Paul Grimm (artist)

Paul Leonhard Grimm (born June 29, 1926 in Fussingen ; † July 5, 2018 ) is a German sculptor and painter . His oeuvre includes around 800 sculptures, such as fire sculptures, reliefs, altars, tabernacles, statues and candlesticks. There are also around 150 mosaics, 1,000 etchings, drawings and sketches and around 50 pictures. The main area of the works is fire sculptures, genetically engineered animals and sacred commissioned works.

origin

Paul Grimm was born on June 29, 1926 as the fifth of ten children of the couple Theodor and Maria Grimm, b. Keller, born in Fussingen / Hessen / Germany. Until his death he lived in Fussingen, in the Westerwald, between Limburg ad Lahn and Weilburg. He has a son born in 1966. Paul Grimm was the inventor of fire sculpture and was an honorary professor at Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok , Thailand .

Youth and World War II

Grimm grew up with his nine siblings in very poor circumstances. Even as a child, Grimm showed great interest in art. For example, he painted while tending his parents' cows. This got him into great trouble, because while he was busy painting, a cow ran away without his noticing and ate the neighbour's fresh laundry off the line.

At the age of 14, Paul Grimm began an apprenticeship as a painter and house painter in 1940, which he completed at the age of 17 in 1943.

Knowing well that he would be drafted into the Wehrmacht as a soldier in 1943 after completing his training, he decided to forestall the draft notice and volunteered for the Air Force with the aim of becoming an aviator in order not to end up as an infantryman on the Eastern Front . He hoped the war would be over by the time he was trained as an aviator.

This hope was not fulfilled, because after a short basic training he was commanded to shoot a 2cm anti-aircraft gun to France, where he was taken prisoner by the Americans. He was transported via England to the USA in Alabama to a POW camp and spent the next few years felling logs, cutting sugar cane, and renovating the camp management officers' quarters as a house painter. During this time, too, Grimm continued to paint and draw in his spare time.

Career

After his release (1946) from captivity and with no prospects in a destroyed Germany, Grimm decided, despite a lack of financial means, to fulfill his lifelong dream and become an artist. From 1947 to 1949 he attended the art schools in Offenbach am Main and Kassel .

Encouraged by his teachers, who recognized his talent even then, and by his own successes and dreams, he began (1949) to study painting at the Düsseldorf Art Academy with Professor Bruno Goller. Already during his studies, however, Grimm recognized his true destiny, sculpture.

Professor Ewald Mataré , who had become aware of Grimm, accepted him (1951) to study sculpture and made him one of his few master students . Other Grimm fellow students at that time were Joseph Beuys , Herrmann Focke , Günter Haese , Erwin Heerich , Elmar Hillebrand , Kurt Link , Hubert Löneke , Georg Meistermann and Adolf Westergerling.

By the time Grimm completed his studies in 1957, he had carried out numerous works on behalf of Ewald Mataré and had already won several art prizes (1951–1956) from the Düsseldorf Art Academy and the city of Düsseldorf (1954) with his own works . From 1951 to 1957 he took part in the art exhibitions of the city of Düsseldorf. While Grimm was still influenced by Ewald Mataré in his younger years, Grimm developed his own style more and more over the years.

Since 1958 Paul Grimm worked as a freelance artist. He first conceived his fire sculpture in 1966. The concept was officially registered and patented under the term fire as a design art in connection with an artistic sculpture under number 2313 704 1981. By combining fire with metal, concrete and stone, Grimm wanted to show that it is up to people whether they let fire become a blessing or a curse.

The first years to the mid-1960s were characterized by activities in Germany in the form of commissioned work or works sold. In 1969 Grimm passed the examination for the teaching post for higher education. At the beginning of the 1970s, Paul Grimm became known abroad and numerous exhibitions, prizes and honorary degrees followed, among others, in England "Paternoster Corner Academy", France "Grand Prix d'Arts Plastiques Contemporain International", Italy "Accademia di Lettre" and the USA "Congress of Arts and Communication".

From 1981 to 1982 he was a lecturer at the Goethe Institute at the Royal Thai Srinakharinvirot University in Bangkok . As a visiting professor, Grimm developed his Living Sculpture there until 1982 as a combination of plastic and dance. In 1986, Grimm also wrote his textbook “Das Wesen der Plastik” in Bangkok. and in 1989 he returned to Bangkok as a professor at the Royal Thai Srinakharinvirot University.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Grimm concentrated more on his home country again. He developed his "art in road traffic", consisting of a trailer with a 3 meter high pillar of fire, which can be ignited while driving, and drove to almost all major German cities in actions that are still unique today. His action in front of the Reichstag (2002) caused a general sensation in Berlin .

From 2000 the Greek government organized an international competition to erect a monument to the Colossus of Rhodes . Due to Greece's financial problems, which were already emerging at the time, the project was canceled in 2002 after preliminary talks with Grimm.

In September 2011, law professor Thomas Hoeren discovered a concealed wall painting by Grimm behind a row of lockers in the Juridicum, the building of the law faculty at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster . It is a work of art from 1958, one of the first free works by Grimm.

Paul Grimm fell in 2013 and 2015, injuring both hips so badly that they had to be replaced with artificial ones.

He died on July 5, 2018 at the age of 92.

Works

The works of Paul Grimm include numerous designs of sacred buildings . His works can be found in the following churches: Nikolai Church in Höxter , Holy Family and St. Elisabeth in Düsseldorf, St. Johannes in Lahr, the Birth of Mary in Winkels , Oberzeuzheim , Meudt , St. Leonhard in Fussingen, St. Laurentius in Hausen (municipality of Waldbrunn (Westerwald) ), Löhnberg , Ransbach , Offheim , St. Kilian in Seck , Waldmühlen , Waldernbach (municipality of Mengerskirchen ), Diez , Eschborn and St. Johannes Nepomuk in Linter .

Cities like Düsseldorf, Munich, Frankfurt a. Main as well as federal states such as Hesse , Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia bought works by Grimm. Schools and communities commissioned Grimm to work. For example, he created a life-size chess game for the schoolyard from 32 sculptures for the Konrad-Adenauer Gymnasium in Westerburg .

Exhibitions

1951 art exhibition in Düsseldorf
1952 art exhibition in Düsseldorf
1953 art exhibition in Düsseldorf
1954 art exhibition in Düsseldorf
1955 art exhibition in Düsseldorf
1956 art exhibition in Düsseldorf
1957 art exhibition in Düsseldorf
1960 World Eucharistic Congress in Munich
1972 Contemporary Artists & Masters exhibition at Paternoster Corner Academy, London
1972 Exhibition at Bertrand Russell Centenary International Art Exhibition, London
1974 Grand Prix d'Arts Plastiques Contemporain International, Lyon
1975 Congress of Arts and Communication Who's Who, fire sculpture in New York
1979 Exhibition for the election of the city of Bocholt's urban artist
1980 Pinakoteka Internationale d'Arte Antica e Moderna, Parma, Italy
1981 Pinakoteka Internationale d'Arte Antica e Moderna, Parma, Italy
1982 Pinakoteka Internationale d'Arte Antica e Moderna, Parma, Italy
1993 Exhibition Parkgalerie, Zweibrücken
2000 Christmas exhibition, Hachenburg Castle
2001 Christmas exhibition, Hachenburg Castle
2002 Christmas exhibition, Hachenburg Castle
2003 cultural summer, Lahninsel, Wetzlar
2003 Christmas exhibition, Hachenburg Castle
2004 Christmas exhibition, Hachenburg Castle
2005 Christmas exhibition, Hachenburg Castle
2006 City Hall, Limburg ad Lahn
2006 Landtag, Mainz
2006 Christmas exhibition, Hachenburg Castle
2007 Ceramic Museum, Höhr-Grenzhausen
2007 Christmas exhibition, Hachenburg Castle
2017 Komödienbau, Weilburg

Awards

Paul Grimm has already received numerous national and international art prizes. The most important are:

1951 Art Prize from the State Art Academy in Düsseldorf

1954 annual award from the city of Düsseldorf

1956 Art Prize from the State Art Academy in Düsseldorf

1958 Winner of the "Mural" competition in the New University of Münster

1972 Silver Medal from the Paternoster Corner Academy in London , England

1972 Gold Medal Academia Internationale di Lettre-Arti e Science, Rome ( Italy )

1974 winner of the "Grand Prix d'Arts Plastiques", Lyon ( France )

1979 Gold Medal of the Academia Italia delle Arti e del Lavoro, Salsomaggiore (Italy)

1980 winner of the "Prize of Italy" competition

1980 Gold Medal of the International Parliament, USA

1982 Premio Centauro d'Oro of the Academia Italia

1984 World Prize for Culture, Centro Studi e Ricerche delle Nazioni, Calvatone (Italy)

1985 "Oscar of the Arts 1985" Academia Italia

1986 “ European Golden Palm”, European Art Academy

1986 European banner of the arts of the Academia d'Europea, Calvatone , Italy

1986 "Doctor of Art hc" by the Universidad Interamericana, Buenos Aires ( Argentina )

1990 Honorary Professor at the Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok (Thailand)

1993 winner of the Osaka Triennial, Osaka , Japan

2016 Johannes Meyer plaque from the city of Weilburg

Honors

1972 Member of Who's Who International Biographical Center in Cambridge, England
1972 Honorary Member of the Paternoster Corner Academy in London
1972 Honorary member of the Accademia di Lettre - Arti e Science, Roma
1986 Dr. of art hc of the Universidad Interamericana Buenos Aires
1990 Professor hc at the Royal Thai Srinakharinvirot University

literature

Walter Rudersdorf: Paul Grimm is 80 . In: Waldbrunner Nachrichten . 27th year, no. 12/24/2006 . Linus Wittich KG, June 17, 2006, p. 17 .

proof

↑ Hidden wall relief reappears behind lockers. In: Westfälische Nachrichten. September 5, 2011.
^ Paul Grimm (died 2018) Website of the Konrad-Adenauer-Gymnasium, Westerburg. Retrieved July 9, 2018.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Grimm, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Grimm, Paul Leonhard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German painter and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH	June 29, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH	Fussingen , Hesse
DATE OF DEATH	5th July 2018

[1] Hidden wall relief reappears behind lockers. In: Westfälische Nachrichten. September 5, 2011.

[2] Paul Grimm (died 2018) Website of the Konrad-Adenauer-Gymnasium, Westerburg. Retrieved July 9, 2018.