Bluxao 1955

Willi Baumeister created "Bluxao," an abstract painting with vibrant color, toward the end of his career. Baumeister, though associated with the Bauhaus movement, was blacklisted by the Nazis, who deemed his work "degenerate." After the war, he explored the interplay between abstraction and figuration, as seen here. The symbolic figures, rendered in bold colors, hint at forms without fully resolving into them. Consider how the implied spiral and angular shapes suggest a figure in motion. Baumeister's work reflects the challenge of expression in the post-war period, navigating personal memory and collective trauma. He once stated, “Art must not be completely rationalized." "Bluxao" embodies this sentiment. The ambiguous forms and playful composition invite us to explore our own emotional and intellectual responses. The painting becomes a space where abstraction and reality intersect, mirroring the complex experience of rebuilding after destruction.