Artist Thomas Zipp, known for punk-infused historical interrogations, dies at 60

German artist Thomas Zipp has died. His work, characterized by a punk sensibility and a Dadaist approach, created complex connections across politics, economics, medicine, religion, and art history through painting, sculpture, and scenographic installation. A recurring motif was the nuclear bomb, evident in a 2006 London exhibition where he suspended a large black balloon and in 2005 Madrid paintings of explosions and skeletons. He was born in Heppenheim, Germany, and studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt under Thomas Bayrle and at London's Slade School, graduating in 1998. Immersed in the punk scene, Zipp performed in bands including ZLW-Trio with Felix Weber and Sepp Löbert and DA, often staging concerts at gallery openings. His large-scale 2013 Venice Biennale installation, 'Comparative Investigation about the Disposition of the Width of a Circle', referenced a 1970 David Bowie song and transformed the Palazzo Rossini into a sanatoria exploring hysteria. In a 2007 ArtReview feature, critic Melissa Gronlund described his works as dimly lit by past conflagrations, permeated by a confused historical consciousness and black humor.