Mary Bauermeister : In a Fairytale World. House and Garden

Mary Bauermeister (*1934) is regarded as the “mother” of the Fluxus movement. During the 1960s she set out from the United States and conquered the art world with her lens boxes and stone spirals. Her works are represented in many major museums including MoMa and the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. This magnificent volume presents her artistic, enchanted studio not far from Cologne. The photographer Thomas Ko¨ster documented Mary Bauermeister’s property in Ro¨srath near Cologne over many years. The artist designed it over a period of almost 50 years with cottages, towers, circus wagons and her own works as well as those of many others, creating a magic cabinet of curiosities. The result was a unique documentation that shows Bauermeister’s house and garden as the fairy-tale kingdom which her ex-husband, the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, already knew in the 1980s.

Born in Frankfurt am Main in 1934, Mary Bauermeister is widely regarded as the “mother” of the Fluxus movement, which had been developing since the 1950s but was galvanized by a series of gatherings Bauermeister held at her studio near Cologne starting in 1960. In the years that followed, she became world-renowned for her lens boxes and stone spirals, while remaining closely associated with Fluxus. Today Bauermeister’s works are represented in major museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

?This magnificent volume offers a beautiful, illustrated guided tour of Bauermeister’s enchanting studio and garden, where she created the works that made her name. The artist meticulously designed the house and garden over a period of almost 50 years, employing fantastic elements such as cottages, towers, circus wagons, her own art works, and the works of many other artists. The photographer Thomas Ko¨ster documented Bauermeister’s fairy-tale property over the course of many years, resulting in a unique and fascinating publication.