Hanns Schimansky

Hanns Schimansky’s medium is paper; his primary means of expression is the line. His visual language consists of abbreviations, ciphers and symbols which he inscribes onto or into his medium – at times seemingly freely improvised, but far more often seemingly subject to a basic grid formed by folds. Terms such as ‘representational’, ‘abstract’ or ‘informal’ lose their meaning in the face of Schimansky’s complex web of associations. For the artist, drawing – and folding – is above all a sensory experience, rather than a contemplative one. Schimansky leaves the act of contemplation to the viewer, who is able to translate these visual fictions into their own visual worlds, fantasies or even musical scores.

Biographical information
Hanns Schimansky, born in 1949, studied as a master student under Gerhard Kettner at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. He still lives and works in the city today. He is a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin, professor at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee and winner of the Hans Theo Richter Prize 2012 of the Saxon Academy of Arts.