»es gibt im Moment keine besseren Künstler als uns in Deutschland«

A black-and-white photograph in a book shows three men, Heimrad Prem, Helmut Sturm, and Dieter Kunzelmann, distributing the SPUR Manifeste on a street in Munich in 1961. The photo is on the left page, next to a column of German text.

A two-page spread from a book. The left page contains a block of German text. The right page features a full-color reproduction of the 1960 painting Gelbe Gefahr by HP Zimmer. It is a chaotic, abstract expressionist work with thick, impasto brushstrokes depicting intertwined figures in vibrant red, blue, yellow, black, and white.

A black-and-white photograph on a book page showing a group of seven men and women from the Gruppe Spur artist collective. They are gathered on a patio at night, some sitting at a small table with drinks and others standing behind, all posing for the camera. A tall, old-fashioned lamppost stands behind them against the dark sky.

A page from a book showing the 1962 oil painting Selbstportrait by HP Zimmer. The energetic, abstract artwork features several distorted, mask-like figures in green, blue, and white against a bright red background. The figures are rendered with thick, gestural brushstrokes. The facing page contains a long passage of text in German.

A two-page spread from a book in German. The left page, number 54, shows the 1962 manifesto of the art group Gruppe SPUR, presented as a long list of questions and statements on aged, yellowed paper. The right page, number 55, contains several paragraphs of text discussing art, legal issues, and personal matters, and includes the date 19.6.62.

A black-and-white image of a two-page spread from a German book. The left page, number 58, features two photographs. The top photo shows a young man standing in front of a political poster that reads WÄHLT KOMMUNISTEN LINKSSOZIALISTEN. The bottom photo shows a group of people sitting and talking around a table. The right page, 59, is a full page of German text.

A page from a book with German text on the right and three images on the left. The top images are black and white photos from 1962: a portrait of Vera Buttkus, and Vera with HP Zimmer. Below is a colorful, expressionist postcard painting by HP Zimmer with stylized figures and the German words DANKE FÜR GELD.

A black and white page from a book, featuring a 1963 exhibition poster on the left and a column of German text on the right. The poster is an expressive, sketch-like drawing of figures holding a dark banner with the word SPUR written on it. The text advertises an exhibition of gouaches and watercolors by the SPUR group at the Gernot W. Elmenhorst gallery in Hamburg.

A black and white photograph from a book, dated 1963, showing the four men of the artist group SPUR. They are posing in front of a large, bold abstract painting that fills the background. One of the men stands on a stepladder.

A black-and-white photograph from a book showing an art exhibition. On the right, a gallery wall displays a sign for GRUPPO SPUR with the names STURM ZIMMER FISCHER PREM below. Under the sign hangs a dark, abstract painting. An empty, ornate wooden chair is in the right foreground. The left page of the book features German text.

A two-page spread from a book, pages 78 and 79. The left page contains several paragraphs of German text with dates as headings. The right page features two photographs of abstract architectural sculptures. The top photo is in color, showing a whimsical model with a mushroom-like top and colorful rings. The bottom photo is in black and white, showing a sculpture made of tall, organic forms with striped patterns, captioned Spurbau, 1963.

The book cover for HP Zimmer, Tagebuch 1957–1965, shows a black-and-white photograph of the artist in a leather jacket standing beside a large, abstract painting.

The cover of the book HP Zimmer Tagebuch 1957–1965, featuring a black-and-white photograph of the artist in a leather jacket standing beside a large, abstract painting.

A black-and-white photograph of the artist HP Zimmer in a leather jacket, standing beside an abstract painting on the cover of his book, Tagebuch 1957–1965.

»es gibt im Moment keine besseren Künstler als uns in Deutschland«

HP Zimmer, Tagebuch 1957-1965

€ 24.00

VAT included. Shipping costs will be calculated at checkout

Amount

By (artist): HP Zimmer

Foreword by: Matthias Mühling, Nina Zimmer

Edited by: Nina Zimmer, Matthias Mühling , Barbara Hess

February 2023, 248 Pages, 100 Photos

Paperback with Flaps

142mm x 212mm

ISBN: 978-3-7757-5075-2

HATJE CANTZ VERLAG
Mommsenstr. 27
10629 Berlin
Germany
E-Mail: contact@hatjecantz.de

According to Article 9(7) of the GPSR Regulation, no additional security information is required for books without supplements or special functions.

Press download

| Vivid Chronicle of a Postwar Avant-Garde

"I have kept a diary since my school days," HP Zimmer remarked in 1984. This is also true of the time of the artists' group SPUR he co-founded in 1957. He wrote to "seek my own point of view in the midst of often turbulent events and sometimes controversial debates." This book presents representative excerpts from the manuscript, which was reviewed by the artist in the early 1990s. Stylistically aware and (self-) critical, Zimmer comments on the cultural and social climate of postwar Germany. He provides insights into the contemporary German art scene and its European network with close ties to the Situationist International. The debates recorded by Zimmer in his diaries - about painting and artistic freedom as well as revolution, boxing matches, crime series, and the threat of nuclear war - are still strangely relevant to us today.

HP ZIMMER (1936-1992) studied at the Hamburg Kunsthochschule and the Munich Kunstakademie in the late 1950s. SPUR, which he co-founded, was one of the first post-war avant-gardes groups in the Federal Republic. In 1982, HP Zimmer became a professor of painting at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Braunschweig.