"Exceptional artist" Willi Baumeister and his network
With Willi Baumeister, the Gunzenhauser Museum in Chemnitz is putting an important representative of abstract painting at the center of an extensive exhibition at the end of the year. Baumeister is "an exceptional artist", explained museum director Anja Richter on Friday. Nevertheless, he has not been shown much in the region to date.
Her museum's collection includes 39 works - making it the third-largest public collection of paintings by the artist. They are now being shown in their entirety to the public for the first time in the exhibition. In addition, there are numerous loans from public and private collections - around 150 works of art in total.
The curators Dieter Huber and Hannelore Paflik-Huber are not presenting Baumeister (1889-1955) as an individual artist, but as part of his immense network of fellow artists. In addition to important works by Baumeister himself, the exhibition also includes works by Kandinsky, Le Corbusier, Itten, Malevich and Jawlensky - many of which were once exchanged or given as gifts, as evidenced by dedications.
The show illustrates Baumeister's engagement with Russian Constructivism and prehistoric paintings and objects. "He didn't leave out any medium that was available at the time," says Paflik-Huber, emphasizing the versatility of his work.
The exhibition traces the various stages of his life - from his studies through the period of National Socialism, when his art was defamed as "degenerate", to his rapid rise after the Second World War, when his works met with great acclaim both at home and abroad and were shown at the Venice Biennale and the Documenta in Kassel, for example.
A room is also dedicated to his reception in the GDR. It is said that artistic tendencies in the East that did not correspond to Socialist Realism were suppressed at the time. Nevertheless, works by him were acquired for museums in the 1950s and 1960s and his work impressed young artists in the GDR such as Carlfriedrich Claus and Gerhard Altenbourg.
The exhibition "Das Kreative geht dem Unbekannten kühn entgegen" on Willi Baumeister and his network will open on Saturday evening. It will be on display until February 4.
The forthcoming exhibition at the Gunzenhauser Museum showcases Baumeister's connections with renowned artists like Kandinsky, Le Corbusier, and Malevich, many of whom he exchanged or gifted artworks with. Visitors can also explore Baumeister's extensive network in the context of art exhibitions, as his works have been showcased in notable events such as the Venice Biennale and Documenta in Kassel.
Source: www.dpa.com
