Holger Zimmermann turns his gaze to the past. Inspired by pop art and its greatest exponents such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, the self-taught artist is dedicated to the era of petticoats, the economic miracle and pin-up girls. His paintings depict a cheerful world of beach vacations, consumerism and socializing. Blurred contours, reduced colors and shadowy figures give the apparent harmony cracks and a dubious note.
Zimmermann uses collected postcards, magazines and posters from the 1950s and 60s to create nostalgic collages. By merging different faces into one, the artist creates peculiar combinations. The disintegration and recombination of the faces corresponds to the aesthetics of “beautiful horror” with a grotesque appearance.
This alienation and decay is particularly evident in the digital prints of the P.U.C. series: through the use of strong colors and clear structures, the faces depicted are alienated to the point of unrecognizability and can only be recognized dimly.
Zimmermann’s photography is dedicated to the morbid charm of dilapidated buildings. His pictures of so-called “lost places” show the splendor of earlier eras and present-day decay in impressive snapshots. The transience of things and the longing for times gone by as a kind of “morbid romanticism” are the unifying element of Holger Zimmermann’s paintings, digital prints, collages and photographs.