«Rudolf Bauer, in full Alexander Georg Rudolf Bauer (born February 11, 1889, Lindenwald, Germany (now in Poland)—died November 28, 1953, Deal, New Jersey, U.S.), German-born abstract artist whose role in the conception and founding of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum was buried for some 60 years after he had a falling-out with Guggenheim. As a result of the same incident, Bauer’s own colourful geometric paintings also remained largely out of the public eye until the early 21st century.
Bauer’s interest in art began at an early age. He left home in 1905, without the support of his family, and enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts, Berlin-Charlottenburg. Losing interest in academic training, he left school and supported himself by drawing political cartoons and caricatures that he sold to magazines and newspapers. The small income he earned in this fashion allowed him to pursue his own art. He experimented with both representational and nonrepresentational modes of expression, including Impressionism and Expressionism. In 1915 he joined Der Sturm, a circle of avant-garde artists such as Wassily Kandinsky who were affiliated with Herwarth Walden’s Galerie Der Sturm. Bauer began exhibiting frequently with them, teaching in Walden’s Sturmschule and writing for his magazine. It was at that gallery in 1916 that Bauer met Hilla Rebay, a German baroness and artist. Rebay immediately became the greatest champion of his work, and the two began a nearly three-decade-long on-and-off relationship...»........More