Teaching

 Willi Baumeister, Paran G'schrey,  Klaus Erler 1948/ ab-f-018-014

Baumeister as Instructor

In his nearly 40-year artistic career, Willi Baumeister was called twice to teach at an art academy. Even so, the content and accompanying circumstances of both teaching assignments could not have been more different.

Frankfurt am Main 1928 to 1933

The first professorship that took him to Frankfurt am Main between 1928 and 1933 resulted from his work as a typographer in the mid 1920s and as a co-inventor of new styles in commercial art in Germany.

Willi Baumeister 1950/ ab-f-001-145

I cordially congratulate you on Frankfurt. It is even with special personal satisfaction for me since I intensely promoted you for other positions, but never got through. I very much regret that we will lose you in Stuttgart.  Also, teaching is no unfettered bliss.

Willi Baumeister/ ab-f-002-030

Completely different preconditions existed for Willi Baumeister's professorship at the Stuttgart Academy of Arts after World War II than for the teaching activity in Frankfurt between 1928 and 1933.

Klaus Bendixen (1924 - 2003) attended Baumeister's class from 1951 to 1954. From 1961 to 1989 he was professor of painting at the Hamburg College of Fine Arts.

Heinz Bodamer (born 1927) attended Baumeister's class from 1946 to 1950. His activities include working as a commercial artist and as an independent painter and graphic artist in Stuttgart.

For the inaugural summer semester in 1946, the Stuttgart Academy of Arts at the Weißenhof was to some extent rebuilt. The students participated a good deal in the reconstruction.

ab-f-018-013

Klaus Erler (born 1926) attended Baumeister's class from 1947 to 1948. From 1958 to 1985 he was a graphic artist in various advertising agencies. He was also active as an independent painter.

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Sophia-Maria von Waldthausen-Brede (1920 - 2010) attended Baumeister's class from 1947 to 1950. After completing architecture studies, she worked for the Stuttgart Department of Building Construction, later independently at Lake Starnberg.

Address at the opening reception of the Willi Baumeister Student Exhibition in Wuppertal on March 1, 1969. Erich Fuchs (1916 - 1990) was himself on the Stuttgart Academy faculty between 1949 and 1958. He attended Baumeister's class from 1946 to 1947.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/PeterGrau1.jpg

Peter Grau (1928 - 2016) attended Baumeister's class from 1946 to 1953. From 1968 to 1994 he was professor for general art historical training at the Stuttgart Academy.

I went to Baumeister because he taught in a modern way and because, in contrast to Beckmann and Delavilla, he worked abstractly. His class was large (two rooms) and Wichert was strict in admissions. I submitted work samples from a preliminary-class semester in Offenbach, for which he accepted me (fall 1929 to the beginning of 1933).

http://www.kapitzki.de/de/content/3.html

Herbert W. Kapitzki (1925 - 2005) attended Baumeister's class from 1949 to 1952. From 1970 to 1990 he was professor for visual communications at the Berlin College for Fine Arts.

http://finca-ibicenca.com/culture/artists-writers/eduard-micus/

Eduard Micus (1925 - 2000) attended Baumeister's class from 1948 to 1953. Beginning in 1972 he lived and was active as an independent artist on Ibiza.

Fritz Seitz 2014

The following is taken from the inaugural address for the opening of the exhibition, Homage to Baumeister, at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart on March 2, 1979. Fritz Seitz (1926 - 2017) attended Baumeister's class from 1950 to 1954. From 1965 to 1992 he held a professorship for the Foundations of the Sculptural at the Hamburg College for Fine Arts.

http://www.wn.de/Muensterland/Kreis-Coesfeld/Havixbeck/2011/10/Sind-Faustkeile-Kunstwerke-Illustrator-Gerhard-Uhlig-arbeitete-fuer-Zeitungen-und-Buchverlage-Ausstellung-in-Muenster

Gerhard Uhlig (1924 - 2015) attended Baumeister's class from 1949 to 1953. In 1953 he became an art educator, and in 1969 the principal and deputy for art education in Münster.

During my art studies (art education, teaching position for grammar school) there were two teachers who particularly influenced my thinking in terms of artistic activity: J. Hegenbarth and W. Baumeister. Both were workers, detested artist affectations.