Alfred Grimm (16 June 1943 – 13 January 2026) was a German object artist, sculptor, painter, and draftsman.
Early life and work Grimm was born in Dinslaken on 16 June 1943. He studied painting and sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Karl Bobek and Joseph Beuys, among others."Grimm, Alfred", in Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon. Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker (AKL), vol. 62, Munich and Leipzig: K.-G. Saur, 2009, p. 262.artothek: Alfred Grimm He created a new kind of multiples which he called "variation objects".Galerie-KiR: Alfred Grimm. Several of his sculptures serve as commemorative monuments in public space.Ralf Schreiner, "Ein unbequemer Mahner", Rheinische Post, 2 August 2012.Bettina Schack, "Wie Alfred Grimm erinnert und mahnt". NRZ, 7 April 2021, cited by Heimatverein Dinslaken.
A characteristic of Grimm's art is that he repeatedly created seriesJoachim Schneider, Alfred Grimm: Serien.Folgen.Reihen, Dinslaken 2007. of objects,Alfred Grimm: Objektkunst. drawingsAlfred Grimm: Zeichnungen. or paintingsAlfred Grimm: Malerei. with similar motifs. In the object cycle "A Beautiful Piece of Germany" ("Ein schönes Stück Deutschland")Alfred Grimm: Objektkunst: Torten."Darum entwirft dieser Künstler eine Sägespäne-Torte für Duderstadt", Göttinger Tageblatt, 15 June 2020. Grimm presented on plates artificial pieces of cake of a special kind, which show the viewer bitingly ironic realities from Germany.Joachim Schneider, Alfred Grimm: Serien.Folgen.Reihen, Dinslaken 2007, pp. 45–53. He also presented miniature landscapes and environments in buckets, bottles, mason jars, tins, books, as well as on chess boards and stones.Joachim Schneider, Alfred Grimm: Serien.Folgen.Reihen, Dinslaken 2007, pp. 19–33, 43–45. In his crucifix cycle,"Grimm zeigt Kruzifix-Objekte", Rheinische Post, 8 Feb. 2018.Katja Derstroff, "Skurrile Kunst mit dem Kreuz: Alfred Grimm ist der Kruzifix-Künstler", Bild, 4 November 2019.Frank Blum, "Ist das Kunst? Oder kann das weg?", Stadtspiegel Essen, 22 Feb. 2016.Alfred Grimm: Objektkunst: Kruzifixe.Alfred Grimm: "Kruzifixobjekte" im rpi-Kunstmuseum. real crucifixes were redesigned and provided with additional motifs resulting in critical and sometimes sarcastic statements about the pious religiosity of our day.Bernd Krysmanski, Alfred Grimm: Kruzifix-Objekte, Kamp-Lintfort 2015.Gabi Gies, "Jesus in Ketchup – Kruzifixe im Gewölbekeller Kloster Kamp", WAZ, 13 March 2015. For his TV seriesAlfred Grimm: Objektjunst: TV-Objekte.Heinz Schild, "Hünxer Künstler Alfred Grimm stellt in Düsseldorf aus", Rheinische Post, 27 July 2023."Alfred Grimm: Kunst aufgestallt", Niederrhein, 14 April 2022. he used dismantled old television sets, in whose housing he created miniature landscapes on various themes.
According to Anna-Louise Mathieu, the instant recognition of Grimm's work "serves as the bait for his insidious trap: no sooner does the esthete, the admirer of the ingenious form flounder in it, than the artist begins to frighten us ... with unsavory details, he sprinkles his cynical observations in between, as if they were chocolate shavings." He illustrates his world view in "miniature environments thinking about the triangular deals regarding the monopoly of power and capital, about ecological murder, military and technological overkill. He breaks down the object of his pangs of conscience into bite-proof pieces, and adds a little joke of the bite-sized kind, so that we don't lose our appetite when we are frustrated." We "recognize ourselves: pushed onto the television set, pulled onto bottles, ... nailed to a chessboard, flushed down the toilet. ... Our register of sins, our common failure gawks at us as an aphorism.""Alfred Grimm/Systemfehler", in Anna-Louise Mathieu/Werner Arand/Bernd Krysmanski, Alfred Grimm: Kunst-Baum-Kunst, Wesel 1997.
From time to time Grimm's works caused heated discussions. His "Mother Earth Chair" (1995), which shows a landscape with nature, factory chimneys and a tunnel on a gynecologist's chair and draws attention to the destructive human intervention in nature, had been rejected several times at exhibitions because of this object the dignity of the female sex could be sensitively affected and disturbed."Anrüchig? Werk von Hünxer Künstler in Düsseldorf abgelehnt", NRZ, 26 July 2023.Heinz Schild, "Hünxer Künstler Alfred Grimm stellt in Düsseldorf aus", Rheinische Post, 27 July 2023.
In 1981, Grimm was a co-founder of the Kulturkreis Dinslaken (KKD).Kulturkreis Dinslaken: Die Geschichte des KKD: Von 1981 bis heute."Kunst aufgestallt von Alfred Grimm rüttelt auf", Der Weseler, 15 April 2022. He took part in 90 solo exhibitions and 203 group exhibitions in Germany, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the USA. So far 11 individual catalogs and 50 joint catalogs as well as over 1200 press articles in Germany and abroad have been published.Alfred Grimm: GROSSE Bilder, KUNSTObjekte, zeichnerische und malerische WERKE, Museum Voswinckelshof, Dinslaken, 20 August-15 October 2023. As of 2019, his work had been reported in nine radio and nineteen TV programs.Andrea Becker, "Sendung über die Kreuze von Alfred Grimm in der WDR-Lokalzeit Duisburg", Niederrhein-Anzeiger, 16 April 2019.
On the occasion of Grimm's eightieth birthday, an extensive exhibition of his complete oeuvre was held at the Museum Voswinckelshof in Dinslaken from 20 August to 15 October 2023.Alfred Grimm: GROSSE Bilder, KUNSTObjekte, zeichnerische und malerische WERKE, Museum Voswinckelshof, Dinslaken, 20 August-15 October 2023.Bettina Schack, "Alfred Grimm: Ausstellung zum 80.", NRZ, 18 August 2023. Even the museum warned about the provocative works of art shown in this exhibition.Katja Derstroff, "Provokante Kunst von Alfred Grimm: Museum warnt vor eigener Ausstellung", Bild, 14 September 2023.
Personal life and death Grimm lived in Hünxe. He was married to the art teacher and artist Barbara Grimm, who died in 2024.Bettina Schack, "Künstlerehepaar Grimm aus Hünxe feiert Goldene Hochzeit", NRZ, 23 May 2019Bettina Schack, "Barbara Grimm gestorben: So wird man sie in Erinnerung behalten", NRZ, 1 July 2024. They had two sons and five grandsons.Bettina Schack, "Goldhochzeit im Hause Grimm", NRZ, 23 May 2019.
From 1972 until his retirement in early 2005, Grimm taught art at a German secondary school in Dinslaken."Grimm, Alfred", in Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker (AKL), vol. 62, Munich and Leipzig: K.-G. Saur, 2009, p. 262.Friedrich Wilms, "Lehrerinnen und Lehrer an unserer Schule", in Hundert Jahre höhere Schule in Dinslaken, 1901–2001, Voerde 2001, p. 117. The German-American character animator Andreas Deja was one of Grimm's students.Bettina Schack, Deja – eine Disney-Legende aus Dinslaken, Rheinische Post, 6 April 2021, cited by Heimatverein Dinslaken. Until his death, Grimm continued to work as a freelance artist, chiefly creating new object series."Grimm, Alfred", in Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker (AKL), vol. 62, Munich and Leipzig: K.-G. Saur, 2009, p. 262.Bettina Schack, "Goldhochzeit im Hause Grimm", NRZ, 23 May 2019.
Grimm died unexpectedly at his home in Hünxe-Bruckhausen, on 13 January 2026, three days after the completion and submission of a new exhibition piece. He was 82.Bettina Schack, "Trauer um einen großen Dinslakener Künstler: Alfred Grimm starb mit 82 Jahren", NRZ, 14 January 2026."Stadt Dinslaken trauert um ihren Künstler Alfred Grimm".
Public works Some public works by Grimm include:
The object window for the Protestant church "Unsere Arche" in Hünxe–Bruckhausen (1992),Alfred Grimm: Objektfenster Ev. Kirche "Unsere Arche" in Hünxe-Bruckhausen. which, for the first time in the context of church art, expands traditional stained glass by integrating everyday objects into an object window,Ralf Schreiner: Objektfenster "Unsere Arche", Hünxe 1992.Claudia Koall, "Regenbogen und Blitze, unberührte Natur und Industrielandschaft in der Kirche: ein außergewöhnliches Objektfenster", Jahrbuch des Kreises Wesel 1996 , pp. 5–10. The large bronze memorial as a reminder of the former Jewish community in Dinslaken (1993),Elizabeth Sullivan, "Recalling a terryfying image: Small German town turns lens on Nazi's purge of Jews", The Plain Dealer, 21 November 1993.Faye Sholiton, "Dinslaken, Germany, remembers its Jews", Cleveland Jewish News, 18 February 1994.Joachim Pfannschmidt, "Alfred Grimms Erinnerungen an historische Geschehnisse", Niederrhein-Anzeiger, 3 January 2022.Stadtjugendring Dinslaken: Alfred Grimm: Mahnmal für die ehemalige jüdische Gemeinde Dinslaken.Alfred Grimm: Dinslakener Mahnmal. The memorial for the Clemens sister Euthymia in the park of St. Vinzenz Hospital in Dinslaken (2001),Hans-Josef Joest (ed.): Schwester Maria Euthymia: Ihr Leben, ihre Seligsprechung, ihre Ausstrahlung. Münster 2001, pp. 199ff.Alfred Grimm: Euthymia. The outdoor sculpture "Road Work Excavation" ("Baustelle") for the sculpture mile in the city of Dinslaken (2002, owned by Stadtwerke Dinslaken),Alfred Grimm: Baustelle.Ralf Schreiner, "Grimms Kunstgriff: ‘Baustelle’ zog um", Rheinische Post, 6 November 2002. The exterior sculpture for the centenary of the company, Steinhoff Kaltwalzen, Dinslaken (2008),Alfred Grimm: Außenplastik Steinhoff."Grimm-Plastik zum Jubiläum von Steinhoff", NRZ, 16 May 2008. The outdoor sculptures "memorial stones" to commemorate Jewish citizens from Dinslaken in the commemorative year 2013."Steine mahnen zur Erinnerung an vier jüdische Familien in Dinslaken" Jahrbuch / Kreis Wesel, 36 (2015) [Duisburg, 2014], pp. 161–168.Günter Hucks, "Die Mahnsteine von Alfred Grimm in Dinslaken", Niederrhein-Anzeiger, 19 March 2013."Erinnerungen an das jüdische Leben in Dinslaken", NRZ, 10 October 2021.Ralf Schreiner, "Mahnsteine mit Messer und Kaffeepott", Rheinische Post, 21 March 2013.Alfred Grimm: Dinslakener Mahnsteine.
Gallery
References and notes
Bibliography Klaus Battke / Martin Müller, Alfred Grimm: Zeichnungen, Objekte, Malerei, Dinslaken 1985. Karl-Heinz Koch, Alfred Grimm: Zeichnungen, Objekte, Malerei, Emmerich 1988. Ralf Schreiner, Objektfenster "Unsere Arche", Hünxe 1992. Anna-Louise Mathieu, Alfred Grimm: Bilder, Objekte, Rees 1992. Alfred Grimm: Kleine Eräugnisse, Objekte und Bilder, Berlin 1993. Alfred Grimm: Bilder, Objekte, Dinslaken 1996. Anna-Louise Mathieu, Werner Arand and Bernd Krysmanski, Alfred Grimm: Kunst-Baum-Kunst, Wesel 1997. Joachim Schneider, Alfred Grimm: Alltätlichkeiten, Bilder und Objekte, Rees 1998. Joachim Schneider, Alfred Grimm: Serien.Folgen.Reihen, Dinslaken 2007. Bernd Krysmanski, Alfred Grimm: "Grimms Mädchen", Wesel 2008. Bernd Krysmanski, Alfred Grimm: Kruzifix-Objekte, Kamp-Lintfort 2015.
External links Alfred Grimm: Homepage Religious art, humanist art: the art of Alfred Grimm, and the Huenxe church window, in Germany Der Künstler Alfred Grimm: Schwester Maria Euthymia in Dinslaken. Kulturkreis Dinslaken: Grimm, Alfred. Stadtjugendring Dinslaken: Alfred Grimm: Mahnmal für die ehemalige jüdische Gemeinde Dinslaken. Gabi Gies, "Jesus in Ketchup – Kruzifixe im Gewölbekeller Kloster Kamp", WAZ, 13 March 2015. Gregor Herberhold, "Provozierende Kunst bei Thyssen-Krupp in Duisburg", Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 19 November 2015. Lukas Heinser, "In memoriam Alfred Grimm" (15 January 2026).