Willi Baumeister International Willi Baumeister and European Modernity 1920s–1950s November 21, 2014 — March 29, 2015 Works by Willi Baumeister 1909–1955. Works from the Baumeister Collection by Josef Albers, Hans Arp, Julius Bissier, Georges Braques, Carlo Carrà, Marc Chagall, Albert Gleizes, Roberta González, Camille Graeser, Hans Hartung, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Franz Krause, Le Corbusier, Fernand Léger, El Lissitzky, August Macke, Otto Meyer-Amden, Joan Miró, László Moholy-Nagy, Amédée Ozenfant, Pablo Picasso, Oskar Schlemmer, Kurt Schwitters, Michel Seuphor, Gino Severini, Zao Wou-Ki From the Daimler Art Collection: Hans Arp, Willi Baumeister, Max Bill, Camille Graeser, Otto Meyer-Amden, Oskar Schlemmer, Georges Vantongerloo Daimler Contemporary Berlin Potsdamer Platz Berlin Introduction Renate Wiehager Stuttgart artist Willi Baumeister (1889–1955) is one of the The collection comprises, among others, paintings by Wassily From the outset the Daimler Art Collection has, in both its most important German artists of the postwar period and Kandinsky, Hans Arp, Fernand Léger, and Kazimir Malevich. conception and its aims, gone well beyond mere corporate- among the most significant representatives of abstract paint- The focus of the exhibition is on central groups of works by image enhancement. In fact, over the years the collection ing. His influence as an avant-garde artist, as a professor at Willi Baumeister, ranging from his constructivist phase to the has become one of the leading European Corporate Collec- the School of Decorative Arts in Frankfurt am Main and after Mauerbilder and the late Montaru paintings as well as the tions and a living part of the corporation. Since it was inau- 1946 at the Stuttgart Academy, and as a major art theoreti- Afrika series. They offer an overview of the development of gurated in 1977 – with the acquisition of a picture by Willi cian could be felt far beyond Germany. Baumeister’s oeuvre and at the same time demonstrate his Baumeister – the inventory has grown to about 2,600 works international reputation. The works will be supplemented by today by some 700 German and international artists. The From early on, Baumeister was in close contact with French archival materials such as letters, newspaper articles, and collection represents an important range of predominantly artists and exhibited his works in Italy, Spain, France, and unpublished photographs that impressively illustrate the high abstract developments in art from the 20th century to the Switzerland. He could seamlessly resume these contacts degree to which he was recognized both in Germany and present day. Moreover, it includes some 30 large pieces of after the Second World War. The exhibition retraces his inter- abroad. Together they reveal the multifaceted image of an sculpture, automobile-related works done on commission as national relations to gallerists, collectors and art historians. artist who engaged in an intense exchange with the interna- well as photography, object- and media art that has been It will, for the first time, present parts of his private art col- tional art scene before and after the Second World War. built up systematically since 2001. lection, which he assembled through swapping his own works for paintings by his artist friends. The exhibition, conceived by the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, has been adapted for Berlin and supplemented by works from the Daimler Art Collection. Willi Baumeister packing works for his exhibition at the Gallery Jeanne Bucher 2 Paris, 1949 3 f.l.: Willi Baumeister, Hans Arp, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart f.l.: Adolf Fleischmann, Josef Albers Installation views, ‘Art from a hundred years 1909–2009’, Museum und Galerie im Prediger, 2009 Since the 1999 inauguration of the company’s own exhibition a dialogue with less recently acquired works. Since 2003 a space – Daimler Contemporary at Haus Huth on Potsdamer rotating selection of some 150 works at a time has gone Platz in Berlin – the systematic expansion of the collection on tour worldwide through major museums in Europe, the has been attentively followed by an international public. United States, South Africa, South America and Asia. New acquisitions for the Daimler Art Collection are presented there as well as internally, in Stuttgart, Berlin and Sindel- fingen, in themed rotating exhibitions, where they enter into Installation view, ‘Novecento mai visto’, Brescia, 2013 4 5 f.l.: Ben Willikens, Josef Albers, Hans Arp f.l.: Oskar Schlemmer, Josef Albers, Camille Graeser, Johannes Itten Installation views, ‘Classical : Modern I’, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, 2006 Installation view, ‘Art & Stars & Cars’, Mercedes-Benz Museum, 6Stuttgart, 2011 7 In its early days the Daimler Art Collection focused mainly on pictures and particularly on artists from southern Germany, notably those connected with the Stuttgart Art Academy, including Adolf Hölzel and his pupils Oskar Schlemmer, Willi Baumeister, Johannes Itten, Ida Kerkovius, Camille Graeser and Max Ackermann, but also – extended to the European level – Hans Arp, Georges Vantongerloo, Otto Meyer-Amden and Max Bill. What they all had in common was an artistically motivated interest in establishing an interdisciplinary dia- logue between fine art, functional product design, architecture and aesthetic theory. Linking up with this founding principle, the Daimler Art Collection is, despite its broad scope, clearly f.l.: Adolf Hölzel, Oskar Schlemmer, Willi Baumeister anchored in the ‘Classical : Modern’ exhibition and publica- tion series, the first part of which, in 2006, introduced the concrete and constructivist tendencies of early modernist art up to the post-war era by drawing primarily on the collection itself. Installation views, ‘Classical : Modern I’, 8 f.l.: Willi Baumeister, Oskar Schlemmer, Ida Kerkovius Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, 2006 9 Renate Wiehager (Ed.): Kurt Leonhard, f.l.: Georg Meistermann, Fritz Winter, Willi Baumeister, Installation Cover ‘Avantgarden in Süddeutschland view, ‘Classical : Modern II’, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, 2008 nach 1945’, Hatje Cantz 2012 The second part of the series, in 2008, focused on the avant- horizons that are intimately connected with south-west Ger- garde tendencies of post-war southern Germany. In 2012 this man art after 1945. In keeping with the focal point of our was followed by the third part of the series: a first compre- collection as it has evolved over the years, the exhibition hensive appreciation of Kurt Leonhard (‘Avantgarden in Süd- ‘Willi Baumeister International’ will go on to Berlin at Daimler deutschland nach 1945’; all related publications can be Contemporary in 2014/15 as the best possible sequel. obtained via www.art.daimler.com). Texts by Kurt Leonhard – art critic, lyric poet, philosopher, translator and curator who died in 2004 and was a close friend of Willi Baumeister’s – Installation views, ‘Willi Baumeister International’, and by Ottomar Domnick open up art-historical and historical Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, 2013/14 10 11 Installation views, ‘Willi Baumeister International’, 12Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, 2013/14 13 Willi Baumeister International Ilka Voermann and Hadwig Goez More than most artists, Willi Baumeister is perceived as a exhibited there and he participated in the international de- At the outset of Willi Baumeister’s career ‘international’ German painter. This is particularly true of his late work, bates on art. meant France in the first instance. Like so many other young which is inextricably linked with the art history of post-war artists of his generation, Willi Baumeister was enthusiastic Germany. This perception is not completely erroneous be- about Paul Cézanne and the French Impressionists. His early cause Willi Baumeister was indeed strongly rooted in Ger- work is clearly indebted to both. In 1910 works of his were many, especially in his native Stuttgart, which he had left shown at the Württemberg Art Association along with those only while he was a professor at the School of Decorative of both French and German artists and received critical ac- Arts in Frankfurt am Main (now the Städelschule) and for claim. He had his first international success two years later, brief periods during the Second World War. This impression is in Switzerland, when the Galerie Neupert in Zurich showed reinforced by the fact that he championed abstract art in his work alongside that of Hermann Huber and Reinhold Germany after 1945, which made him a guiding spirit in the Kündig.1 Still it would be ten years before notice was taken of debate about the future of German art after the Second his work in France as well. World War. For all that, classifying Willi Baumeister solely as a leading German painter falls far short of his significance. He was deeply rooted in the international art scene and bound by close ties to it both before and after the Second World War. He was in contact with artists, art critics and Junge am Landungssteg [Boy on a Landing Stage], 1909 Oil on cardboard, glued on the back with paper collectors in Europe and beyond Europe; his works were Wall Picture at the space of the architect Richard Döcker, 14 Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart 1922 15 Installation views, ‘Willi Baumeister International’, 16Daimler Contemporary, 2014/15 17 Ohne Titel (Figurentreppe I) Apoll II, 1921/22 [Untitled (Staircase of Figures I)], 1920 Lithograph Lithograph During the early 1920s figuration continued to yield to simple within the international avant-garde. His work was also made geometric forms in Baumeister’s painting. Now Baumeister known in France through a positive article by Paul Ferdinand realigned himself with different role models, this time the Schmidt that was published in the ‘Kunstblatt’3 in 1921 and Russian Constructivists and the Dutch group of artists known a joint exhibition with Fernand Léger at the Der Sturm gallery as De Stijl.2 This was the context in which he developed his in Berlin in 1922. In addition an essay by Waldemar George own artistic stance, with the Wall Pictures featuring a unique on Baumeister’s painting was printed (also in 1922) in the blend of painting and architecture.