This was Ruskin’s view of J.M. Whistler’s paintings … what would he say about Peter Zimmermann’s colourscapes? Zimmermann’s work would probably not have appealed to Ruskin’s conservative views. As a champion of Turner, Ruskin found Whistler’s work intolerable, particularly his depictions of Turner motifs, using similar effects to beautify the industrial scenery on the Thames. But from the “easel picture” to Clement Greenberg’s pictorial “flatness”, from the “allover’ paint surface and “optical space” to Zimmermann’s “Technobilder”, different painterly processes and materials are needed to drive painting in a new direction.
The image, the main force of Zimmermann’s artistic language, is continuously manipulated and transformed into chromatic two- and three-dimensional fabrications. Like a scientist in a laboratory, he discovers, analyses and reorders technical information, using the lens of the digital world, to reveal hidden matter. On his creative journey, he focuses on communication and dissemination to reinterpret images and how these are perceived and processed by us. His intense splashes of colour and drops are often unified but sometimes isolated and grouped on canvases in a variety of patterns, almost flowing with their own volition. Glossy surfaces reflect to viewers an altered perception of themselves and their immediate environment. The act of playing with bright and dark hues, juxtaposed with each other, evokes paradoxical impressions of movement and tranquillity. Typically pigments are mixed with epoxy resin, providing Zimmermann with an amazing array of colours as well as a contemporary twist on the modern technique of pouring paint which recalls the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock and the stained canvases of Morris Louis. His pictorial language holds formidable accents that foster vitality and rhythm.
