Early life and artistic beginnings

Mary Bauermeister was born in Frankfurt am Main, the second of five children,^[2] to Wolf Bauermeister, a professor of genetics and anthropology, and Laura (Renzi) Bauermeister, a singer.^[3][4] She spent her early childhood in Kiel, before moving to the suburbs of Cologne. During the Second World War, she and her brother Martin lived in the mountains near the border with Austria.^[2] After the divorce of her parents, she lived with her father.^[5]

Bauermeister was artistically influenced in secondary school (1946 to 1954) by her drawing teacher, Günter Ott. She studied in 1954–55 at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm with the architect Max Bill, and in 1955–56 at the Staatliche Schule für Kunst und Handwerk in Saarbrücken with the photographer Otto Steinert.^[5] She settled in Cologne in 1956.^[5][6] In 1957 she met her future husband, the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.^[6]

In 1960, in her studio at Lintgasse 28 in Cologne, she launched a series of gatherings of members of the evolving global artistic movement Fluxus.^[7][8] At her invitation, avant-garde poets, composers and visual artists such as Hans G. Helms, David Tudor, John Cage, Christo, George Maciunas, Wolf Vostell, George Brecht, and Nam June Paik organised unconventional concerts of the "newest music", readings, exhibits, and actions. These activities have been described as "comparatively non-hierarchical exchanges of information across national, disciplinary and age boundaries", contributing in that way to the character of the Fluxus movement which had been developing during the 1950s.^[9][10] The actions earned her the title Mutter der Fluxus-Bewegung (Mother of the Fluxux movement).^[5]

In 1961, she took part in Karlheinz Stockhausen's composition course at the Internationale Ferienkursen für Neue Musik in Darmstadt.^[11] Later that same year she collaborated with Stockhausen in a theatre piece titled Originale (Originals), which was given twelve performances at the Theater am Dom, Cologne, from 26 October to 6 November 1961. Amongst the performers were Bauermeister herself (as The Painter), Paik (Actions), Tudor (piano and percussion), and Helms (The Poet).^[12] In 1962 she had her first solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam with a simultaneous day-long performance of electronic music under Stockhausen's direction.^[5][13]

Residence in New York

Drawn by the vitality of the Pop Art movement, in October 1962 Bauermeister relocated to New York City. In the artistic circles of Pop Art, Nouveau Réalisme, and Fluxus, she maintained friendships with Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Jean Tinguely. In New York Bauermeister enjoyed considerable artistic success. She exhibited regularly at the Galeria Bonino on 57th Street.^[10][5]

On 3 April 1967, in San Francisco, she married Stockhausen, with whom she had two children: Julika (born 22 January 1966) and Simon (born 5 June 1967).^[14] They were divorced in 1972.^[15] She had two younger daughters, Sofie (born July 1972, father David C. Johnson) and Esther (born 1974, father Josef Halevi).^[5][13]

Later life

Bauermeister in 2019

Bauermeister and her son Simon Stockhausen in 2019

In the 1970s, Bauermeister returned to Germany and began to occupy herself with marginal sciences, for example geomancy, the science of energy structures in the earth.^[16] She used the knowledge she garnered from these studies for the planning of gardens, which she implemented for public and private clients throughout the world.^[16]

She lived in Forsbach, part of Rösrath near Cologne,^[10][5] where she made her house a meeting place of artists, with huts and circus wagons in the garden to house young people. It was a place for communication and inspiration, with events and concerts. Over decades, she invited to a monthly meeting on a Sunday, with performances, readings, singing and discussions. She worked closely with the sculptor Hannes Lorenz and with students of the Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences in Alfter.^[10]

On the occasion of her 70th birthday in September 2004, the Cologne Museum Ludwig acquired her 1963 wall installation Needless Needles and arranged a display of the work for several months.^[4] In 2019, Museum Ludwig acquired three more works by Bauermeister, Rundes Wabenbild, Magnetbild Schwarz-Weiss, and the relating 34 sketches Möglichkeiten Serieller Malerei. In 2018 Bauermeister signed an exclusive contract with the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in Chelsea, Manhattan.^[4]

Bauermeister died in Rösrath on 2 March 2023, at the age of 88,^[17][18][19] after a serious illness over several months.^[10]