Willi Baumeis­ter

1889

Born in Stuttgart. More on his back­ground and fam­i­ly.

1905-07

Trains as dec­o­ra­tive painter.

1905-1911

Attends the Königlich Würt­tem­ber­gis­chen Akademie der Bilden­den Kün­ste in Stuttgart. At the time of his train­ing.

1905-12

Stays on Lake Con­stance and in Paris. First exhi­bi­tion in Stuttgart. Begins friend­ships with Oskar Schlem­mer and Otto Mey­er-Amden.

1912–13

Stays in Amden, Switzer­land.
Par­tic­i­pates in exhi­bi­tions includ­ing the “Erster Deutsch­er Herb­st­sa­lon” (First Ger­man Autumn Salon) at the gallery ‘Der Sturm’ in Berlin. More on his first artis­tic steps.

1914–18

Trav­els to Antwerp, Ams­ter­dam, Lon­don, and Paris.
Serves in World War I.

1919

Mas­ter stu­dent of Adolf Hölzel. Co-founds the “Üecht Group” Stuttgart and becomes mem­ber of the Berlin “Novem­ber­gruppe” (Novem­ber Group).
First stage design.
Works as typog­ra­ph­er.

1920

Exhibits with Oskar Schlem­mer and Kurt Schwit­ters in Dres­den.

1922

First inter­na­tion­al pub­li­ca­tion in the art jour­nal “L’E­sprit Nou­veau”, Paris.

1923–26

Exhibits in Ger­many and abroad. Vis­its the Bauhaus in Weimar. Meets Wass­i­ly Kandin­sky and Paul Klee.

1926

Exhibits at the “Inter­na­tion­al Exhi­bi­tion of Mod­ern Art” in New York.
Mar­riage with Mar­garete (Margrit) Oehm.

1927

First solo exhi­bi­tion in Paris.
Offered pro­fes­sor­ship for typog­ra­phy, com­mer­cial graph­ics, and fab­ric print­ing at the Städtis­che Kun­st­gewerbeschule (Munic­i­pal School of Applied Arts), today Städelschule in Frank­furt am Main. Becomes mem­ber of the “ring neue Wer­begestal­ter” (Cir­cle of New Com­mer­cial Design­ers). More on his Frank­furt Years.

1928

Moves to Frank­furt am Main.
Birth of daugh­ter Krista.

1929

Begins friend­ship with Julius Bissier. In Paris vis­its Fer­nand Léger, Le Cor­busier, Amédée Ozen­fant, Carl Ein­stein, Chris­t­ian Zer­vos und Roger Gins­burg­er. Becomes mem­ber of the artist asso­ci­a­tion “Cer­cle et Car­ré”.

1930

Solo exhi­bi­tion in Paris.

1931

Becomes mem­ber of the artist group “Abstrac­tion — Créa­tion”. First mono­graph by Will Grohmann pub­lished. Begins life­long explo­ration of pre­his­toric art. Invit­ed by Madame de Man­drot to an artist gath­er­ing at the Château La Sar­raz, Switzer­land.

1932

Last exhi­bi­tion in Ger­many until 1945 at the Gallery Cas­sir­er in Berlin.

1933

As part of the first offi­cial acts of the Nation­al Social­ists Baumeis­ter is dis­missed with­out notice from his Frank­furt teach­ing posi­tion and denounced as a degen­er­ate artist until the end of 1945. More on the peri­od of Ostracism.
Birth of daugh­ter Felic­i­tas.

1934

Eduar­do Wes­t­er­dahl’s mono­graph Willi Baumeis­ter pub­lished.

1935

Exhibits in Milan and Rome. Trav­els to Milan, meets Car­lo Car­rà.

1937–38

Par­tic­i­pates in the Con­struc­tivists Exhi­bi­tion in Basel. Pic­tures by Baumeis­ter are shown in the exhi­bi­tion “Entartete Kun­st” in Munich (Degen­er­ate Art Exhi­bi­tion). Stores paint­ings, gouach­es, and draw­ings in the Kun­sthalle Basel to keep them out of reach from the Nation­al Social­ists. Trav­els to Paris, meets with Fer­nand Léger, Le Cor­busier and gallery own­er Jeanne Buch­er. Begins work with the Wup­per­tal var­nish fac­to­ry, Dr. Kurt Her­berts & Co. research­ing and writ­ing on paint­ing tech­niques and their his­tor­i­cal ori­gins.

1938

Par­tic­i­pates in the Lon­don exhi­bi­tion “Twen­ti­eth Cen­tu­ry Ger­man Art” orga­nized by Her­bert Read.
Meets Hans Arp, Sophie Taeu­ber-Arp, Joan Miró, and Wass­i­ly Kandin­sky.

1939

Solo exhi­bi­tion in Paris at the Gallery Jeanne Buch­er.

1941

Receives pro­hi­bi­tion on paint­ing and exhibit­ing, accord­ing to the decree of the Reich­skam­mer der Bilden­den Kün­ste (Reich Cham­ber of Fine Arts).
In fall Baumeis­ter trav­els with his fam­i­ly to Verona, Venice, Bologna, and Flo­rence.

1943–45

On April 13, 1943 Oskar Schlem­mer dies.
Because of air raids moves to Urach in the Swabi­an Alps.
Works on his man­u­script “Das Unbekan­nte in der Kun­st” (The Unknown in Art). Expe­ri­ences the end of the war in Horn on Lake Con­stance.

1946

Offered pro­fes­sor­ship at the Staatliche Akademie der Bilden­den Kün­ste (State Acad­e­my of Fine Arts) in Stuttgart. More on the peri­od of the New Begin­ning.

1947

Baumeis­ter’s man­u­script “Das Unbekan­nte in der Kun­st” pub­lished in Stuttgart.
Pro­duces stage design for Manuel de Fal­la’s bal­let “Liebesza­uber” (Spell-bound Love) at the Würt­tem­berg Staat­sthe­ater in Stuttgart.

1948

Par­tic­i­pates in the XXIV Bien­nale in Venice and in the “Salon des Réal­ités Nou­velles” in Paris. Pro­duces fur­ther stage designs.

1949

Co-founder of the “Gruppe der Gegenstandslosen”(Group of Non­rep­re­sen­ta­tion­al Artists) (renamed Group “ZEN 49” in Jan­u­ary 1950).
Pro­duces stage design for Egon Viet­ta’s “Monte Cassi­no”, direct­ed by Gus­tav Rudolf Sell­ner in Essen.
Solo exhi­bi­tion in Paris at the Gallery Jeanne Buch­er.

1950

Par­tic­i­pates in the Ersten Darm­städter Gespräch (First Darm­stadt Dia­logue).
Trav­els to Spain and France and par­tic­i­pates in the Sec­ond Inter­na­tion­al Art Con­gress of the Escuela de Altami­ra in San­til­lana del Mar near San­tander, Spain.

1951

Par­tic­i­pates in the first Bien­nale (I. Bien­al) in São Paulo, receives Bien­nale Prize.

1952

Solo exhi­bi­tion in New York at the Hack­er Gallery. Par­tic­i­pates in the XXVI Bien­nale in Venice. Mono­graph by Will Grohmann pub­lished.

1953

Shows at the exhi­bi­tion “Younger Euro­pean Painters” in New York.
Pro­duces stage design for Max Kom­merel­l’s “Kasper­lespiele für große Leute” (Punch and Judy Shows for Grown-Ups), direct­ed by Gus­tav Rudolf Sell­ner.

1954

Solo exhi­bi­tions in Stuttgart and Paris.
Pic­tures stored in the Kun­sthalle Basel in 1937–38 released and returned to Stuttgart.

1955

The Vien­na Seces­sion dis­tin­guish­es Baumeis­ter for his life achieve­ment with the Klimt-Hon­or. More on the rich­es of the Last Years up to 1955.
Vis­its and has solo shows in Paris and Cologne. Par­tic­i­pates in the first doc­u­men­ta in Kas­sel and in the exhi­bi­tion “Pein­tures et Sculp­tures non-fig­u­ra­tives en Alle­magne d’Au­jour­d’hui” (Non-Fig­u­ra­tive Paint­ing and Sculp­ture in Ger­many Today), Cer­cle Vol­nay, Paris.
On August 31 Willi Baumeis­ter dies while paint­ing in his stu­dio in Stuttgart.