f.l.t.r.: Hadwig Goez, Verena Wallner, Anna-Laura Scheiger, Enno Lehmann. © Christiane Kritzer

Exhibition "Comb, Pastels and Buttermilk. Willi Baumeister – Adolf Hölzel – Fritz Seitz"

"Comb, Pastels and Buttermilk. Willi Baumeister – Adolf Hölzel – Fritz Seitz"

Vernissage postponed due to Covid-19

Stuttgart artist Willi Baumeister (1889–1955) also regarded himself as a craftsman. He experimented with different materials and techniques: Using a steel comb, he structured the background or the surface of what are known as his comb pictures. He coated black areas, which already appeared in his early works, temporarily with buttermilk, thus creating a matt surface effect. Entire series of his work feature sand and putty. In his later creative years, his pastel drawings gained in significance. His oeuvre is characterized by this diversity of materials and painting techniques. The exhibition “Comb, Pastels and Buttermilk”, on display at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart from November 2020 onwards, will cast a spotlight on this diversity.

With contributions by Verena Wallner from the Graduate Research Programme “Changing Frames”, Christiane Kritzer, former member of “Rahmenwechsel” as well as Anna-Laura Scheiger from the painting conservation programme at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, supervised by Hadwig Goez, Baumeister Archive at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, and Enno Lehmann, Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design. Together, the interdisciplinary working group has familiarized itself in greater depth with the artist’s multifaceted painting techniques by analysing these empirically, along with the materials used, as well as through practical experiments. The exhibition also deliberates how the results produced through experimentation can be communicated.

Baumeister Archive at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart in cooperation with the Graduate Research Programme “Changing Frames”, Stuttgart and Konstanz, the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, the Willi Baumeister Foundation, Stuttgart, and the University of Oregon, Eugene, USA.