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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2016.211
People
Willi Baumeister, German (Stuttgart, Germany 1889 - 1955 Stuttgart, Germany)
Title
Growth of the Crystals II
Other Titles
Original Language Title: Wachstum der Kristalle II
Former Title: Metaphysische Landschaft (Metaphysical Landscape)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1947/52
Culture
German
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/356312

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1200, Modern and Contemporary Art, Mid–century Abstraction I
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil with resin and putty on hardboard
Dimensions
81 × 100 cm (31 7/8 × 39 3/8 in.)
framed: 94.3 × 113 × 5.9 cm (37 1/8 × 44 1/2 × 2 5/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l.: W. Baumeister 47
  • label: On verso, u.l. on foam label: Wachstum der Kristalle II / 1947/52 / Öl auf Karton
  • label: On verso, u.l.: Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno / No. Prestamo AUT 92016 / Autor Baumeister / Titulo Wachstum der Kristalle II / Medidas 81 x 100. / Exposicion Automatismos II / Fecha 11.2.92 / 29.3.92 / Procendencia Stuttgart Alemania / No. Caja 52
  • label: On verso, u.c.: CFM [graphic] / Wachstum der Kristalle 1948 / koh 49
  • label: On verso, u.c.: [lantern graphic] Willi Baumeister / Wachstum der Kristalle II / 1947-52 / BB 1391, 81 x 100 cm.
  • inscription: On verso, u.l., in black ink on white tape: Essen
  • inscription: On verso, in charcoal: Metaphysische Landschaft [crossed out] / 1948 - (52) / 100 x 81 / Wachstum der Kristalle II
  • label: On verso, l.l.: 238 atelier / willi baumeister

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
The artist, by bequest; to the Baumeister Estate, gift/sale; to the Busch-Reisinger Museum, 2016.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Partial gift of Felicitas Baumeister and Jochen Gutbrod and purchase through the generosity of the German Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum
Copyright
© Willi Baumeister / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Germany
Accession Year
2016
Object Number
2016.211
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Juergen Thimme, Baumeister und Winter, Numero (1953), Vol. 3, pp. 22-23, pp. 22-23, ill. (b/w)
  • Will Grohmann, Willi Baumeister: Leben und Werk, DuMont Schauberg (Cologne, 1963), p. 111, no. 1075, ill. (b/w)
  • Ursula Beerhorst, "Studien zur Maltechnik von Willi Baumeister 1920-1955" (1987), pp. 25, 30, 79, ill. (b/w)
  • Yule F. Heibel, Reconstructing the Subject: Modernist Painting in Western Germany, 1945-1950, Princeton University Press (Princeton, New Jersey, 1995), ill. no. III, col. ill.
  • Peter Beye and Felicitas Baumeister, Willi Baumeister: Werkkatalog der Gemälde II, Hatje Cantz Verlag (Stuttgart, Germany, 2002), p. 546, no. 1391, ill. (b/w)
  • Richard Calvocoressi, "Before and After the Fall", Gagosian Quarterly, Gagosian Gallery, New York (New York, 2018), p. 131, ill. (color)
  • Claire Messud, "German Art, Out of the Rubble", New York Review of Books (New York, NY, 2018)
  • Cate McQuaid, "'Inventur' looks at German art in the wake of WWII", The Boston Globe (Boston, MA, 2018)
  • Lynette Roth, Inventur—Art in Germany, 1943–55, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2018), pp. front cover (detail), 240-242, cat. no. 26.1, ill. (color)

Exhibition History

  • Zeugnisse europäischer Gemeinsamkeit–Meisterwerke der Malerei und Plastik aus europäischen Museen und Privatsammlungen, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, 06/18/1954 - 07/30/1954
  • Pittura della Germania d’oggi. Baumeister, Bode, Geiger, Nay, Sonderborg, Thieler, Werner, Winter, Galleria del Milione, 05/01/1957 - 05/31/1957
  • Willi Baumeister zum Gedächtnis, Galerie Gunther Francke, 06/04/1958 - 06/30/1958
  • Willi Baumeister, Fränkische Galerie, 01/01/1960 - 02/28/1960
  • ZEN 49: Die ersten zehn Jahre - Orientierungen, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 12/06/1986 - 02/15/1987
  • L'Art en Europe, Les années décisives 1945-1953, Musée d’Art Moderne Saint Etienne, 12/10/1987 - 02/28/1988
  • Willi Baumeister, Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, 04/07/1989 - 05/28/1989
  • Willi Baumeister: Malarstwo i grafika, Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, 01/01/1990 - 12/31/1990
  • Willi Baumeister: Malerei und Grafik, Galerie am Fischmarkt Erfut, 09/21/1991 - 11/03/1991; Lindenau-Museum Altenburg, 11/07/1991 - 01/12/1992
  • Automatismos Paralelos: La Europa de los Movimientos Experimentales 1944-1956, Sala de Exposiciónes de la Comunidad de Madrid, 04/01/1992 - 05/31/1992
  • 32Q: 1200 Mid-Century Abstraction I (Painterly Abstraction), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 04/07/2017 - 01/10/2018; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/2021 - 04/07/2025; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/2021 - 01/01/2050
  • Inventur—Art in Germany, 1943–55, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/09/2018 - 06/03/2018

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu