Willi Baumeister

Baumeister Estate, Stuttgart
Kleeman Galleries, New York (acquired by 1956)
Sale: Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett (Roman Norbert Ketterer), Stuttgart, 4th May 1961, lot 20
Marlborough Fine Art, London (acquired by 1963)
Galerie Gunzenhauser, Munich (acquired by 1986)
Private Collection, California
Acquired from the above by the present owner

New York, Kleemann Galleries, Willi Baumeister, 1956, no. 6
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Karlsruhe, Badischer Kunstverein, Willi Baumeister, Gemälde und Zeichnungen, 1965, no. 44, illustrated in the catalogue
Berlin, Akademie der Künste, Willi Baumeister, 1965, no. 47, illustrated in the catalogue
Munich, Galerie Gunzenhauser, Willi Baumeister - Ölbilder, Handzeichnungen, 1986, no. 11, illustrated in the catalogue

Will Grohmann, Willi Baumeister - Leben und Werk, Cologne, 1963, no. 1628, illustrated p. 348
Galerie Gunzenhauser, From the Collections of the Gallery, Munich, 1986-87, illustrated in colour p. 46
Peter Beye & Felicitas Baumeister, Willi Baumeister: Werkkatalog der Gemälde, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2002, vol. II, no. 2034, illustrated p. 808

The panel is sound and has been mounted on a wooden support for framing. UV examination reveals a few broad strokes of retouching along the left, upper and right edges, possibly related to previous frame abrasion. There are a further few 1cm. spots of retouching scattered on the white pigments in the background. The surface features a rich and varied impasto. This work is in overall good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Baumeister’s Gelb (Yellow) playfully recalls Duchamp’s string drop technique, which he used for his study for 3 Stoppages Étalon, where the artist dropped three metre-long strings imbibed with pigment onto a canvas, resulting in an accidental arrangement of shapes, which would provide the visual basis for his ready-made. Duchamp’s intention was to enhance causality and specifically to distance the creator from their creation, and Baumeister’s painting concerns itself with similar investigations surrounding the birth of forms and abstraction. Such explorations came in the context of extensive research by Baumeister into pre-historic painting and the first forms of visual narration.

An increasing sense of alienation - stemming in part from the inclusion of four of his works in the Nazi’s Degenerate Art exhibition of 1937 - forced Baumeister to retreat from the German artistic community, as his artistic concerns did not adhere to Hitler’s conception of what art should be. Together with his friend Oskar Schlemmer, he studied man’s earliest painting techniques in the laboratory of Kurt Herbert’s paint factory in Wuppertal between 1938 and 1944. Schlemmer and Baumeister’s joint studies there resulted in the latter’s theoretical treatise published in 1947 titled Das Unbekannte in der Kunst (The Unkown in Art).

With its light yellow background, Gelb (Yellow) is a tribute to primordial light, and in the 1950s Baumeister’s work became brighter and increasingly abstract, in contrast to the sombre pre-war and interwar works. The thick texture of the present work creates a sense of dazzling surface vibration. The organic, free-floating black, grey, and red shapes dominate the panel, and primary colours are employed to create a feeling of retinal distortion. The present work, which has been featured in a number of important monographs, is a striking image as well as being testament to Baumeister’s fascinating investigations into the complex processes behind artistic creation and the development of abstraction.