Heinz Zander

In the 1980s, he wrote a whole series of novels and short stories parallel to his paintings and graphic works. This cross-genre approach marks the artist's mature work. Paintings before the Peaceful Revolution are characterised on the one hand by the fact that they display an immense number of glazes and complexity, but are often determined by one colour tone (e.g. by being bluish or reddish). The paintings created at the time of the German reunification made subtle comments on contemporary events, which Zander did not engage in by taking direct sides as an active participant, but rather by seismographically recording them as an observer.

After his return to Leipzig (1970), Zander turned to historical material. In the commemorative year of the 450th anniversary of the German Peasants' War (1975), a Peasants' War Museum was set up in the secularised Kornmarktkirche of Mühlhausen, that also was given the epithet "Thomas Müntzer Town". Thus, in connection with the Thomas Müntzer commemorative year, a cycle of paintings of several parts on the Peasants' War were commissioned (exhibited in the Kornmarktkirche, Mühlhausen), as well as a large triptych for the Reformation and Luther commemorative year (exhibited in the Angermuseum, Erfurt). Meanwhile, Werner Tübke, the second grand master of the Leipzig School, was granted one of the largest art projects of the 20th century through the East German government, his monumental 14 m × 123 m Peasants' War Panorama, which Zander had also applied for. However, he was probably considered too cryptic for such an important state commission. Instead, he was awarded, among other things, the commission to create paintings based on Richard Wagner's operas for the Gewandhaus. Unlike other contemporaries, however, Zander always managed to maintain a very strict artistic distance from the political apparatus. Criticism, however, is expressed above all through enigmatisation and a cultivated exaggeration with the help his mannerist pictorial language.

From 1959 to 1964 Heinz Zanders studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig (with Bernhard Heisig). Even in his student years, he was regarded as an exceptional talent by both professors and fellow students. Zanders' broad interest in art history led him to experiment with a wide variety of aesthetic approaches. The few works that have survived are not easily identifiable as genuine Zander works, as they masterfully imitate certain styles (such as those of Velázquez). His diploma work on Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, which is a sought-after collector's item due to its small edition, has been particularly singled out among colleagues.

Heinz Zander (born 2 October 1939) is a German painter, graphic artist, illustrator and writer. Zander belongs to the Leipzig School. His fields of work are painting (oil), drawing, graphics and illustration. He is also active as a writer and publishes novels, stories and essays. Zander worked with painting techniques oriented towards the Old Masters, from which he developed a completely independent pictorial language. He was inspired by Bosch, Grünewald, Altdorfer, Cranach and Italian Mannerists (Pontormo, Bronzino). He works mainly with colourful resin-oil glazes.