Willi Baumeister

Important series followed: “Maschinenbilder” (Machine Paintings), the “Sportler” (Athletes), “Ideogramme” (Ideograms) and – from 1939 onwards – “Eidos”. As early as 1930, the artist was already involved in the Parisian artists’ group “Cercle et Carré” as well as the association “Abstraction-Création”, founded by Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner, among others. Although Baumeister continued to develop his abstract pictorial ideas, figurative elements were retained. This may be explained – among other sources – through his intense occupation with prehistoric painting, ethnological symbols and the art of primitive peoples. In 1941 the Nazis placed a ban on exhibitions of Baumeister’s work. In 1946 he received a professorship at the Stuttgart academy of art. The book “Das Unbekannte in der Kunst” (The Unknown in Art) – written in 1943/44, but first published in 1947 – made Baumeister one of the most important art theorists in Germany.