Wind 1950

Willi Baumeister made "Wind" with sweeping gestures in shades of brown, black, and blue on a white background. I can just imagine the act of painting, the studio filled with the smell of oils, the brush loaded with pigment, poised above the canvas. I wonder what Baumeister was thinking when he made this? How did he build up these layered masses with light touches? It looks like he has used thin paint to create the illusion of transparency. It’s as if he's captured the essence of wind through abstract forms, a dance of light and shadow, a movement across the surface. There is a particular gesture in the upper right with three diagonal lines, that feels like a gust of wind tearing through. I know that Baumeister was part of a larger conversation in Europe around abstract and constructivist painting. Artists are always talking to each other, across time and place, inspiring each other. Ultimately painting is an embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, opening itself up to multiple interpretations.