Background
Rudolf Bauer was born on February 11, 1889 in Wyrzysk, German Empire (present-day Wyrzysk, Poland).
Rudolf Bauer was born on February 11, 1889 in Wyrzysk, German Empire (present-day Wyrzysk, Poland).
Bauer’s interest in art began at an early age. In 1905, he left home and entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. Losing interest in academic training, he left the educational institution and supported himself by drawing political cartoons and caricatures, that he sold to magazines and newspapers.
Since 1912, Bauer contributed to the magazine and Gallery "Der Sturm", founded by Herwarth Walden and pivotal to German Expressionism and the international avant-garde. In 1915, Rudolf Bauer participated for the first time in a group show at Walden's gallery and met Hilla von Rebay, with whom he entered on a relationship of many years that was crucial to Bauer's later work.
During the period from 1915 to 1916, Bauer had switched to an abstract pictorial idiom, which was markedly influenced by Kandinsky.
In 1917, 1918, and 1920 Bauer had solo exhibitions at Galerie Der Sturm. Since 1918, he also taught at the "Der Sturm" art school, of which Georg Muche was the director.
From 1921 until 1924, Bauer's painting evolved from an expressionist to a more lyrical abstract style. The compositions became simpler, less biomorphic and more elegant and uplifting, as compared to the expressionistic work from the war-torn teens.
By 1922, Bauer had shown work at about eight exhibitions, mounted by "Der Sturm". In 1927, Bauer had a solo exhibition at the Royal Palace in Berlin.
In 1930, the painter opened a small museum, Das Geistreich ("The Realm of the Spirit"), where he exhibited his own work, as well as that of Kandinsky. Bauer’s work in that period became more sharply focused on geometric forms, circles in particular, beginning with such paintings as Orange Accent (1929-1931) and Tetraptychon II (1930).
Also, the same year, in 1930, Solomon Guggenheim and his wife, Irene, traveled with Rebay to Germany to meet Bauer and Kandinsky. In June 1937, Guggenheim formed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for his collection, with Rebay as its official curator. Guggenheim also bought several of Bauer’s new works and put him on a stipend. Bauer’s life’s work had become completely tied up in the Foundation, and he had been assured he would have a role in running it. This proved quickly not to be the case and Bauer became very upset about the fate of his paintings. He stopped painting and made no further works for the rest of his life.
In 1936, Rebay organised a touring exhibition of non-representational European art that included sixty Rudolf Bauer's oil paintings and watercolours. In 1937, his museum was shut down, and in 1938 the Nazis labeled his work "degenerate" and arrested him. Rudolf was liberated, when Rebay traveled to Berlin from the United States and, using funds from Guggenheim, successfully negotiated his release.
After Rudolf Bauer emigrated to the United States in 1939, his work was exhibited several times at the Guggenheim Foundation before his death in 1952.
Hilla von Rebay was Bauer's partner.