Rudolf Bauer (Rudolf Bauer) 1889-1953

[Seriy]

In February I went to the Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco and saw a big and beautiful Kandinsky, then another and another ... I was shocked, I did not know these works, 1918, 1921 ... But it was not Kandinsky, it was Rudolf Bauer.
 At the forum, he mentioned LCR linked to the exhibition of degenerate art in Nazi Germany and as another user in connection with the high prices at international auctions to anyone unknown artist. In fact, an artist known in his time was more popular than Kandinsky, but the fate prepared for him such sharp turns that he was in a moment disappeared from public view and now returns, including through the efforts of Weinstein Gallery, who has published monograph on Bauer, which I will use for writing this post.

 Rudolf Bauer was born in Germany in 1889 and despite the protests of parents enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. At this time, he earned a living drawing illustrations and cartoons in newspapers. During these years he became acquainted with Gervartom Valdenom (Herwarth Walden) artist, publisher and gallery owner who founded the magazine Der Sturm, expressionism dedicated and non-figurative art.
Gervart also supported Blau Reiter and Italian Futurists. Thus the road Bauer and Kandinsky were crossed for the first time.
Gervart joined the Communist Party, he fled from the Nazis in the Soviet Union, taught, promoted avant-garde, ended his life in prison in Saratov in 1941.
  In 1915, Bauer was first involved in a group exhibition Sturm.
In 1917 - the first solo exhibition with 120 (!) Lyrical abstraction. Then a solo exhibition in 1919, 1920. Together with him in the assault involved Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc. Together with Paul Klee Bauer teaches at the School of Sturm.
I apologize for the quality of photos taken from the book, when I returned to the gallery to take a photo with the paintings, there was a preparation for another exhibition and the paintings were in storage. In fact, the picture is very bright, brighter than Kandinsky.
1. Solomon Guggenheim (left) and Rudolf Bauer (1930)
2. The work of Bauer, 1905.
3. Price tag on the work of Sturm-Bauer is listed first, followed by Kandinsky.
4. Cover Sturm with the work of Bauer.
5. Bauer and Marinetti at the Museum "The kingdom of the Spirit" on the background of the work of Bauer (1930)
7. Bauer and Kandinsky exhibition in 1939 at the Museum of non-figurative art, USA.
6, 8-10. Bauer's work.

[Seriy]

In 1917, Bauer met with Hill Ribey - Baroness Hilla Rebay von Ehrenwiesen - and they began an affair. Ribey parents did not approve of her choice, and subsequently they were just friends.
 Did I mention the name of Ribey the march through the galleries of San Francisco, then I do not understand why Americans have such reverence for this rather ordinary artist. In fact, H. Ribey enjoys extraordinary respect in the U.S. and even reverence, because it is the man who brought abstract art to America and who has spearheaded the inception of original American art. In 1927, the year Ribey going to America and wrote a custom portrait of a copper magnate Solomon Guggenheim, introduces the addition of abstract art in Europe and they decide together to establish a fund, a collection of abstract art in the United States. Thus was born what then was the Solomon Guggenheim Museum.

 In 1930, the Guggenheim and his wife Irene went to Germany and met with Bauer and Kandinsky, buys several works of Bauer and give him a scholarship to a Berlin museum of non-figurative art.
This creates a museum Bauer - Das Geistreich - the realm of spirit (?) - It presents the work of his, and Kandinsky.
 In 1937, the Guggenheim Foundation Solomon Guggenheim creates and assigns Ribey its official curator. Bauer went to the U.S. in 1936, opens the exhibition, and within 4 years held several exhibitions of abstract art throughout the United States in various museums.
So it's abstract art in America.

Meanwhile, in Germany, the Nazis carried out the exhibition of degenerate art, which includes work of Bauer. In 1938, Bauer returned to Germany, should be arrested and Bauer imprisoned by the Gestapo. Guggenheim and Ribey make every effort to release Bauer. After several unsuccessful attempts, in August 1938, after several scroll months in prison, they manage to pull out Bauer. Bauer, despite the initial desire to stay at home, preparing documents and in July 1939 emmigriruet in the U.S., just months before the start of World War II.
1-8. Bauer's work. In 1920 he moved with lyrical abstraction for geometric, which remains faithful to the end of life.
9. In prison, Gestapo Bauer drew a tiny abstract paintings, one out.
10. In a previous post photo 6 - This is the cover-announcement for the exhibition Guggenheim Foundation with the work of Bauer, and this reversal, the work of Bauer and Kandinsky, whose .. guess where this is not easy ... Who's Who has influenced and in what sequence, are no longer defined.

[Seriy]

Upon arrival in America, Bauer lives with Ribey and then perezzhaet one of the houses the Guggenheim in Deal, New Jersey, near New York. At this time, he signed a prepared Ribey contract with the Guggenheim Foundation, confident that it considered all its conditions, T e, he will receive 300,000 dollars for his 110 paintings that are already in the Fund and will maintain a scholarship from the Fund. Bauer did not understand English.
In fact, the agreement stated that 300 thousand for the picture Bauer does not receive cash but the money goes to the trust fund and are paid a monthly stipend to Bauer, he bought this house, a car of his own design, but all the work he buduyuschie must pass into the ownership of the Fund.
Bauer felt that after a Gestapo prison, he got into another, albeit gilded. As a reaction, he ceased to paint and never took up his brush to the end of his life. Relations with Ribey deteriorated sharply and he even filed for Ribey to court for insulting his wife (married in 1944).

 In 1949 Solomon Guggenheim died. Ribey excluded from coaching.
In 1953, Bauer died of lung cancer.
The entire collection of non-figurative art is sent to the store and
1959 Solomon Guggenheim Museum opens without a single work of Bauer on their walls.
Two decades of a single work of Bauer does not appear at the shows, he is in oblivion. Since the end of 1960 begins a slow return to Bauer in the history of art and museum-exhibition turnover.
 In 2005, the Guggenheim Museum holds a memorial exhibition -
Art of Tomorrow: Hilla Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenheim - on the Hill Ribey and Solomon Guggenheim with a large number of works of Bauer. In 2007, in San Francisco, Weinstein Gallery organized a retrospective of Bauer, who publishes a monograph.

That such a fate.

In addition to abstraction Bauer drew a lot of graphic work - genre scenes from the life of Weimar Germany, cartoons, nudes. Due to storage without accessing the world, they have survived in excellent condition.
Abstraction Bauer wrote on cardboard, canvas, on paper.

http://www.findartinfo.com/search/li...e=Rudolf_Bauer
Oil now costs several hundred thousand dollars, gouaches from 6 to 11 thousand compared with Kandinsky impossible. Returns a score with respect to Kandinsky Bauer is the same as in the lives of both?

1. Monograph-catalog for the exhibition, prepared by Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco.
2-6. Graphic work of Bauer nonabstract.

[fross]

Сообщение от Seriy

Oil now costs several hundred thousand dollars , gouaches from 6 to 11 thousand compared with Kandinsky impossible . Returns a score with respect to Kandinsky Bauer is the same as in the lives of both ?

Alas , good gouaches already standing on 50tysyach , are the two sold last year , within 1-20 drawings and lithographs are still available in the region of 100-200 .

[Seriy]

fross, thanks ! ... in fact, apart from historical and art aspect is the question of investment and how high prices will go up on the Bowery ?
Oil on cardboard ( hardboard ) with a size of about one meter is in the Weinstein considerably less than 500 thousand ( 150-300 from memory ) , or rather I know , at the same time will ask if they have any abstract gouaches . The gallery had a lot of " Weimar " graphics and abstract do not remember .
Now ask about lithography .
Here is what was left of the gouaches -
http://weinstein.com/bauer/paper_non-objective.html

[I-V]

Сообщение от Seriy

Actually , the agreement stated that 300 thousand for the picture Bauer does not receive cash but the money goes to the trust fund and are paid a monthly stipend to Bauer , he bought this house, a car on his own design , but all buduyuschie work he is obliged to transfer the ownership of the Fund .

This was an open-ended contract , or any other terms have been spelled out ? 5 years is not so bad , in my opinion , but for life - God forbid !

[Seriy]

Here is a page from the book, about the conditions of the contract, and a page of letters to the Guggenheim with Bauer Bauer notes. (Open in separate window)
For life maintenance and after the death of all property Bauer passed to the Fund. Guggenheim money invested in the Chilean mines and they Bauer drip of 5%per annum.

On the one hand, the Guggenheim Bauer saved from death - or in a concentration camp in Germany, or in prison, Saratov, conditions which he offered in return, a luxury home on the ocean and a very decent - 1000 dollars a month before the war is a huge amount of money, probably more than 100 thousand dollars in today's terms - life annuity.
On the other hand, Bauer wanted more, just wanted a luxurious life-for example, he ordered a car to order, own design, which cost more than 12 thousand dollars (Ford-T like 300 dollars worth? Correct, I do not remember), he evaluated his paintings in three times more expensive, and some do not want to sell.
This machine, incidentally, sold recently at auction for 2.5 million dollars
 Therefore, the contract and is now mixed feelings, like-"Girl, you want your severed head or go to the cottage?"

[I-V]

Сообщение от Seriy; 1585013 "

At this time , he signed a prepared Ribey contract with the Guggenheim Foundation

Сообщение от Seriy; 1585083 "

all my life content and after the death of all property Bauer passed to the Fund .

Yes ... terrible situation . Know that to the grave you have to carry someone else's terms ... yeah not for any price !

Сообщение от Seriy

As a reaction , he ceased to paint and never took up his brush to the end of his life .

This, of course , protest . The Fund has applied any sanctions ? Or , bound hand and foot by the contract , they left him alone , by watching how he comes to an end?

[Seriy]

IV, no , no sanctions , the contract did not specify that he is obliged to paint . After the deaths were somehow settled the case with inheritance .
 In Hilla Ribey developed a bad relationship with the Guggenheim family because of her domineering , authoritative character , " bossovosti , Baroness they called The B ( ie, bee ) , and after the death of Solomon, it was removed from all cases . Although she personally chose the architect for the museum is the Frank Lloyd Wright , Bauer protested , he considered necessary to invite someone from the Bauhaus .
Ribey went from New York to Connecticut , where he lived until his death in 1967 , aged 77 , was buried in Germany , at the family crypt . She never set foot in the creation of its museum .
What about " ordinary " artist , I got excited , she was one of the first female abstractionist .
Photo Ribey at the age of 45 and a pair of her works .
Kandinsky , together with Ribey , the edges of Irene and Solomon Guggenheim .

[Seriy]

IV, perhaps we should remember the economic background against which the events described took place - 30 years - the years of the Great Depression in the U.S. , people simply had nothing to eat , there was no work . President Roosevelt arranged a program in which unemployed artists painted the walls of schools, hospitals , public institutions , to get at least some penny . Since surviving Dzh.Pollok at this time as an adult , he lived with his family his brother , because he could not rent a house .
And the Guggenheim first letter Bauer wrote about it that they conclude a deal in severe economic crisis and poverty .

And in the end - Bauer could not refuse to deal, from the luxury homes near the ocean , from the car to order , from monthly stipends and be free as a bird .