Willi Baumeister
(1889–)
(–1955)
Willi Baumeister
1889–1955
Willi Baumeister (1889–1955) was a painter, typographer, and scenic designer from Stuttgart, Germany. Baumeister earned recognition in 1914 for his collaboration with Oskar Schlemmer and other artists on a mural for the Deutsche Werkbund-Ausstellung [German Werkbund Exhibition]. Baumeister is also known for developing a distinctive art style that is still is unique in German art immediately after 1945.
Baumeister completed an apprenticeship as a decorative painter in Stuttgart from 1905 to 1907. Baumeister also studied at the Stuttgart Art Academy from 1905 to 1906. In 1933, Baumeister was dismissed without notice from his Frankfurt teaching position and denounced as a degenerate artist.
Baumeister participated in many national and international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale in 1948 and Documenta in 1955, 1959, and 1964. A majority of Baumeister’s works are held in the Willi Baumeister Archive, which is part of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, and in the Sammlung Domnick [Domnick Collection] in Nürtingen.