Clown-Watercolor Painting-Rudolf Bauer (1889-1953)

Description: This is an 16 1/2 by 11 1/4 inch watercolor painting on paper of a clown. It was done by well-listed artist Rudolf Bauer. It dates from around the 1930s or 1940s, I believe. It is shown behind plastic protective covering and clear corners holding it in place. It is in a somewhat worn frame measuring 27 by 20 inches. The painting is in very good or better condition. The paper has slight waviness to it. See the photos and condition details. Rudolf Bauer remains one of the great under—appreciated, non-objective, modernism painters of the 20th Century. Lawrence Campbell in his 1970 ArtNews article "Do You Remember Rudolf Bauer?" paints a favorable picture of the artist whose career in America was established and then summarily abandoned by the Guggenheim Museum. To quote Campbell, "In 1952, The Museum of Non—Objective Painting disappeared. Baroness Rebay, that passionate prima donna of the museum, retired. Soon after, a new Director, James Johnson Sweeney, took over, and the Museum became the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. As for the Rudolf Bauer paintings, they vanished without a tear into the storerooms of the museum." Rudolf Bauer was born in 1889 in Lindenwald, Germany (now Poland) and was the son of an engineer. By 1910 he had completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, and was a published cartoonist doing often comical illustrations for local publications. In 1912 Bauer met the art dealer and promoter of the avant—garde, Herwarth Walden, whose Der Sturm (The Storm) Gallery, Newspaper and Art School would soon be the avant—garde focus of the Berlin art scene. In subsequent years, Der Sturm would host solo exhibitions for Kandinsky, Bauer, Klee, Chagall, Leger, Franz Marc and many others. In 1915 Bauer was accepted as a member of Der Sturm, and began a long tenure of exhibiting, publishing and teaching with Walden. That same year he met the 25 year old Baroness Hilla Rebay von Ehrenwiesen, the daughter of an aristocratic Prussian officer. They soon moved in together, much to the dismay of Rebay's parents. During this period, Bauer shared with Rebay his dream to create a temple of Non—Objective art. These ideas are related to the vision that Walter Gropius had for his Weimar Bauhaus art school. In a lecture delivered by Gropius for the Exhibition of Unknown Architects, the architect discussed how artists of all media would co—operatively build a metaphorical cathedral of the future. It would take 30 years and a combination of Rebay's tenacity and Guggenheim's funding to realize Bauer's dream.In 1921 Bauer's work was introduced to American audiences as a featured artist of Katherine Dreiers and Marcel Duchamp's Societé Anonyme*. Well into the 1940s Dreier would correspond with Bauer asking him to donate more material to the Society. Either because of his restrictive relationship with the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, or because of Dreier's lack of funds, Bauer paid little attention to her requests. Despite his lack of attention Dreier remained a passionate admirer of Bauer's work. That same year Bauer was invited to publish a lithograph in the Bauhaus* portfolio, and he contributed a lovely black and white non—objective image. The Bauhaus portfolio from that year is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum or Art in New York City. By 1929 Rudolf Bauer was firmly established as Solomon Guggenheim's favorite artist and his man in Berlin. The 40 year old painter was no longer living hand to mouth but had begun to sell his works in quantity. In addition to creating his own work, Bauer was instrumental in choosing the works that today are considered the masterpieces of the core Guggenheim collection.Works by Kandinsky, especially early non—objective works, Klee, Marc, Moholy—Nagy, Chagall, Leger and many others were collected during this period. In 1930 Rebay organized a trip to Europe for the Guggenheims so that they would have the opportunity to meet the great Bauer and Kandinsky in person. This trip was a huge success, reducing Bauer's power and locking in Rebay's position as art advisor to Guggenheim by letting him choose the work himself —in person in the artists studios. With the commissions from these sales, Bauer was able to lease a villa in a fashionable area of Berlin and set up his own private museum, called "Das Geistreich," or the Realm of the Spirit, in which he featured primarily his work and that of Kandinsky.Marinetti, the Italian Futurist* painter, visited Das Geistreich to inaugurate one of the exhibitions and a professional photographer was employed to document the event. Bauer drove fancy cars, and for nearly a decade lived in the style of Guggenheim. In 1933, Bauer was included in a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. During this period Rebay began a frenzy of buying activity in order to save paintings from falling into Nazi hands or from being destroyed. Her efforts, with the help of Bauer, provided Jewish and other fleeing collectors with badly needed capital, which facilitated their escape from Germany.In 1937, Bauer visited the United States for the first time to attend an exhibition of the Guggenheim collection at the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, an area where the Guggenheims spent the winter. This was one stop on a tour of five exhibitions that Rebay organized during the 1930s of the Solomon Guggenheim Collection of Non—Objective Art. After an extended stay that generated a huge amount of press, Bauer returned to Europe because he was included in a large group exhibition of Modern Art organized by Picasso and Braque and mounted at the Jeu de Paume in Paris. Bauer was warned by friends that the situation in Berlin was deteriorating and that because of the "Degenerate Art"* exhibition mounted by the Nazi's that same year he should remain in Paris. The artist ignored this advice and returned to his beloved "Das Geistreich". A few months later he was arrested by the Nazi's who hauled him off to a Berlin prison. According to the documentarian Sigrid Faltin, it is possible that Bauer was actually fingered by his sister who was jealous of his success and lack of support. The Baroness was distraught when she got the news and immediately began planning his rescue. It took her nearly a year to execute her rescue plan. And it is fair to relate that there were advisors who suggested that Rebay was better off with Bauer in a Berlin prison than at the Foundation in New York.In 1939, traveling with a suitcase filled with cash and escorted by her uncle who was a General in the German Army, the Baroness was able to purchase Bauer's unconditional release and deportation to the United States with his entire household and studio intact. It is also rumored that Marinetti, who had the ear of Mussolini, also put in a good word for the incarcerated artist. Bauer arrived in New York a conquering hero of the art world, with invitations to lecture on Non—Objective Art at both Harvard and Yale.The glow of triumph would be short lived. Three issues began to poison the triad of Rebay, Bauer and Guggenheim. First, Rebay, who had grown accustomed to wielding supreme executive authority at the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, had absolutely no intention of sharing the directorship with Bauer. Second, she persuaded Bauer to sign the now infamous 'contract' before it was translated from English to German. In short, the contract stipulated that Bauer would gift his life's work to the Foundation in return for use of the Guggenheim Villa in Deal, New Jersey, and for the use of the interest of a trust fund set up for Bauer which would revert back to the Foundation upon the artist's death. Bauer was so infuriated by the terms and so humiliated by his own foolishness at trusting Rebay that, in protest, he gave up painting.He devoted the remainder of his life, unsuccessfully, trying to protect the legacy he left in the hands the Guggenheim Foundation. It has taken over 50 years and courageous efforts from dealers, independent curators and various members of the Rebay and Guggenheim families to begin to right the wrongs that were suffered by the artists collectively known as the Art of Tomorrow Group. Each exhibition which includes this work provides a new opportunity to reexamine an extraordinary period in the history of Modern Art.

Price: 575 USD

Location: Westfield, New Jersey

End Time: 2024-11-18T19:00:59.000Z

Shipping Cost: 30 USD