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Lot Essay
Bauer was born in 1889 in Lindenwald, Germany. Bauer was an avid artist at an early age, and in 1905 he studied briefly at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, but without the support of his family was forced to leave. Between 1910 and 1914 he was able to support himself by doing illustration commissions for magazines. Bauer was initiated into the Galerie Der Sturm circle around 1915, and was exposed to members of Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, such as Franz Marc, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. The latter in particular would have the strongest impact on Bauer's artistic direction into Non-Objective painting.
It was during this time that Bauer met Baroness Hilla von Rebay, a charismatic and eccentric young artist who would go on to become The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's founding director. She almost single-handedly introduced Non-Objective painting to the American public, and through her influence, Mr. Guggenheim became one of Bauer's greatest supporters, collecting almost three hundred canvases by the artist. For his part, Bauer became a de facto co-curator for the Guggenheim's collection of modern art. "Vivian Endicott Barnett, in her essay titled 'Rereading the Correspondance: Rebay and Kandinsky,' confirms that it was Bauer, in fact, who was the true architect of Guggenheim's Kandinsky collection" (S. Lowy, Rudolph Bauer, A Non-Objective Point of View, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, 2007, p. 13).
The present painting was originally created as the leftmost panel of a triptych entitled Symphony (fig. 1), which is emblematic of the geometric style that defined Bauer's oeuvre from late 1925 to the end of his career. Painted circa 1930-1934, the three panels were in the personal collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim by 1940, where they held a prominent place in the sitting room of his bedroom suite at his home, Trillora Court at Sands Point, Port Washington, Long Island (fig. 2). The other two panels remain in private hands.
(fig. 1) Rudolf Bauer, Symphony in Three Movements, Triptych, 1930-1934.
(fig. 2) Photograph of Solomon R. Guggenheim's bedroom at Trillora Court, showing two panels from the triptych, 1940.
It was during this time that Bauer met Baroness Hilla von Rebay, a charismatic and eccentric young artist who would go on to become The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's founding director. She almost single-handedly introduced Non-Objective painting to the American public, and through her influence, Mr. Guggenheim became one of Bauer's greatest supporters, collecting almost three hundred canvases by the artist. For his part, Bauer became a de facto co-curator for the Guggenheim's collection of modern art. "Vivian Endicott Barnett, in her essay titled 'Rereading the Correspondance: Rebay and Kandinsky,' confirms that it was Bauer, in fact, who was the true architect of Guggenheim's Kandinsky collection" (S. Lowy, Rudolph Bauer, A Non-Objective Point of View, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, 2007, p. 13).
The present painting was originally created as the leftmost panel of a triptych entitled Symphony (fig. 1), which is emblematic of the geometric style that defined Bauer's oeuvre from late 1925 to the end of his career. Painted circa 1930-1934, the three panels were in the personal collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim by 1940, where they held a prominent place in the sitting room of his bedroom suite at his home, Trillora Court at Sands Point, Port Washington, Long Island (fig. 2). The other two panels remain in private hands.
(fig. 1) Rudolf Bauer, Symphony in Three Movements, Triptych, 1930-1934.
(fig. 2) Photograph of Solomon R. Guggenheim's bedroom at Trillora Court, showing two panels from the triptych, 1940.