News — Mar 6, 2023

On 2 March, 2023, the multidisciplinary artist Mary Bauermeister died at the age of 88. Her unique oeuvre spans more than sixty years. Some considered her the “Mother of the Fluxus movement”. Her solo exhibition at the Stedelijk in 1962 was a pivotal moment in her career. She is represented in the museum’s holdings with two sculptural works that are featured in the collection presentation 'Everyday, Someday and Other Stories'.

Mary Bauermeister was born in 1934 in Frankfurt am Main. On completing her studies at the art academies of Ulm and Saarbrucken she moved to Cologne in 1956. Around 1960, she rented a studio in Lintgasse 28 in Cologne, which became a renowned site for avant-garde artists and musicians. Performers, composers and Fluxus artists like Nam June Paik, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, David Tudor, Wolf Vostell, Christo and Benjamin Petterson gathered here to stage performances of the latest music, events and happenings. Paik performed his legendary action Etude for Pianoforte (1959-1960) there, in which, after playing a piece by Chopin, he cut Cage’s tie with scissors and squeezed the contents of a bottle of shampoo onto the heads of Tudor and Cage.

The oeuvre of Mary Bauermeister comprises sculptures, assemblages, drawings, performances and music. In 1961, when Bauermeister took part in the “International Summer Courses for New Music” in Darmstadt under the direction of Stockhausen, she developed Malerische Konzeption, a model that could be used to apply the serial composition technique to the visual arts.

Black-and-white photograph by Mary Bauermeister in front of the work 'Wabenbild'
Mary Bauermeister in front of 'Wabenbild'. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1962.

Her reliefs and sculptures, which integrate drawings, texts, found objects, natural materials and fabrics, refer to a multiplicity of concepts: from natural phenomenon and astronomy to mathematics and language, and also to her own “spiritual-metaphysical experiences”. About her work Karlheinz Stockhausen wrote: “It is typical that she does not seek to develop a personal style with recognizable motifs, techniques, routines and material explorations, but that she considers every piece of fabric or every object (found or artificially created), every technique, every stylistic device, as material”.[i]

Installation view 'Everyday, Someday and Other Stories' with Mary Bauermeister, 'Sculpture Integrated (Sandberg Group)'
Installation view 'Everyday, Someday and Other Stories' with Mary Bauermeister, 'Sculpture Integrated (Sandberg Group)', 1964. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
  • Black-and-white photograph of Karl Heinz Stockhausen on the left and Mary Bauermeister on the right
    Karl Heinz Stockhausen (left) en Mary Bauermeister (right) during the preparations of her solo exhibition. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1962.
  • black-and-white photo of Willem Sandberg smiling, and Mary Bauermeister behind it
    Willem Sandberg and Mary Bauermeister (mid) during the opening of Bauermeister's solo exhibition. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1962.
  • Black-and-white photo of Mary Bauermeister during the preparation of the exhibition
    Mary Bauermeister during the preparations of her solo exhibition. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1962.
  • black and white photo of concert with piano during opening of exhibition
    Concert during the opening of Bauermeister's solo exhibition. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1962.

In 1962, Stedelijk Museum director Willem Sandberg organised Bauermeister’s first museum exhibition (a show that, after Amsterdam, travelled to Groningen, Schiedam, The Hague and Eindhoven). For Bauermeister it was the beginning of a close collaboration with composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, whose scores and electronic compositions were part of her presentation. Bauermeister was married to Stockhausen from 1967 to 1972 with whom she had two children.

At the same time as Bauermeister’s solo, the Stedelijk also mounted the exhibition Four Americans with work by Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Alfred Leslie, and Richard Stankiewicz. Mary Bauermeister was so impressed by the work of Rauschenberg and Johns that when the Stedelijk purchased one of her assemblages, she spent the money (1300 German marks) on a plane ticket and left for New York. There, her art career took off. She showed at venues like Galerie Bonino, where she also introduced Nam June Paik. Her art was purchased by major American museums such as the MoMA, the Guggenheim and the Whitney. She gifted the work Sculpture Integrated (Sandberg Group) to the Stedelijk.

  • scan of several black and white photographs during preparation/opening of exhibition
    Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1962.
  • scan of several black and white photographs during preparation/opening of exhibition
    Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1962.
  • scan of several black and white photographs during preparation/opening of exhibition
    Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1962.

Bauermeister lived in New York until 1971 when she returned to Germany. There, she explored her interests in New Age spirituality, particularly geomancy, the esoteric teaching that explores the relationship between earth energies and their influence on human beings. Mary Bauermeister was active as an artist until well into old age.

Last year (February 2022) Mary Bauermeister sent us a letter in which she described the work she made in the sixties as follows: “What I did was not fitting into what was called Art!”[i]. With the letter she also sent a poem by Willem Sandberg, written in 1961 after a visit to her atelier in Cologne.

1961

several old stairs lead to a long and narrow room

at the other end a window opens on the rhine

-one of the highways of European culture-

a light room

although I can’t remember other windows

along the walls works of mary bauermeister

all different in size and structure

new materials combined with traditional

squares clear, strong and constructive

exhaling light and purity

in the midst the high figure of the artist

the artist and the work are one

                                                  sandberg


Leontine Coelewij
Maart 2023

[i] Karlheinz Stockhausen in the catalog Mary Bauermeister, Stedelijk Museum, 1962

[i] Mary Bauermeister in a letter to Leontine Coelewij, 03.02.2022

Photos are from private album Mary Bauermeister, photographer unknown.