Phantom and Yellow Table 1952

Willi Baumeister made "Phantom and Yellow Table" with paint, likely oil or gouache, in the mid-20th century. Just imagine Baumeister hovering over this surface, carefully layering shapes of red, yellow, and black – it’s like watching a puzzle come together, piece by piece. I can almost feel the artist searching for balance, placing that huge dark mass just so, countered by the playful yellow table below. It makes me think about how much trust you have to have in your own process to allow such strange bedfellows to coexist on one canvas. That jagged line? It could be a mountain range, or maybe just a happy accident that Baumeister decided to keep. This piece feels like a cousin to Kandinsky's compositions, but with a German accent. It has a similar interest in pure form and color, yet it's also grounded in something more tangible, like a table we might gather around. Artists build on each other, don't they? It's an ongoing conversation across time. Ultimately, "Phantom and Yellow Table" is a reminder that painting is a place of inquiry, where the only rule is to keep looking and questioning.