Monturi 6 White Ellipse
| Artist | Willi Baumeister (German, 1889–1955) |
|---|---|
| Title | Monturi 6 White Ellipse |
| Date | 1953 |
| Medium | Oil and sand on masonite |
| Dimensions | Overall: 39 x 51 in. (99.1 x 129.5 cm) Framed: 40 3/8 × 52 7/16 × 1 3/4 in. (102.6 × 133.2 × 4.4 cm) |
| Credit Line | Gift of James and Marvelle Adams in honor of William Lowe Bryan, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 57.31 |
| This artwork is currently off display. You may be able to see this artwork by filling out an art viewing room request. | |
An abstract painting of a white ellipse with overlapping fields of yellow, black, tan, and orange at its borders. The background is a muted, neutral color and there are other colorful lines and forms along the border of the primary shape.
A leading modernist artist in Weimar Germany, Willi Baumeister was dismissed from his professorship at the art academy in Frankfurt when the Nazis came to power in 1933, and had to support himself by working in a paint factory during the Third Reich. After World War II, Baumeister was appointed professor at the Stuttgart academy, and became a member of Zen 49, a small group of German artists devoted to developing abstraction in the late 1940s. This painting is from his Monturi series, which is characterized by large white forms that contrast with the predominantly black forms of Baumeister’s related Montaru series, suggesting the artist’s interest in evoking contrasts and oppositions in his work.
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
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"Monturi 6 White Ellipse | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=57.31