(New York/Germany, 1934-2023)

Coloured Shadows, 1968-1969, signed verso "M. Bauermeister/March 5th, 1969" and inscribed with title, cleaning and hanging instructions, mixed media construction of canvas applied to wood, painted and carved wood, glass, glass lenses, pen and ink, 41-1/2 x 41-1/2 x 12 in. 

Provenance: Property of the Birmingham Museum of Art sold to benefit the Baker Acquisition Fund

 "Always do what requires the greater courage from you."

- Mary Bauermeister 

One of the luminaries of avante garde art, Bauermeister was also a champion of music, creating a safe environment for musicians in the early 1960s for playing their experimental music. In her obituary for The New York Times by Will Heinrich, (2023), he details her early history he states,

"Explaining how she became a visual artist, Ms. Bauermeister said: 'I was musical, so I could have become a musician, too. But I wasn’t allowed to play music in a minor key - I was considered too young.' She quit the piano at 17, and she stopped writing poetry =which, like the piano, had been a daily practice - at 22. 'But finding explanations for things was something I’ve always done by drawing,' she said, 'and by that I mean drawing and thinking.'"

Her work was collected early on after arriving in New York by the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum, as well as by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington. The intricate details of her work are profound, refusing to fit in a definitive box.