Emil Cimiotti (1927–2019) was one of the central figures of post-war German sculpture, best known for his large, organic bronze sculptures in public spaces in cities such as Hanover, Braunschweig and Berlin-Westend. But his artistic language also reveals itself on a smaller scale: the visual idiom of Informel and his unique understanding of materials give rise to rhythmic, expansive structures, which can be discovered in our current exhibition.

Born in Göttingen in 1927, Cimiotti grew up in a modest working-class family and was drafted into military service on the Eastern Front at the age of 17 during the final months of World War 2. He had trained as a stonemason in Göttingen before, bold yet completely penniless, and began to study sculpture at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts in 1949. His curiosity and experimental approach quickly caught the attention of painter and professor Willi Baumeister, who became a friend and mentor. Cimiotti also studied briefly with Karl Hartung at the Berlin University of the Arts, briefly, because the non-conformist student was expelled from Hartung’s class. A scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation enabled him to study in Paris, where he worked with the Russian-French sculptor Ossip Zadkine and also met Brâncuși, Le Corbusier, and Léger.


Despite his talent, Cimiotti was not initially seen as a promising young artist. On the contrary, his early works were harshly criticized. However, winning the junger westen 57 art prize for sculpture—then the only award for avant-garde art—marked a turning point: Cimiotti was now associated with the Informel movement, although he personally resisted being placed in any one category. He went on to establish his artistic reputation with exhibitions at the Venice Biennale (in 1958, even in the Italian Pavilion, and again in 1960), and through his participation in documenta in Kassel (1959 and 1964). In 1959, he wasawarded the...

Born in Göttingen in 1927, Cimiotti grew up in a modest working-class family and was drafted into military service on the Eastern Front at the age of 17 during the final months of World War 2. He had trained as a stonemason in Göttingen before, bold yet completely penniless, and began to study sculpture at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts in 1949. His curiosity and experimental approach quickly caught the attention of painter and professor Willi Baumeister, who became a friend and mentor. Cimiotti also studied briefly with Karl Hartung at the Berlin University of the Arts, briefly, because the non-conformist student was expelled from Hartung’s class. A scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation enabled him to study in Paris, where he worked with the Russian-French sculptor Ossip Zadkine and also met Brâncuși, Le Corbusier, and Léger.


Despite his talent, Cimiotti was not initially seen as a promising young artist. On the contrary, his early works were harshly criticized. However, winning the junger westen 57 art prize for sculpture—then the only award for avant-garde art—marked a turning point: Cimiotti was now associated with the Informel movement, although he personally resisted being placed in any one category. He went on to establish his artistic reputation with exhibitions at the Venice Biennale (in 1958, even in the Italian Pavilion, and again in 1960), and through his participation in documenta in Kassel (1959 and 1964). In 1959, he was awarded the prestigious Villa Massimo scholarship.

In 1963, Cimiotti became a founding professor at the Braunschweig University of Art, where he taught until 1992 and played a key role in shaping a modern understanding of sculpture. Over the years, he received numerous honors and awards. Cimiotti lived in Wolfenbüttel and worked in nearby Hedwigsburg. He died in October 2019.

Cimiotti remained productive well into old age, creating an astonishingly independent late body of work. He stayed true to his chosen materials—wax and bronze—and the techniques associated with them. Early on he embraced the lost-wax casting process, which allowed him to model forms directly and gesturally. Unlike classical sculptural techniques that build up layers of clay or plaster, Cimiotti worked with hot wax, shaping, structuring, cutting, and transforming it with immediacy. This spontaneous approach, combining handwork, gravity, and the inherent properties of the material, became the foundation of his formal vocabulary.

The resulting bronze sculptures are often hollow and openwork, resisting fixed interpretation and appearing to hover in transitional states, forms in flux between emergence and decay. Their organic imagery, proliferations, branches and folds evokes a sense of growth and fragility. The materiality remains ever-present, visible in the surfaces, irregularities, and traces of the process. In this way, Cimiotti developed a poetic material iconography in which form and formation are inseparable.

His work exists between two poles: the gestural energy of Informel and a spatial sculptural expansion reminiscent of artists like Eduardo Chillida or, later, Richard Serra, although without their monumental ambitions. Instead, Cimiotti explored the fragile, the processual, the “not-yet-complete” as an aesthetic principle.

In our exhibition, Cimiotti’s bronze sculptures engage in a dynamic dialogue with selected highlights from other artistic positions: including an unexpected 1935 composition on roof tar paper by Joan Miró, a piece from Willi Baumeister’s Montaru series, a delicate Informel painting by Gerhard Hoehme, a monoprint by Gotthard Graubner, and relief works by the Korean artist Kwang Young Chun.