A striking glass table by renowned German artist Mary Bauermeister has been hailed as an important international find by Hansons Auctioneers.
Bauermeister (1934-2023) was a highly regarded German artist whose work is displayed in some of the most important museums In the world. During the 1970s she worked and exhibited in New York where she formed firm friendships with legendary pop artist Andy Warhol, American painter and sculptor Jasper Johns and many others.
Several museums in the United States honour her creativity including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, the Guggenheim and Brooklyn. Her work has also been exhibited at Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany.
Charles Hanson, owner of Hansons Auctioneers, said: “Bauermeister was a remarkable artist whose work has made a lasting impact. She was a driving force in important artistic circles for decades and played her part in avante-garde ideas which emerged in the 1960s.
“The highly unusual, mixed-media circular table which we have discovered demonstrates Bauermeister’s creative ability and visionary ideas. Her pieces went beyond the norm and created something quite extraordinary. The table brings together dramatic design and nature. It has echoes of the seashore as its base is inset with pebbles picked from a shoreline in Crete.
“It was commissioned by a close friend of Bauermeister. It was completed in 1995, 33 years before Bauermeister died at the age of 88 in March this year. (2023)
“It’s an astonishing work of art by a hugely influential German artist. She was a multi-talented free-thinker whose creative passions encompassed sculpture, drawing, installation, performance and music.
“This is an important find. It will be sought after by collectors and is worthy of a museum. It’s a beautiful, functional and exciting work of art.”
In the 1960s and 70s Frankfurt-born Bauermeister was influenced by Fluxux artists, an international community of artists, composers, designers and poets whose experimental art performances emphasised the artistic process over the finished product. She was also influenced by Nouveau Réalisme, an artistic movement founded in 1960 to explore new ways of perceiving the real. In tandem with American pop art, new realism and Fluxus influenced the avant-garde movement in the 1960s.
Drawn by the vitality of the Pop Art movement and an interest in electronic music, in October 1962 she and her husband, influential composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, moved to New York City. They both prospered and Bauermeister exhibited regularly at the Galeria Bonino on 57th Street.
In 1972, Bauermeister returned to Germany and began to occupy herself with marginal sciences such as geomancy, the science of energy structures in the earth. She used knowledge garnered from these studies to plan gardens, which she implemented for public and private clients throughout the world.
Bauermeister received many awards including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her contributions to Germany’s post-war art scene.
Hansons Auctioneers will offer the table in its November 30-December 1 Fine Art Auction, estimate £20,000-£30,000.
For further enquiries contact Charles Hanson. Email [email protected] or telephone 07725 514855.
