Africa I 1942

Willi Baumeister made this painting, *Africa I*, with oil on canvas, and you can see the work he put in. I'm really drawn to the way he’s built up the surface here, with all those layers of creamy white paint. It’s almost as if the figures are emerging, shifting slightly, and re-emerging again. Those earthy tones—terracotta, browns, muted greens and blues—they speak of landscape, maybe even of bodies, but definitely of something ancient and elemental. I like how Baumeister’s figures feel both abstract and grounded. I wonder if Baumeister saw himself as some kind of archeologist, brushing away the surface to reveal these shapes. They’re not quite representational, but they definitely carry a kind of symbolic weight. Every artist has a conversation with those that came before, and that call and response sparks new ways of seeing and new paintings. This painting feels open-ended, and like all good paintings it poses more questions than it answers.