Hoelzel, Baumeister and the Stuttgart Academy “Art is a Science”
Works by Willi Baumeister

“Art is a Science.” Hoelzel, Baumeister and the Stuttgart Academy

Modernism begins in the Stuttgart Academy with Adolf Hoelzel in 1905. There he created an artwork that is considered a pioneering achievement of the European artist avant-garde. Simultaneously, Hoelzel developed an art theory that later strongly influenced the Bauhaus via his students Johannes Itten and Oskar Schlemmer. Willi Baumeister shared his teacher's respect for students requiring artistic freedom and, after the Second World War as a professor at the Stuttgart Academy, instructed them, above all, on the fundamental concepts of visual design.

The exhibition investigated, for the very first time, the artistic relationship between Hoelzel and Baumeister. Additionally, it presented newly discovered documents and material on the educational work of these two important Stuttgart artists. The Kunstmuseum Stuttgart owns the largest museum collections of both their works.

The exhibition was the Kunstmuseum’s contribution to the 250th anniversary of the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart.

 

Curator Daniel Spanke
In cooperation with Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart