On Friday, 13 November 2020, Mayor Dr Fabian Mayer presented Felicitas Baumeister with the Staufer Medal. She received this personal award from Minister President Winfried Kretschmann for her services to the preservation of the work and artistic legacy of her father, Willi Baumeister.
In 1955, the international response to his ‘Montaru’ paintings inspired Willi Baumeister to create new works. However, in August 1955, the painter died unexpectedly in his studio. It was left to his wife and daughters to preserve and make accessible the enormous oeuvre of the spokesman for a free art that followed only its own voice. First and foremost, his younger daughter Felicitas Baumeister took on the role of administrator, directing with a gentle hand and precision. Whether exhibitions, catalogues or catalogues raisonnés: ‘Fe’ directs, coordinates and yet always leaves those responsible in museums, publishing houses and art galleries plenty of room for new perspectives on Baumeister’s work. Since 2005, the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart has benefited most from this as the stage for the Baumeister Archive, which is still managed by ‘Fe’. Felicitas Baumeister devotes herself to her task ‘with all her heart and soul’. This is how Stuttgart’s First Mayor Fabian Mayer sees it when he presents the Staufer Medal of the State, awarded by Minister President Winfried Kretschmann, at the Baumeister House on Friday evening. It is an honour for good reason – for wisdom, restraint and generosity in equal measure.
(Nikolai Forstbauer)