Willi Baumeister was born in Stuttgart in 1889. From 1905 to 1907 he trained as a painter and decorator, but began taking drawing classes from 1906 at the Akademie der bilden den Kunste, Stuttgart. Like most artists of the time, when training he took influence from the Impressionists, in his figures especially. Then he took inspiration from Cezanne, but unlike most of his contemporaries was never influenced by the German Expressionists, despite their strong influence at the time.
After WWI, his works took on the influences of modernity, his painting became more abstract as he reduced the human form to linear depictions, similar to those of Cubism. As he focused on the human figure his works of the early 20's are parallel in their aims to artists such as Kandinsky, Malevich, and Mondrian. He started to work on wall paintings, which he would raise from the wall to emphasise the wall's space, or mix sand in to create texture.
In 1926 he married the painter Margarete Oehm, and the following year he took on a professorship in Frankfurt, where his work began to soften, replacing the harsh reduced lines of figures with a more organic form. He continued to mix sand into his work, the texture created being like that of cave paintings, which he admired. His main themes moved onto athletes, the shapes became more rhythmic and flowing, while still retaining the abstract form he developed previously.
In the 1930s his work moved onto a more painterly phase, although the sporting subject matter continued, the lines lost there harshness and he began to vary his palette to less monochromatic tones. In 1937 he exhibited at the Munich Degenerate Art exhibition, his work moved further away than ever before from his work of the 1920s as he strived toward new expressive forms. He produced a series of works called "Eidos", representing primordial plant forms, he developed from his earlier more painterly phases.
During WWII, even though he was banned by the Third Reich for exhibiting, he continued to paint, his works taking influence from African and primitive art. He had been collecting primitive art since the early 20s, but unlike the Expressionists he did not take direct influence from the art, instead, he saw a message in the work, taking the sacred mythical and rhythmical elements and recreating those in his own work. His palette at the time darkened, many figures were predominantly dark colours. During this time he began to produce cycles of drawings, using mythical themes from the Old Testament and legends, such as his "Gilgamesh" works.
Before the end of WWII his palette already began to lighten, he already had positive hopes for the end of the war. His paintings begin to focus on themes of liberation, the feeling of construction he had worked around for so long began to give way to a greater feeling of lightness and two-dimensionality. Towards the end of his life, his work moved further and further into the themes of the primordial and of human emotions. His 1947 book, "The Unknown Art", this unknown expressed itself in forms like seaweed, the night, the sea and goblins. For him Goblins and Phantom were companions, where as the Sea and the night were creative elements. His work then progressed into almost nerve-ending like formss, with shapes influenced more by bacteria than the human form.
These forms progressed further into "Black and White Cosmos", he recreated the black forms seen in his earlier works, they are symbolic of cosmic black holes, he does not abandon the bright colours he had begun to use, but uses colour to outline and define his black holes.
In his last works these black holes begin to form legs. He restlessly strove to give form to the unfathomable, until his death in 1955.
After WWI, his works took on the influences of modernity, his painting became more abstract as he reduced the human form to linear depictions, similar to those of Cubism. As he focused on the human figure his works of the early 20's are parallel in their aims to artists such as Kandinsky, Malevich, and Mondrian. He started to work on wall paintings, which he would raise from the wall to emphasise the wall's space, or mix sand in to create texture.
In 1926 he married the painter Margarete Oehm, and the following year he took on a professorship in Frankfurt, where his work began to soften, replacing the harsh reduced lines of figures with a more organic form. He continued to mix sand into his work, the texture created being like that of cave paintings, which he admired. His main themes moved onto athletes, the shapes became more rhythmic and flowing, while still retaining the abstract form he developed previously.
In the 1930s his work moved onto a more painterly phase, although the sporting subject matter continued, the lines lost there harshness and he began to vary his palette to less monochromatic tones. In 1937 he exhibited at the Munich Degenerate Art exhibition, his work moved further away than ever before from his work of the 1920s as he strived toward new expressive forms. He produced a series of works called "Eidos", representing primordial plant forms, he developed from his earlier more painterly phases.
During WWII, even though he was banned by the Third Reich for exhibiting, he continued to paint, his works taking influence from African and primitive art. He had been collecting primitive art since the early 20s, but unlike the Expressionists he did not take direct influence from the art, instead, he saw a message in the work, taking the sacred mythical and rhythmical elements and recreating those in his own work. His palette at the time darkened, many figures were predominantly dark colours. During this time he began to produce cycles of drawings, using mythical themes from the Old Testament and legends, such as his "Gilgamesh" works.
Before the end of WWII his palette already began to lighten, he already had positive hopes for the end of the war. His paintings begin to focus on themes of liberation, the feeling of construction he had worked around for so long began to give way to a greater feeling of lightness and two-dimensionality. Towards the end of his life, his work moved further and further into the themes of the primordial and of human emotions. His 1947 book, "The Unknown Art", this unknown expressed itself in forms like seaweed, the night, the sea and goblins. For him Goblins and Phantom were companions, where as the Sea and the night were creative elements. His work then progressed into almost nerve-ending like formss, with shapes influenced more by bacteria than the human form.
These forms progressed further into "Black and White Cosmos", he recreated the black forms seen in his earlier works, they are symbolic of cosmic black holes, he does not abandon the bright colours he had begun to use, but uses colour to outline and define his black holes.
In his last works these black holes begin to form legs. He restlessly strove to give form to the unfathomable, until his death in 1955.
