TIKIMANIA

Overview

A South Seas dream and dangerous Other—the Marquesas Islands in the Pacific Ocean captivated such figures as Paul Gauguin and Herman Melville. Tikimania embarks on a unique journey to unravel the fascination, presenting the Tiki works of the Junge Wilde painter Bernd Zimmer alongside the Indigenous Marquesan art from the collection of the Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich. An entirely new interplay of European art and Oceanic culture arises through the contrasts and harmonies as a result. In addition the catalogue traces European images of these islands, accompanies Karl von den Steinen on an ethnological expedition, and invites the reader to revive Tiki pop culture in America.

In 1973 Bernd Zimmer (b. 1948) moved to West Berlin and found himself in the midst of the painting movement that would later be described as Junge Wilde (Young Wild Ones). In 1977 he founded the Galerie am Moritzplatz (Gallery on Moritz Square), along with Rainer Fetting, Helmut Middendorf, and Salomé, among others. There he developed a new expressive form of painting, the breakthrough of which he celebrated in 1980 with the exhibition Heftige Malerei (Hard Painting). He subsequently became internationally renowned and successful as a contemporary artist. In 1995 Zimmer visited the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific.