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Willi Baumeister
1889-1955
1889 Born in Stuttgart
1905-07 Trains as decorative painter
1905-11 Attends the Königlich Württembergische Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Royal Württemberg Academy of Fine Arts) in Stuttgart
1905-12 Stays on Lake Constance and in Paris. First exhibition in Stuttgart. Begins friendships with Oskar Schlemmer and Otto Meyer-Amden
1912-13 Stays in Amden, Switzerland. Participates in exhibitions including the Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon (First German Autumn Salon) at the gallery Der Sturm in Berlin
1914-18 Travels to Antwerp, Amsterdam, London, and Paris. Serves in World War I.
1919 Master student under Adolf Hölzel. Co-founds the Üecht Group Stuttgart and becomes member of the Berlin Novembergruppe (November Group). First stage design. Works as typographer.
1920 Exhibits with Oskar Schlemmer and Kurt Schwitters in Dresden
1922 First international publication in the art journal L'Esprit Nouveau, Paris
1923-26 Exhibits in Germany and abroad. Visits the Bauhaus in Weimar. Meets Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee
1926 Exhibits at the International Exhibition of Modern Art in New York. Marriage with Margarete (Margrit) Oehm
1927 First solo exhibition in Paris. Offered professorship for typography, commercial graphics, and fabric printing at the Städtische Kunstgewerbeschule (Municiple Applied Arts School), or Städelschule, in Frankfurt am Main. Becomes member of the ring neue werbegestalter (circle of new commercial designers)
1928 Moves to Frankfurt am Main. Birth of daughter Krista.
1929 Begins friendship with Julius Bissier. In Paris visits Fernand Léger, Le Corbusier, Ozenfant, Carl Einstein, Christian Zervos und Roger Ginsburger. Becomes member of the artist association Cercle et Carré
1930 Solo exhibition in Paris
1931 Becomes member of the artist group Abstraction - Création. First monograph by Will Grohmann published. Begins lifelong exploration of prehistoric art. Invited by Madame de Mandrot to an artist gathering at the Château La Sarraz, Switzerland
1932 Last exhibition in Germany until 1945 at the Gallery Cassirer in Berlin
1933 As part of the first official acts of the National Socialists Baumeister is dismissed without notice from his Frankfurter teaching position and denounced as a degenerate artist until the end of 1945
Birth of daughter Felicitas
1934 Eduardo Westerdahl's monograph Willi Baumeister published
1935 Exhibits in Milan and Rome. Travels to Milan, meets Carlo Carrà
1937-38 Participates in the Constructivists Exhibition in Basel. Pictures by Baumeister are shown in the exhibition Entartete Kunst Munich. Stores paintings, gouaches, and drawings in the Kunsthalle Basel to keep them out of reach from the National Socialists. Travels to Paris, meets with Fernand Léger, Le Corbusier and gallery owner Jeanne Bucher. Begins work with the Wuppertal varnish factory, Dr. Kurt Herberts & Co. researching and writing on painting techniques and their historical origins
1938 Participates in the London exhibition Twentieth Century German Art organized by Herbert Read. Meets Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Joan Miró, and Wassily Kandinsky
1939 Solo exhibition in Paris at the Gallery Jeanne Bucher
1941 Receives prohibition on painting and exhibiting, according to the decree of the Reichskammer der Bildenden Künste (National Art Chamber). In fall Baumeister travels with his family to Verona, Venice, Bologna, and Florence
1943-45 On April 13, 1943 Oskar Schlemmer dies. Because of air raids moves to Urach in the Swabian Alp. Works on his writings Das Unbekannte in der Kunst (The Unknown in Art). Experiences the end of the war in Horn on Lake Constance
1946 Offered professorship at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste (State Academy of Fine Arts) in Stuttgart
1947 Baumeister's manuscript Das Unbekannte in der Kunst published in Stuttgart. Produces stage design for Manuel de Falla's ballet Liebeszauber (Love Spell) at the Württemberg Staatstheater in Stuttgart
1948 Participates in the XXIV Biennale in Venice and in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Paris. Produces further stage designs
1949 Co-founder of the Gruppe der Gegenstandslosen (Group of Nonrepresentational Artists) (renamed Group ZEN 49 in January 1950). Produces stage design for Egon Vietta's Monte Cassino, directed by Gustav Rudolf Sellner in Essen. Solo exhibition in Paris at the Gallery Jeanne Bucher
1950 Participates in the Ersten Darmstädter Gespräch (First Darmstadt Dialogues). Travels to Spain and France and participates in the Second International Art Congress of the Escuela de Altamira in Santillana del Mar near Santander, Spain
1951 Participates in the first Biennale (I Bienal) in São Paulo, receives Biennale Prize
1952 Solo exhibition in New York at the Hacker Gallery. Participates in the XXVI Biennale in Venice. Monograph by Will Grohmann published
1953 Shows at the exhibition Younger European Painters in New York. Produces stage design for Max Kommerell's Kasperlespiele für große Leute (Punch and Judy Show for Grown-Ups), directed by Gustav Rudolf Sellner
1954 Solo exhibitions in Stuttgart and Paris.
Pictures stored in the Kunsthalle Basel in 1937-38 released and returned to Stuttgart.
1955 The Vienna Secession distinguishes Baumeister for his life achievement with the Klimt-Honor.
Visits and has solo shows in Paris and Cologne. Participates in the first documenta in Kassel and in the exhibition Peintures et Sculptures non-figuratives en Allemagne d'Aujourd'hui (Non-Figurative Painting and Sculpture in Germany Today), Cercle Volnay, Paris.
On August 31 Willi Baumeister dies while painting in his studio in Stuttgart
works by Willi Baumeister
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