Finding 5: Willi Baumeister Shipping Story

This document was found in the files of the 1953 exhibition Younger European Painters. Here we see Willi Baumeister combining image and text to explain the circuitous route his paintings are taking from Europe to New York. At the top right he shows himself, brush in hand, at work in his Stuttgart studio.

Willi Baumeister (1889–1955) was a German painter who typically worked in an abstract style, often imbuing his paintings with a sense of the archaic and primordial. Denounced as a "degenerate artist" under National Socialism, he began to show his work again in Germany after the war and co-founded the Zen 49 artists’ group in 1949. Baumeister was one of thirty-two artists to participate in Younger European Painters. After debuting at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York from December 3, 1953–May 2, 1954, the exhibition toured the country for two years and was shown at numerous institutions, including the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the San Francisco Museum of Art.

—Amanda Brown, National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) grant intern