MA-g
The Museum of Avant-garde

Willi Baumeister

Germany (1889—1955)
Born at the end of XIX century, Baumeister began his training in evening classes at the Kunstakademie in Stuttgart. From 1908 he took on Adolf Hölzel’s composition class and met Oskar Schlemmer. He developed his artistic expression combining sand and putty in his artworks. He became professor of typography, commercial graphic and fabric printing at Frankfurt School of Applied Arts. In 1930 he joined the Cercle et Carré group and two years later Abstraction-Création. With the ascent of Nazis Baumeister became isolated: he wrote The Unknown in Art. After the war he was professor at the Kunstakademie. He died in his studio, with a paint brush in his hand.