Willi Baumeister
„Relief-Bild mit blauem Kreis“ (Relief picture with blue circle)
Artist
Willi Baumeister
Additional Description
Öl mit Kunstharz auf Karton. 1952. Ca. 30 x 40 cm. Signiert und datiert unten rechts. Verso nochmals signiert und datiert sowie betitelt, bezeichnet und mit dem Stempel „atelier willi baumeister“.
Period
(1889 - Stuttgart - 1955)
Technique
Paintings
Literature
Grohmann, Will, Willi Baumeister. Leben und Werk, Köln 1963, Nr. 1338 („Reliefbild mit blauem Kreis II“).
Provenance
Nachlass des Künstlers; Privatsammlung, Nordrhein-Westfalen; Grisebach, Berlin 31.5.2008, Los 353; Galerie Schlichtenmaier, Grafenau/Stuttgart, verso auf dem Rahmen mit dem Etikett; Privatsammlung, Baden-Württemberg, 2012 bei Vorgenannter erworben.
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Description
- From the series of pseudo-relief paintings
- New interpretation of the relief theme that has occupied the artist since 1919
- Charming combination of archaic figures with clear geometric forms
In his late work, Baumeister looks back on his legacy. Under the growing influence of non-objective art, which was becoming the predominant art movement in Germany and Europe, he re-examined and re-analyzed his art. Baumeister, revered in Germany after the Second World War as the "chieftain of modernism", thus reassured himself of his role as a German representative of abstract art. He took up themes and basic formal ideas from his earlier work in order to reinterpret them. He had been interested in reliefs since 1919, but now, in his series of illusory reliefs created from 1952 onwards, he combined light contours with dark lines that represent the shadowy side of the feigned relief. The artist plays with colors and forms, enigmatic archaic signs and figures populate his works. In the present work, he combines figures reminiscent of animals with geometric shapes in clear colors. The tension of these pictures is created by the juxtaposition of floating, archaic-looking figures with simplified shapes and colors that push themselves out of the picture.
Beye/Baumeister 1803.
- New interpretation of the relief theme that has occupied the artist since 1919
- Charming combination of archaic figures with clear geometric forms
In his late work, Baumeister looks back on his legacy. Under the growing influence of non-objective art, which was becoming the predominant art movement in Germany and Europe, he re-examined and re-analyzed his art. Baumeister, revered in Germany after the Second World War as the "chieftain of modernism", thus reassured himself of his role as a German representative of abstract art. He took up themes and basic formal ideas from his earlier work in order to reinterpret them. He had been interested in reliefs since 1919, but now, in his series of illusory reliefs created from 1952 onwards, he combined light contours with dark lines that represent the shadowy side of the feigned relief. The artist plays with colors and forms, enigmatic archaic signs and figures populate his works. In the present work, he combines figures reminiscent of animals with geometric shapes in clear colors. The tension of these pictures is created by the juxtaposition of floating, archaic-looking figures with simplified shapes and colors that push themselves out of the picture.
Beye/Baumeister 1803.