Variation on Eidos I 1938

Willi Baumeister made this, Variation on Eidos I, with oil paint, pushing and pulling the medium around. It’s like he was building up the painting in layers, almost like a relief. The silvery-grey is the ground and out of this, the forms seem to arise. Look at the top: a blue blob with a red dribble—is it a weird thought bubble, or a creature from outer space? Then there’s this big, lumpy green shape, like a landmass. Maybe Baumeister was thinking about the earth, or the primordial soup of creation. I'm guessing he may have been influenced by the surrealists and other abstract painters. You know, all those artists trying to get at something deeper than just what we see with our eyes. It's all very intuitive, I'm sure he was just going with it, letting the painting guide him. And that’s what makes it so interesting: it’s not fixed; it’s a question mark, not a full stop!