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©
Willi Baumeister, VEGAP, Madrid
Willi Baumeister

Black Phantom

1952
Oil with synthetic resin and sand on Cardboard.
81 x 100 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
461
(
1974.47
)
Not on display
  • Level 2 Permanent Collection
  • Level 1 Permanent Collection
  • Level 0 Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
  • Level -1 Temporary exhibition rooms, Conference room and EducaThyssen workshop
Level 2
Permanent Collection
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 13 15 16 17 18 22 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Recommended start of the visitClassical rooms
1 14th Century. Early Italian Painting 2 15th Century. German and Spanish Painting 3 15th Century. Early Netherlandish Painting 4 15th Century. Italian Painting 5 15th and 16th Centuries. Renaissance Portraiture 6 16th Century. Villahermosa Gallery 7 16th Century. Italian Painting 8 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 9 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 10 16th Century. Netherlandish Painting 11 Tiziano, Tintoretto, Bassano and  El Greco 12 17th Century. Caravaggio and Baroque Painting 13 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 14 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 15 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 16 18th Century. Italian Painting 17 18th Century. Italian Painting 18 18th Century. Italian Painting 19 Classical rooms 20 Classical rooms 21 Classical rooms 22 18th Century. Italian Painting 23 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 24 18th Century. French and English Painting 25 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Scenes of Daily Life and Interiors 26 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 27 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Portrait 28 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 29 19th Century. European Painting. Goya and Romanticism  
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 Recovering the ligth. Restoration of Waterloo Bridge, by André Derain 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms 54 Postpop rooms 55 Postpop rooms 56 Postpop rooms Rodin Exhibition room
Level 0
Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
A B C D E F G H I J Hall Temporary exhibition rooms Access to Permanent Collection Entrance Access to Carmen Thyssen Collection Paseo del Prado Garden
A 17th and 18th Centuries. Old Masters B 19th Century. North American Landscape C 19th Century. French Naturalist Landscape D 19th Century. Impressionism E 19th Century. Monet and North American Impressionism F 19th Century. Gauguin and Postimpressionism G 19th and 20th Centuries. Neo Impressionism and its Wake H 20th Century. Early Avant-gardes I 20th Century. Between the Wars Painting. Cubism, Abstraction and Surrealism J 20th Century. North American Painting and Others • HALL
Level -1
Temporary exhibition rooms, Conference room and EducaThyssen workshop
Temporary exhibition rooms Conference room EducaThyssen Workshop

When the Second World War ended, Willi Baumeister, an artist branded as “degenerate” by the previous regime, became one of the greatest contributors to the rebuilding of the German art scene. His artistic career, which evolved from the earlier Constructivism towards an abstraction that sought to bring to light the primeval, attaching particular importance to the material aspects of painting, can be defined as a perfect synthesis of the two opposing forces in modern art: the rational, intellectualised force derived from Cézanne and Cubism; and the movement linked more to the sphere of fantasy and emotion, which advocates a return to primitive and eternal myths. According to his aesthetic ideas, which were published in 1947 in his essay Das Unbekannte in der Kunst (The Unknown in Art, ) the artist’s chief task was to make visible that which had hitherto inhabited the realm of the unknown: “Art consists precisely in revealing the world to men through the unknown. The nuclear value of art lies in that which is inexplicable, that which is incomprehensible.”

Black Phantom, executed in 1952, belongs to the artist’s final period during which his painting evolved progressively towards planar, abstract and monochrome forms, embodied by the series of Phantoms, Montaru and Monturi. In these works displaying monumental black or white volumes, Baumeister explores the concept of the void, a concept that is always present in his painting. In this case it is an abstract composition based on a biomorphic, weightless, black conglomeration like a phantom floating in space. As in many of the paintings he produced around this time, Baumeister devises a language that imitates materials, making the work a false “painted” collage. The flat surfaces in red, yellow, blue, green and black have ragged edges, as if they had been torn, to create the impression of ripped, and glued paper.

Baumeister was always opposed to the idea of Art Informel as an absolute negation of image, and proposed as an alternative a sort of self-genesis of the vital creative forces. As Michael Semff has pointed out, much of Baumeister’s creation springs from the metamorphosis of the imaginary world. For Willi Baumeister, “the comprehensive power of art in the form of an undying process” lay precisely in this metamorphosis, in this flowering of the unknown.

Paloma Alarcó

20th Centurys. XX - Abstracción en la posguerra europeaPaintingOil with synthetic resin and sandCardboard
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Black Phantom. Fantasma negro, 1952
Black Phantom
Willi Baumeister

©

Willi Baumeister, VEGAP, Madrid

Terms of Use

The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundacion Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes and non-commercial uses.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the images set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from VEGAP (www.vegap.es), or from the corresponding collective management organization in the country where the work is going to be used or, where appropriate, from the holder of their rights in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

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Black Phantom. Fantasma negro, 1952
Black Phantom
Willi Baumeister

©

Willi Baumeister, VEGAP, Madrid

Terms of Use

The Photo Library of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza offers sale and rental service of photographic material of all the works on its Permanent Collection.

To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialized publications, you should contact the Museum's Photo Library by email at the e-mail @email.

To request images or permits for other commercial or advertising uses (general publications, merchandising, exhibitions, audio-visual works, web pages, etc.), you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

The Photo Library and the Museum's Commercial Archive manage the worldwide distribution of images of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza works, as well as their reproduction rights. The applicable rates are calculated based on the nature and proposed use of the images, as well as the availability of the requested image.

Requests for scans or new photographs will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once approved, an additional fee will apply. Re-photographing a work will require a minimum of six weeks to complete.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the photographs set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from  VEGAP (Visual Entidad de Gestión de Artistas Plásticos www.vegap.es) or from the corresponding collective management organizations in the country where the work is going to be used or, where appropriate, from the holder of their rights in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

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