Mary Bauermeister-Da capo- Works of 60 years

Mary Baumeister (* 1934) was born in Frankfurt/Main. She studied at The Ulm School of Design and at the “Hochschule für Bildende Künste” in Saarbrücken. After her studies she opened a studio in Cologne which soon became a center for Pre-Fluxus art. Among the international artists of different genres like literature, music and visual arts that gathered there were e.g. John Cage, Otto Piene, Arnulf Rainer, Daniel Spoerri and Nam June Paik.
Mary Baumeister’s work involves drawings as well as paintings, but also and especially assemblages and installations. Later in her life she included nature in her work. As early as the 1960s, she attracted attention in Europe and the United States by several prominent exhibitions.
One special encounter was decisive for her life and work: In 1957 she met the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, who became her husband after living in an unorthodox partnership for some years as Stockhausen was still married when they met. In their relationship they valued interacting with each other’s concept of work.
The Mittelrhein-Museum is connected with Mary Baumeister in a specific way: Her first major retrospective took place here in 1972. In the past 40 years, the artist has created a wide-ranging oeuvre and is still actively producing more. Her position as one of the most important German postwar artists has been consolidated in the perception of criticism as well as public.
The current exhibition shows a retrospective overview as well as contemporary works which are presented in public for the first time. The artist creates a large-sized room installation titled “Zuvielisation”, which is a play on words: “Zuviel” means “too much” combined with the last syllables of the word “Zivilisation” meaning “civilization”. For this art work she uses parts of the house’s collection.

Duration of Exhibition: 29th of August – 1st of November 2015
Opening of the Exhibition: Friday, 28th of August 2015, 7 pm