Peter Zimmermann abstractness 2019

create impressionistic, spongy colour structures comprising individual
colour pixel, generate a disturbing void. Even the depth in works like Kaz. B.
from 2010, in which Peter Zimmermann stacked the forms of numerous
faces on top of each other, has an eerie quality despite the brilliant colours.
This is perhaps due to the tension that emerges from between the shiny
colour surface and the generation of pictorial space. The immersion in the
digital pictorial space has a parallel not least in Zimmermann’s epoxy resin
floor pieces. The seemingly uncontrolled flowing colour areas invite viewers
to immerse themselves in them and can be understood as a critical distancing
from the gesture of numerous examples of Abstract Expressionism.
Zimmermann’s work seems to be consistently shaped by a shimmering
ambivalence between the enjoyment of an abstract play of colour and a
latent media criticism.
After studying at the Art Academy in Stuttgart, Peter Zimmermann
moved to Cologne, where he still lives today. He belonged to the local art
scene of the 1990s, which provided important impulses in the field of
painting as well as the development of Conceptual Art and Institutional
Critique. The crucial contributions he still makes to the artistic discourse in
the city are not only rooted in his professorship at the Academy of Media
Arts Cologne that he held from 2002 to 2007 but also his working method.
We are all the more pleased to be the first Rhenish museum to present his
work to the public in the solo exhibition Peter Zimmermann – abstractness.
His current works are shown in relation to older groups in a manner that
highlights developments and references. The present catalogue accompanies
and documents the exhibition. In his text ‘Pathfinder. From World
Atlas to Mobile App’, Markus Mascher offers a detailed explanation of how
Peter Zimmermann conceptually expands painting in his work.
For their generous support of the catalogue production, I wish to
express my cordial thanks to Galerie Max Weber Six Friedrich, Munich;
Galerie Nosbaum Reding, Luxemburg; Nunu Fine Art, Taipei City, as well
as Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon. Lastly, I am above all grateful to Peter
Zimmermann for the wonderful and productive collaboration.
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