Wilhelm Zimolong - Original lithograph from 1966 -

Original lithograph from 1966, signed and dated in pencil lower right, numbered 12/100 on the left. Sheet size 35 x 50 cm.

Wilhelm Bernhard Zimolong (born May 12, 1922 in Elberfeld; † March 11, 1979 in Essen) was a German painter, graphic artist and sculptor.
Zimolong grew up in Gladbeck. He was a student at the Lamberti School from 1928 to 1936. He was a soldier in World War II. From July 1948 to May 1949 he attended the painting class at the Folkwang School in Essen-Werden.[1] At the end of November 1949 he was accepted into the Ruhrländer Künstlerbund Essen. In 1950 he became a member of the Gelsenkirchen Artists' Association, of which he was chairman from 1977 until his death in 1979. In 1952, Zimolong married his wife Sigrid. The marriage resulted in three children. In 1952 he became a member of the Vestischen Künstlerbund Recklinghausen. A municipal scholarship from the city of Gladbeck enabled him to take part in the International Summer Academy for Fine Arts in Salzburg in 1955. Oskar Kokoschka with his “School of Seeing”, the sculptor Giacomo Manzú and National Prize winner Professor Slavi Soucek influenced Zimolong's painting and work from now on. In 1956 he took part in the “Summer Academy” again under Kokoschka, after having already trained with Professor Soucek in his Graphics Institute in the spring of the same year.[2] Zimolong worked as a VHS lecturer in Gladbeck from 1964 to 1979 and as an art teacher at the secondary school and adult education center in Dorsten from 1966 to 1979.
Zimolong worked with metals, preferably stainless steel. He created sculptures ranging in size from approximately 15 cm to 1.20 m. He designed murals and sculptures, among others, for the city of Gladbeck (steel sculpture in front of the VHS building;[3] secondary school, 1961), for the city of Oberhausen, the Nordstern mine (kindergarten) and the Brand family, close friends and art patrons from Saarlouis. The sponsor of Zimolong's works was Wilhelm Nettmann, at the time director of the Märkisches Museum in Witten, who exhibited his work twice. A major masterpiece consisting of color screen prints, collages and oil paintings is his thematic work SIxtina. This motif under the impression of a visit to the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. It has lots of curves and is very colorful. Cosmopolitan “Cosmopolitan” - Gladbeck city center location The estate is managed by his widow, who organizes exhibitions and vernissages in the existing studio as well as in galleries and public buildings/spaces.