Wachstum der Kristalle I

Wachstum der Kristalle I exemplifies a new theme of painting, the Metaphysische Landschaften, which Baumeister explored in the late forties. Executed between 1946 and 1954, these important works "denote Baumeister's emergence from the gloom of wartime and from his archaic African and Sumerian compostions into the bright light of a new start that filled him with confidence." (op. cit., p. 108) This newly found optimism is accompanied with a new techincal innovation, the comb mark, "which enabled him to modulate the surface, make it vibrate and breathe, with a greater, more intense brilliance through the impact of the light in the furrows." (Ibid., p. 108) As if to humourously underline the origin of the groves on the surface, Baumeister painted a minuscule comb in the upper left hand corner of the painting.