Auto­bi­ogra­phies

1946

A short auto­bi­og­ra­phy writ­ten by Baumeis­ter in 1946 makes it clear that his work began with a search for the right form, involv­ing impres­sion­is­tic and Cézanne-esque exper­i­ments, before he found his own path after the First World War:

until 1907 nat­u­ral­ist, 1907 to 1909 impres­sion­ist, 1910 to 1914 post-impres­sion­ism; 1919 to 1930 con­struc­tivism; 1924 to 1929 sports pic­tures; 1920 to 1935 abstrac­tions of sports pic­tures; 1935 to 1937 ‘pic­turesque com­po­si­tions’; 1937 to 1938 non-rep­re­sen­ta­tion­al paint­ing (ideograms); 1939 series of com­po­si­tions with float­ing forms; 1942 ele­men­tary black-and-white com­po­si­tions and relief paint­ing; 1940 pic­tures with coloured glazes; 1942 black-and-white pic­tures and relief pic­tures […]

1946

Baumeis­ter’s auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal self-por­tray­al for the Sun­day sup­ple­ment of the Stuttgarter Zeitung (21 Sep­tem­ber 1946) intro­duc­ing the Stuttgart Acad­e­my of Fine Arts and its teach­ing staff (includ­ing Her­mann Sohn, Her­mann Brachert, Rudolf Yelin, Otto Baum and Fritz Steisslinger).

willi baumeis­ter
born in stuttgart in 1889. stud­ied at the stuttgart art acad­e­my under hölzel, but was essen­tial­ly self-taught. also worked as a stage design­er, archi­tec­tur­al painter, typog­ra­ph­er, paint­ing tech­ni­cian con­duct­ing research, and writer. exhi­bi­tions in major cities in cul­tur­al coun­tries, includ­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tive col­lec­tions in berlin, paris, lon­don, milan, and rome. par­tic­i­pat­ed in exhi­bi­tions in all cul­tur­al coun­tries, includ­ing the usa. pic­tures in almost all ger­man muse­ums, the nation­al gallery in berlin, etc., in for­eign muse­ums, in domes­tic and for­eign pri­vate col­lec­tions. state prize of ger­many 1930, french prize 1931 in bor­deaux. pro­fes­sor at the art school in frank­furt am main 1928. abrupt dis­missal on 31 march 1933.

until 1907 nat­u­ral­ist, 1907 to 1909 impres­sion­ist, 1910 to 1914 post-impres­sion­ism; 1919 to 1930 con­struc­tivism; 1924 to 1929 sports pic­tures; 1920 to 1935 abstrac­tions of sports pic­tures; 1935 to 1937 ‘pic­turesque com­po­si­tions’; 1937 to 1938 non-rep­re­sen­ta­tion­al paint­ing (ideograms); 1939 series of com­po­si­tions with float­ing forms; 1942 ele­men­tary black-and-white com­po­si­tions and relief paint­ing; 1940 pic­tures with coloured glazes; 1942 black-and-white pic­tures and relief pic­tures; 1943 illus­tra­tions for ‘gil­gamesh’, ‘saul’, “esther” and shake­speare’s ‘the tem­pest’; 1944 writ­ing of the man­u­script ‘the unknown in art’. pub­li­ca­tions: mono­graphs in var­i­ous lan­guages, cat­a­logues of col­lec­tive exhi­bi­tions, arti­cles in inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned art mag­a­zines and news­pa­pers. cur­rent­ly exhibit­ing in the usa.

1955

Short­ly before his death, Willi Baumeis­ter put this biog­ra­phy down on paper:

Willi Baumeis­ter
Pro­fes­sor, painter, stage design­er
Stuttgart‑O[st], Gerokstraße
Born on 22 Jan­u­ary 1889 in Stuttgart – mar­ried.
Appren­tice­ship as a painter, art acad­e­my; self-taught.
Pro­fes­sor at the art school in Frank­furt am Main until 1933 and at the Acad­e­my of Fine Arts in Stuttgart since 1946; defamed as degen­er­ate dur­ing the Hitler era. Works in Ger­man and for­eign muse­ums, e.g. Ams­ter­dam, Paris, New York.
Pub­li­ca­tions:
Das Unbekan­nte in der Kun­st (The Unknown in Art), 1947
Will Grohmann, mono­graph, 1952