EMIL

CIMIOTTI

Emil Cimiotti, sculptor and sketch artist, is one of the distinguished pioneers of (West) German post-war abstract art. His work was presented at the Venice Biennale in 1958 and 1960 as well as the documenta in Kassel in 1959 and 1964. His art belongs to important museum collections and has been shown internationally in many exhibitions.

After returning from captivity as a prisoner of war, Cimiotti began his sculptural and graphic work and trained as a stonemason from 1946 to 1949. Following that, he studied at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design under Otto Baum and Karl Hils until 1951, then for two months at the
Berlin University of the Arts under Karl Hartung. Cimiotti spent a semester in Paris studying under Ossip Zadkine. While there, he also visited with Constantin Brâncuși, Le Corbusier and Fernand Léger. In 1952 he returned to the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, where he completed his academic studies in 1954. In 1957, he received the “junger westen” art prize for sculpture (Recklinghausen), which helped him make a breakthrough.
Galerie Michael Haas presents bronze sculptures, which were created in the 1970s, as well as numerous works made of paper that are part of a group of works, which Cimiotti began well into his 80s. These paper folds or reliefs include, on one hand, the sculptural aspect of his bronze sculptures and, on the other, play with coloured, linear compositions.

The Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin, dedicates a retrospective to Emil Cimiotti, from November 19th 2017 until January 28th 2018.