Helmut Zimmermann was born in 1924 in Aussig, Bohemia. After the war he studied at the Kunsthochschule in Munich and at the Akademie in Nuremberg. Zimmermann develops his 'Bilderverwandlungen' after travelling Europe, USA, North-Africa, India, Japan and China and reading Martin Heidegger as well as examinating the psychology of C.G. Jung. Zimmermann's 'Bilderverwandlungen' comprise of faces and mandalas, mystic paintings of circles or polygones. Apart from painting Zimmermann is also activ as a writer and producer of animation movies, in which he shows series of metamorphoses. Zimmermann shoots each state within the painting process and shows the metamorphosis. The different states of the unfinished paintings are conserved within his films. In the fall of 2004 Zimmermann donates his collection of films to the Film Museum Munich. Zimmermann lives and works in Passau.