Nächtliche Phantome. 1951.
Oil, synthetic resin and tempera on fiberboard, mounted on white-primed fiberboard by the artist.
Signed and dated upper right. Signed, dated twice, titled "Nächtliche Fantome" and "Nightly Phantoms" in German and English on the reverse and inscribed with the dimensions. 22.5 x 65.1 cm (8.8 x 25.6 in). Fiberboard: 28,6 x 71,5 cm (11,2 x 28,1 in).
[CH].
• A work from Baumeister's group "Wachstum und Wind (Growth and Wind, 1949-1953) that is strongly reduced in form and color and yet suggestive.
• Baumeister dissolved any memory of figuration and created calligraphic, sign-like fabric structures in this work.
• With the reduced use of color and the light overpainting or the omission of dark areas of color, Baumeister invented new forms of his idea of the positive-negative effect, which he had conceived long before.
• Will Grohmann shows a painting from this group of works on the cover of the first catalogue raisonné (Cologne 1963).
• Further works from this small, important series can be found in, among others, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Sprengel Museum, Hanover, the Secession in Vienna and the Buffalo AKG Art Gallery, New York.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Baden-Württemberg.
Private collection Northern Germany (acquired from the above in 2000).

LITERATURE: Peter Beye/Felicitas Baumeister, Willi Baumeister. Catalog raisonné of paintings, vol. II, Ostfildern 2002, p. 668, no. 1693 (black-and-white illu.).

Villa Grisebach Auktionen, Berlin, 85th auction, November 25, 2000, lot 425 (fig.).

" It become apparent that the pictures mostly consist of superimposed layers only on closer examination, a lower layer that is black or iridescent throughout, and an upper layer that can be interpreted as an 'overpainting', from which the forms that define the picture and largely dissolve at the edges are left out. This process of 'recessing' (Baumeister), already tried and tested in the sports pictures of the 1930s, has evolved, however, in that the 'underpainting' often already bears pictorial traits, but is only transformed into the final pictorial form through the recesses of the overpainting. This is easily overlooked, as the dynamic structure of the pictures could have grown out of a spontaneous process, but is in fact based on a process that Baumeister himself - alluding to the effect of the overpainting as 'background' - calls 'reverse painting'."
Peter Beye, in: Peter Beye/Felicitas Baumeister, Willi Baumeister. Werkkatalog der Gemälde, vol. I, Ostfildern 2002, p. 19.

In very good condition. Isolated very faint traces of rubbing. Small elevations in the margins due to the nail heads underneath the paint layer. Bottom center with a small hole and tiny loss of color where the nail has penetrated the paint. The lower hardboard minimally discolored in edges.
The condition report was compiled in daylight with the help of an ultraviolet light and to the best of knowledge.