Sale: 451 / Post War I, June 10. 2017 in Munich Lot 803


803
Willi Baumeister
Montaru, 1954.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 150,000 / $ 165,000
Sold:
€ 237,500 / $ 261,250

(incl. surcharge)
Montaru. 1954.
Oil and synthetic resin on fiberboard.
Beye/Baumeister 1981. Lower left signed and dated. Verso signed, dated, titled and inscribed with dimensions. 23.5 x 39.6 cm (9.2 x 15.5 in).
In original artist's frame.
This work is part of Baumeister's "Montaru" series, which the artist made between 1953 and 1955.
Paintings from the "Montaru" series are in possession of, among others, the collections of the Nationalgalerie Berlin, the Sprengel Museum Hanover, the Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim and the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museums, Hagen.

PROVENANCE: Private possession Frankfurt a. M. (presumably acquired from Galerie Chichio Haller, Zurich in 1955, - after 2002).
Private collection Saarland (inherited from aforementioned).

EXHIBITION: Moderne Malerei -Frankfurter Privatbesitz, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt a. M. 1963, cat. no. 5 with illu.

Baumeister's later style culminates in his famous "Montaru" series. Works from this series, made between 1953 and 1955, are characterized by the integration, combination and artistic development of pictorial elements from earlier periods of creation, and find their earliest precursors in works from around 1951.The black color field, typical of the "Montaru" series, which dominates the center of the image and henceforth– just as it is the case with this work – dissects the works into a thrilling composition in its margins, can be found in the painting"Schwarzes Phantom" (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid) from1952. Just a few month later, in January or February1953, Baumeister eventually began to work on the painting "Montaru 1", which today is in possession of the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, marking the beginning of the famous "Montaru" series. An onomatopoetic creation by the artist is eponymous, combining the words "mons" or "mont" (mountain) and the sound "aru", which hints at the pictures impervious darkness and is derived from the name of the biblical mountain Ararat. The blackness, which seems to expand onto and hover above the image surface, is in a characteristic constellation of tension with the image carrier. Further paintings from this impressive work complex are in possession of, among others, the Nationalgalerie Berlin, the Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim and the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museums, Hagen.



803
Willi Baumeister
Montaru, 1954.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 150,000 / $ 165,000
Sold:
€ 237,500 / $ 261,250

(incl. surcharge)