With “Farbe! Farbe!” (Color! Color!), the Waldfrieden Sculpture Park in Wuppertal is presenting an exhibition on the painters Willi Baumeister, Oskar Schlemmer, and Franz Krause from September 12, 2026, through January 3, 2027. The exhibition sheds new light on a nearly forgotten chapter in art history. At its heart are some 160 test panels from the Wuppertal-based paint factory Dr. Kurt Herberts & Co., on which the three artists conducted experiments in painting techniques between 1937 and 1944. Baumeister and Schlemmer had been dismissed from their teaching positions in 1933; under the Nazi regime, their art was deemed “degenerate art,” and in 1941, further bans on painting and exhibiting were imposed. Under the patronage of the paint manufacturer, chemist, and art collector Kurt Herberts, the so-called Wuppertal Working Group was formed, in which industrial paints, surfaces, material effects, and modern painting techniques were explored experimentally.
The exhibition traces these paint experiments back to a particularly fitting location: the grounds of the former Villa Waldfrieden, which Herberts had built by Franz Krause after the war and which is now part of the sculpture park initiated by Tony Cragg. The panels on display combine art, research, and material studies: paint was dripped, made to flow, and worked with fingers, tools, or additives such as sand. This results in surfaces that oscillate between technical experimental setups and free pictorial exploration and can today be interpreted as early precursors of Informel.
Services
- Admission to the Waldfrieden Sculpture Park
- Admission to the exhibition “Color! Color!”
