In the painting Ruhe und Bewegung [Rest and Movement], Willi Baumeister translates the pictorial theme suggested in the title as a play of abstract forms. “Rest” is created by the strict geometry of the forms as well as by their predominantly vertical arrangement in the picture. At the same time, the elements seem to move like shadow images on the light blue background. The floating effect is created by the painterly illusion of different spatial levels. The painting is the first work to be acquired for the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection. The beginnings of the collection were dedicated to early modernism in the South German region, including teachers and students of the Stuttgart Academy such as Adolf Hölzel, Oskar Schlemmer, Ida Kerkovius, and Willi Baumeister.
The painter, graphic artist, stage designer, and author Willi Baumeister is one of the most important representatives of classical modernism of the 1920s and 1930s in Germany. In 1933 he was dismissed from his teaching position and until 1945 he was ostracized as a “degenerate” artist. With his informal painting style of the 1950s, Baumeister also influenced the post-war avant-garde.
