Mask 4 1936

Willi Baumeister made Mask 4 out of oil paint, and I’m just imagining him making a real mess here. Look at the gray and brown ground and then all these shapes floating on top, like the guy was playing with stencils, but only kinda. I like the thick gooey feel of the medium. The whole painting is built up of these soft, rounded shapes. I wonder if Baumeister felt like he was building a sculpture instead of painting? See how this fits with the wider practice of other painters during this time, like Picasso and Miro, who were also trying to represent forms that looked ancient and modern at the same time? It’s like they were thinking about the deep history of art, and how we can make new forms out of old ideas. This piece reminds me that artists are always in conversation, remixing ideas to imagine new ways of seeing and thinking.