Heinz Zander

Heinz Zander (Wolfen, 1939-2024) was a German painter, draughtsman, graphic artist and illustrator, associated with the Leipzig School, and also the author of novels, short stories and essays. His output includes oil paintings, drawings, prints and illustrations, and draws on techniques of the Old Masters, with inspiration from Bosch, Grünewald, Altdorfer, Cranach and the Italian Mannerists.

He studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig from 1959 to 1964 under Bernhard Heisig, and later trained with Fritz Cremer in Berlin. In his early years he experimented with many aesthetic approaches and could imitate other styles convincingly, such as that of Velázquez. After returning to Leipzig in 1970 he turned to historical subjects, including the Peasants' War, and painted pictorial interpretations of Wagner's operas for the Gewandhaus. He applied for the large Peasants' War panorama commissioned by the GDR, but the work went to Werner Tübke. Zander kept an artistic distance from the political apparatus of the German Democratic Republic.

From the 1980s he combined painting with fiction. After the fall of the Berlin Wall he recorded events in an observational manner, filling his images with mythological figures such as Diana, Actaeon and Nessus, and enigmatic landscapes. His painted output is estimated at more than a thousand panels. His works have been shown in museums in Leipzig, Dresden, Erfurt and Berlin, among others.