Influenced by non-traditionalists Chagall, Miro, and particularly Wassily Kandinsky, German-born Rudolf Bauer (1889-1953) helped pioneer the international avant-garde art world in the first half of the 20th century. He was devoted to free forms and an inspiration to the emerging American abstract artists. A consummate artist, Bauer worked relentlessly even after the Gestapo arrested him in 1938 for his "degenerate" art. In prison, he sketched on bits of paper with pencils.
When business magnate, Solomon Guggenheim was introduced to Bauer's modernistic linear art, he considered Bauer a better artist than Kandinsky and eventually hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design a museum to exhibit collections centered on Bauer's artistic vision.
Yet while prolific and with his paintings selling well, by the end of World War II Bauer walked away from art and into obscurity for 13 years. At 59E59 Theaters, Lauren Gunderson's new three-character play, Bauer, is a fictionalized search for answers about his abrupt retirement. The engine driving the play is a determined expedition into the gossamer artistic spirit against the betrayal of commercialism.
Although the storyline falls into moments of repetition and verbosity, Bill English directs the actors in vibrant performances on the sterile set he designed. Appropriately, in that abandoned dusty space, Rudolf Bauer, depressed, gravely ill, and brooding with inner resentment, waits with his wife, Louise, for a reunion with his former patroness/lover, the charismatic Baroness Hilla von Rebay, the woman he believed betrayed him.
A dazzling glimpse of Bauer and Hilla's once invincible passion is enlivened with shots of humor and psychological insight through some crackling dialogue between Sherman Howard as Bauer and Stacy Ross portraying the free-spirited Hilla. Imperiously clad in a stylish power-red suit, she stings and cajoles Bauer while treating his wife Louise (Susi Damilano) with dismissive disrespect. It was Hilla who first met Guggenheim in the late 1920's, persuading him to become a Bauer collector. She further joined him in planning a museum to display the paintings of Bauer and other abstract artists. Their intimate relationship led to her position as director of the Guggenheim Foundation. It was ten years later when Bauer, not fluent in English, emigrated to the United States in 1939 and met Guggenheim himself. Guggenheim bought him a house in New Jersey, gave him a stipend and hired a maid, Louise. There was talk of a co-directorial position at the Foundation for Bauer. Of course, a price was to be paid for this largesse. Guggenheim and Hilla persuaded Bauer to sign away the rights to his works to the Foundation. What Bauer did not realize was he was also signing away any future works. When he learned this, he refused to paint again.
Bauer fiercely resented Hilla and Guggenheim. Hilla in turn, was furious when he married Louise. After Guggenheim's death in 1949, his estate ousted Hilla from her job at the Foundation, and hundreds of Bauer's art works were relegated to the basement and not displayed when the Guggenheim Museum opened in 1959.
Playing the nurturing Louise, Damilano, concerned with Bauer's fading health and sharing his resentment toward the woman who was once his strongest patron and his passionate lover, persuasively plays the more modest role. Yet both women loved Bauer and urged him to return to art. To this end, facing the last months before his death, Louise had arranged the meeting with Hilla. While Damilano is forthright as Louise, she turns playful, leading the production to a super-animated denouement, with Micah J. Stieglitz' electrifying projections proving that art is freedom.
Commissioned by artistic director Bill English, the San Francisco Playhouse presented the world premiere of Bauer. Though fictionalized, the search for artistry and truth is intriguing, yet the fact remains that only seeing his works would establish Rudolf Bauer's authentic place in the world of art.
