlin. Finally, he spent five months in Mexico and the southern United States (1975-1976). Only after this extensive education did he embark on his artistic work.
In 1977, alongside Rainer Fetting, Helmut Middendorf, Salomé and other names associated with the German Young Wild Ones movement, Zimmer founded the famous artists’ self-help gallery, Galerie am Moritzplatz, which existed until 1981. In 1980, works by members of the collective were presented to the general public for the first time in the Berlin Haus am Waldsee under the title Violent Painting.
A grant from Villa Massimo took him to Rome between 1982 and 1984, beginning his artistic relationship with Italy, which he nurtures to this day with a studio in Piozzano. In 1984, he moved to Polling and moved into an apartment and studio in the Polling monastery. In 1991, he set up another studio in Monteventano in Emilia-Romagna. Zimmer has been dividing his creative time between these locations ever since.
Several influences from the 1990s are important in terms of re-contextualising Zimmer’s aesthetic approach to composition. The first is the Sahara Desert, which he visited for the first time in 1993. Other foundational interests are the artist’s interest in astronomy and physics, which led to the Cosmos pictures of 1998. Further travels in China, Vietnam, India and other countries have continued to nourish his practice throughout his career.
Artistically, Zimmer crosses as many borders as his passport has. His oeuvre is therefore representative of this comprehensive summary of aesthetic and cultural experiences. Uniting in spite of its eclectic forms and means of expression, his art is a celebration of nature’s sublime power and art’s paramount necessity.
The first overview of his woodcuts was shown in 2001 in Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen. In 2006, the Kunsthalle Mannheim presented the first comprehensive exhibition of the Cosmos paintings. Recent solo exhibitions include: Tikimania, Museum Fünf Kontinente, Munich (2020); Bernd Zimmer. Reflex, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen (2020); Das geheime Leben der Sterne, Galerie Thomas Modern, Munich (2018); Kristallwelt, Neue Galerie, Kassel (2018); Bernd Zimmer, NÖ DOK, St. Pölten (2016); GIPFELTREFFEN. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner und Bernd Zimmer, Buchheim Museum, Bernried (2015); ZWEITE NATUR. Malerei und Farbholzschnitt, Museum Moderner Kunst Wörlen, Passau (2014); Infinity. Neo-Expressionism/Contemporary Art (danach in Peking), Zhan Zhou International Cultural and Creative Industry Park, Beijing (2013); H2 – Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst im Glaspalast, Augsburg (2012); Kunstmuseum, Tønder (2013); Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst, Munich (2010).
Zimmer lives and works in Polling (Upper Bavaria, Germany), Warthe (Brandenburg, Germany) and Piozzano (Italy). Since 2012, the Zimmer Foundation has sought to ensure the preservation of Bernd Zimmer’s artistic work and to support scientific research into it, as well as its regular public display.
