Artist: Willi Baumeister (German, 1889 - 1955).
Title: "Zwei Figuren".
Medium: Gouache, colored pencil, and pencil drawing on paper.
Date: Composed c1921.
Dimensions: Overall size: 15 1/8 x 11 5/16 in. (384 x 287 mm).
Lot Note(s): Signed in pencil, lower right recto and upper center, verso; collector and gallery ink stamps, verso. Painted on cream wove paper. Overall good condition; for a full condition report kindly send an email to 'condition@stanfordauctioneers.com'. Provenance: If you have a genuine interest in bidding on this work kindly send an email to: provenance@stanfordauctioneers.com for provenance information and additional image(s). Comment(s): Our example was a probable precursor of two similarly composed Baumeister works: “Figur,” gouache and pencil on board, 16 7/8” x 11 5/8,” 1922-23, sold for $78,938 (€58,000) at Ketterer Kunst, Munich, June 6, 2014, lot #202; and “Maschine,” gouache, colored crayon, and pencil on board, 16 5/8” x 12 3/8,” c1925, sold for $73,031 (€53,680) at Lempertz, Cologne, May 30, 2014, lot #314. After his return from the First World War, Baumeister rigorously developed his work further. Although one still finds figurative elements in his paintings, the forms grew increasingly geometric, took on a dynamic of their own, and Baumeister broke the traditional connection between form and color. Parallel to this development, nonrepresentational painting began to gain a foothold in his works that centered on geometric shapes and their relationships to one another in the picture (e.g. ‘Planar Relation’ of 1920). Image copyright © Willi Baumeister / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Germany. [30220-3-40000]

Overall good condition; for a full condition report kindly send an email to 'condition@stanfordauctioneers.com'