Rudolf Bauer (artist)
Encyclopedia
Alexander Georg Rudolf Bauer (February 11, 1889 – November 28, 1953, Deal, New Jersey
) was a German-born painter who was involved in the avant-garde
group Der Sturm
in Berlin
, and whose work would become central to the Non-Objective art
collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim
.
, county Wirsitz
near Bromberg, Province of Posen
, to middle class parents, Rudolf Bauer family moved to Berlin in his youth. Bauer made art from an early age, but his father was disapproving, even beating him when Bauer announced his intention to go to art school. In spite of this discouragement Bauer left home and attended the Academy of Fine Arts.
Bauer supported himself as an artist by creating illustrations and caricatures for some of the major magazines and newspapers of the day. In 1912, as Bauer continued to do figurative and commercial work, he began working in an abstract mode. That same year he met Herwarth Walden
, who had just founded Der Sturm. Der Sturm would become the most important artistic center in Berlin at this period. In 1915 Bauer was invited to participate in a group show at Der Sturm. He would continue to actively participate in the Der Sturm gallery scene through the mid-1920s. He had his first solo show there in 1917, with 120 "Lyrical Abstract" works, with solo shows in 1919 and 1920. Among the artists who were in the Der Sturm group were Wassily Kandinsky
, Marc Chagall
, Paul Klee
, and Franz Marc
. Like Paul Klee, Bauer became a teacher in the Sturm School.
In 1917 Bauer was introduced to the Baroness Hilla Rebay von Ehrenwiesen
. Rebay, also an artist, met Bauer at Der Sturm, and they became lovers. Bauer and Rebay shared a studio beginning in 1919, but her family did not approve of Bauer. In the early 1920s she traveled to Italy
. She and Bauer would continue to write to one another regularly, but their relationship became platonic, though still fraught with difficulties.
, the preeminent collector and co-founder of the Société Anonyme
, with Marcel Duchamp
and Man Ray
, visited Berlin and bought several works by Bauer including the oil Andante V (now in the permanent collection of the Yale University Art Gallery
). She would later write in 1949 that Bauer’s paintings "were very beautiful and subtle in color and helped to introduce abstract art to the people. We had no artist in those early years whose work so appealed to the public in general and which received so much response."
Bauer remained in Berlin in the 1920s and continued to make both abstract, or as the movement came to be known, "Non-Objective" art [a translation of the German gegenstandslos], as well as figurative work to support himself. In 1927 Hilla Rebay traveled to the United States
. A year later she began a portrait commission of copper magnate Solomon R. Guggenheim. Rebay showed Guggenheim Non-Objective art by Bauer and Kandinsky, and he decided to start a collection of the work.
In 1930 Solomon Guggenheim and his wife, Irene, traveled with Rebay to Germany to meet Bauer and Kandinsky. By this point, Bauer’s work had moved from lyrical to geometric abstraction, which would dominate the rest of his artistic career. Guggenheim bought several of Bauer’s new works and also put him on a stipend
, which allowed Bauer to open his own museum for his work and the work of other Non-Objective painters such as Kandinsky. He called his museum Das Geistreich, or "The Realm of the Spirit."
In June 1937 Guggenheim formed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
for his collection, with Rebay as its official curator. The Gibbes Museum of Art
in Charleston, South Carolina
, hosted the first public showing of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Collection of Non-Objective Paintings in March 1936. Bauer traveled to the United States for the first time to be present at the opening of the exhibition. From that show a solo show of his work traveled to the Arts Club of Chicago, where he also visited. There would be yearly showings of this collection for the next four years at various museums.
, Bauer was arrested by the Nazis
for his "degenerate" art
and for speculating on the black market — meaning selling his work to Guggenheim. The previous year Bauer’s work had been included in the infamous Degenerate Art show in Munich, organized by the Nazis to show all the deviant, abstract art. In spite of this Bauer had refused to move from his home country. Upon his arrest Bauer was held in a Gestapo
prison for several months, as Rebay and Guggenheim worked to free him. After several false starts, he was finally released unconditionally in August 1938. During his time in prison, he created dozens of non-objective drawings on scavenged scraps of paper. He spent the next months getting his paperwork in order and made the difficult decision to leave his homeland, emigrating to the United States in July 1939, just months before the beginning of World War II
.
just after the official opening of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, in midtown Manhattan
. Located at 24 East 54th Street
, the new museum was unlike anything the New York art world had seen. The floors as well as the walls were carpeted, and the large paintings hung in oversized frames very close to the ground. The museum played recordings by Bach
, Beethoven
, and Chopin
constantly and exclusively. Bauer’s work Orange Accent was featured on the invitation to the opening exhibition titled The Art of Tomorrow.
Bauer lived with Rebay for a few months before moving to one of Guggenheim’s homes in Deal, New Jersey, an upscale and beautiful but isolated coastal town. At this point, Guggenheim proposed a contract with Bauer. Bauer, not properly understanding the English of the contract signed it, having been assured that his concerns were met. He thought he was to receive a lump-sum amount for 110 paintings he had already furnished Guggenheim. Instead Guggenheim put that amount ($300,000) in trust for Bauer to receive a monthly stipend. He was also now obligated to leave his future work to the Foundation. As part of this contract, Bauer also received the last payment for a Duesenberg
car body custom designed by Bauer.
Bauer’s life’s work had become completely tied up in the Foundation, and he had been assured he would have a role in running it. This proved quickly not to be the case, and Bauer became very upset about the fate of his paintings. He stopped painting altogether, and made no further works the rest of his life, evidently not wanting to give the Foundation the satisfaction of having any more of his work. Eventually Bauer’s relationship with Rebay became very strained, culminating in a libel suit against Rebay because Rebay had insulted Bauer’s new wife, his maid Louise Huber, whom he had married in 1944.
In 1949 things changed drastically for Rebay when Solomon Guggenheim died. Within a couple of years of Solomon’s death the trustees abandoned Guggenheim’s original vision for the collection. Hilla Rebay was asked to step down as curator, and all of Guggenheim’s Non-Objective collection was sent to storage. In 1953 Rudolf Bauer died of lung cancer. The newly renamed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
opened in 1959 without a single work of Bauer’s on its walls.
.
ever made and is also the longest at 20 feet and 6 inches. On January 19, 2007, it sold at an auction in Phoenix, Arizona
for $2.8 million U.S. dollars. At an earlier auction in 1998, the car had changed hands for US$1.3 million.
Deal, New Jersey
Deal is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the borough population was 750.Deal was incorporated as a borough on March 7, 1898, by an act of the New Jersey Legislature, from portions of Ocean Township....
) was a German-born painter who was involved in the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
group Der Sturm
Der Sturm
Der Sturm was a magazine covering the expressionism movement founded in Berlin in 1910 by Herwarth Walden. It ran weekly until monthly in 1914, and became a quarterly in 1924 until it ceased publication in 1932....
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and whose work would become central to the Non-Objective art
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim
Solomon R. Guggenheim
Solomon Robert Guggenheim was an American businessman, art collector, and philanthropist.-Biography:He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, son of Meyer Guggenheim and brother of Simon, Benjamin, Daniel and four other siblings.Following studies in Switzerland at the Concordia Institute in...
.
Early life
Born in LindenwaldWawelno
Wąwelno is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Sośno, within Sępólno County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. It lies approximately south of Sośno, south-east of Sępólno Krajeńskie, and north-west of Bydgoszcz....
, county Wirsitz
Wyrzysk
Wyrzysk is a town in Poland with 5,263 inhabitants, situated in Piła County, Greater Poland Voivodeship.- Geographic location of municipal-rural community of Wyrzysk:...
near Bromberg, Province of Posen
Province of Posen
The Province of Posen was a province of Prussia from 1848–1918 and as such part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. The area was about 29,000 km2....
, to middle class parents, Rudolf Bauer family moved to Berlin in his youth. Bauer made art from an early age, but his father was disapproving, even beating him when Bauer announced his intention to go to art school. In spite of this discouragement Bauer left home and attended the Academy of Fine Arts.
Der Sturm
Herwarth Walden
Herwarth Walden was a German Expressionist artist and art expert in many disciplines...
, who had just founded Der Sturm. Der Sturm would become the most important artistic center in Berlin at this period. In 1915 Bauer was invited to participate in a group show at Der Sturm. He would continue to actively participate in the Der Sturm gallery scene through the mid-1920s. He had his first solo show there in 1917, with 120 "Lyrical Abstract" works, with solo shows in 1919 and 1920. Among the artists who were in the Der Sturm group were Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely-abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics...
, Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
, Paul Klee
Paul Klee
Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
, and Franz Marc
Franz Marc
Franz Marc was a German painter and printmaker, one of the key figures of the German Expressionist movement...
. Like Paul Klee, Bauer became a teacher in the Sturm School.
In 1917 Bauer was introduced to the Baroness Hilla Rebay von Ehrenwiesen
Hilla von Rebay
Hildegard Anna Augusta Elizabeth Freiin Rebay von Ehrenwiesen, Baroness Hilla von Rebay, or simply Hilla Rebay , was a notable woman abstract painter in the early 20th century. After immigrating to the United States in 1927, she may be best known for helping Solomon R...
. Rebay, also an artist, met Bauer at Der Sturm, and they became lovers. Bauer and Rebay shared a studio beginning in 1919, but her family did not approve of Bauer. In the early 1920s she traveled to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. She and Bauer would continue to write to one another regularly, but their relationship became platonic, though still fraught with difficulties.
Société Anonyme
In 1920 Katherine Sophie DreierKatherine Sophie Dreier
Katherine Sophie Dreier was an artist and a patron of the arts. Her paintings were abstract with spiritual emphasis, and she was a member of the Abstraction-Création group.-Birth:...
, the preeminent collector and co-founder of the Société Anonyme
Société Anonyme (art)
Société Anonyme, Inc. was an art organization founded in 1920 by Katherine Dreier, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. The society sponsored lectures, concerts, publications, and exhibitions of modern art, including the International Exhibition of Modern Art at the Brooklyn Museum in 1926...
, with Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
and Man Ray
Man Ray
Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
, visited Berlin and bought several works by Bauer including the oil Andante V (now in the permanent collection of the Yale University Art Gallery
Yale University Art Gallery
The Yale University Art Gallery houses a significant and encyclopedic collection of art in several buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Although it embraces all cultures and periods, the Gallery possesses especially renowned collections of early Italian painting,...
). She would later write in 1949 that Bauer’s paintings "were very beautiful and subtle in color and helped to introduce abstract art to the people. We had no artist in those early years whose work so appealed to the public in general and which received so much response."
Bauer and Solomon R. Guggenheim
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. A year later she began a portrait commission of copper magnate Solomon R. Guggenheim. Rebay showed Guggenheim Non-Objective art by Bauer and Kandinsky, and he decided to start a collection of the work.
In 1930 Solomon Guggenheim and his wife, Irene, traveled with Rebay to Germany to meet Bauer and Kandinsky. By this point, Bauer’s work had moved from lyrical to geometric abstraction, which would dominate the rest of his artistic career. Guggenheim bought several of Bauer’s new works and also put him on a stipend
Stipend
A stipend is a form of salary, such as for an internship or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from a wage or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work performed, instead it represents a payment that enables somebody to be exempt partly or wholly from waged or salaried...
, which allowed Bauer to open his own museum for his work and the work of other Non-Objective painters such as Kandinsky. He called his museum Das Geistreich, or "The Realm of the Spirit."
In June 1937 Guggenheim formed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1937 by philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim and artist Hilla von Rebay. The first museum established by the foundation was the "Museum of Non-Objective Art", which was housed in rented space on Park Avenue in New York....
for his collection, with Rebay as its official curator. The Gibbes Museum of Art
Gibbes Museum of Art
The Gibbes Museum of Art is an art museum in Charleston, South Carolina. Established as the Carolina Art Association in 1858, the museum moved into a new Beaux Arts building at 135 Meeting Street in 1905...
in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, hosted the first public showing of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Collection of Non-Objective Paintings in March 1936. Bauer traveled to the United States for the first time to be present at the opening of the exhibition. From that show a solo show of his work traveled to the Arts Club of Chicago, where he also visited. There would be yearly showings of this collection for the next four years at various museums.
Gestapo prison
In 1938, upon his return from an exhibition of his work in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Bauer was arrested by the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
for his "degenerate" art
Degenerate art
Degenerate art is the English translation of the German entartete Kunst, a term adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all modern art. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was un-German or Jewish Bolshevist in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were...
and for speculating on the black market — meaning selling his work to Guggenheim. The previous year Bauer’s work had been included in the infamous Degenerate Art show in Munich, organized by the Nazis to show all the deviant, abstract art. In spite of this Bauer had refused to move from his home country. Upon his arrest Bauer was held in a Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
prison for several months, as Rebay and Guggenheim worked to free him. After several false starts, he was finally released unconditionally in August 1938. During his time in prison, he created dozens of non-objective drawings on scavenged scraps of paper. He spent the next months getting his paperwork in order and made the difficult decision to leave his homeland, emigrating to the United States in July 1939, just months before the beginning of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Arrival in the United States
Bauer arrived in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
just after the official opening of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, in midtown Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Located at 24 East 54th Street
54th Street (Manhattan)
54th Street is a two-mile-long, one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan.-West Side Highway:*The route begins at the West Side Highway . Opposite the intersection is the New York Passenger Ship Terminal and the Hudson River...
, the new museum was unlike anything the New York art world had seen. The floors as well as the walls were carpeted, and the large paintings hung in oversized frames very close to the ground. The museum played recordings by Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, and Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
constantly and exclusively. Bauer’s work Orange Accent was featured on the invitation to the opening exhibition titled The Art of Tomorrow.
Bauer lived with Rebay for a few months before moving to one of Guggenheim’s homes in Deal, New Jersey, an upscale and beautiful but isolated coastal town. At this point, Guggenheim proposed a contract with Bauer. Bauer, not properly understanding the English of the contract signed it, having been assured that his concerns were met. He thought he was to receive a lump-sum amount for 110 paintings he had already furnished Guggenheim. Instead Guggenheim put that amount ($300,000) in trust for Bauer to receive a monthly stipend. He was also now obligated to leave his future work to the Foundation. As part of this contract, Bauer also received the last payment for a Duesenberg
Duesenberg
Duesenberg was an Auburn, Indiana based American luxury automobile company active in various forms from 1913 to 1937, most famous for its high-quality passenger cars and record-breaking racing cars.-History:...
car body custom designed by Bauer.
Bauer’s life’s work had become completely tied up in the Foundation, and he had been assured he would have a role in running it. This proved quickly not to be the case, and Bauer became very upset about the fate of his paintings. He stopped painting altogether, and made no further works the rest of his life, evidently not wanting to give the Foundation the satisfaction of having any more of his work. Eventually Bauer’s relationship with Rebay became very strained, culminating in a libel suit against Rebay because Rebay had insulted Bauer’s new wife, his maid Louise Huber, whom he had married in 1944.
In 1949 things changed drastically for Rebay when Solomon Guggenheim died. Within a couple of years of Solomon’s death the trustees abandoned Guggenheim’s original vision for the collection. Hilla Rebay was asked to step down as curator, and all of Guggenheim’s Non-Objective collection was sent to storage. In 1953 Rudolf Bauer died of lung cancer. The newly renamed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
opened in 1959 without a single work of Bauer’s on its walls.
Out of obscurity
Bauer’s work was basically unseen for the next two decades. In 1967 Bauer’s work was shown at the Guggenheim in Seven Decades, A Selection for the first time since his death. In 1969 his work was given a large retrospective at the Galerie Gmurzynska in Cologne. This was followed by several solo exhibitions in New York and Europe. Since that time, Bauer’s work has begun to get more attention from art collectors and museums. In 2005 the Guggenheim Museum mounted Art of Tomorrow: Hilla Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenheim, which featured many Bauer works and traveled also to the Museum Villa Stuck and the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin. A major retrospective of Bauer’s work took place at Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, in 2007. Weinstein Gallery also represents the artist’s estate and archives. 60 of Bauer's drawings and paintings have been gifted to the Boca Raton Museum of ArtBoca Raton Museum of Art
The Boca Raton Museum of Art is located at 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, Florida in Mizner Park. It houses works of art by a number of the great masters.-About:...
.
Footnotes
This car, known as the Bauer SJ, is the last DuesenbergDuesenberg
Duesenberg was an Auburn, Indiana based American luxury automobile company active in various forms from 1913 to 1937, most famous for its high-quality passenger cars and record-breaking racing cars.-History:...
ever made and is also the longest at 20 feet and 6 inches. On January 19, 2007, it sold at an auction in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
for $2.8 million U.S. dollars. At an earlier auction in 1998, the car had changed hands for US$1.3 million.
Books
- Rudolf Bauer (exhibition catalogue). San Francisco: Weinstein Gallery, 2007. Essays by Steven Lowy and Robert Rosenblum.
- Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, Karole Vail, et al. Art of Tomorrow: Hilla Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenheim (exhibition catalogue). New York: Guggenheim Museum, 2005.
- Jennifer Gross. The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 2006.
- Sigrid Faltin. Die Baroness und das Guggenheim: Hilla von Rebay, eine deutsche Künstlerin in New York. Lengwil, Switzerland: Libelle-Verlag, 2005.
- Rolph Scarlett with Harriet Tannin. The Baroness, the Mogul & the Forgotten History of the First Guggenheim Museum. New York: Midmarch Arts Press, 2003.
- Keith Martin. "Serious Money: Top Deals at Four Auctions." New York Times. January 28, 2007.
External links
- Exhibition at the Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, 2007.
- Rudolf Bauer papers, 1918-1983 from the Smithsonian Archives of American ArtArchives of American ArtThe Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 16 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washington, D.C...