Willi Baumeister Foundation

The  Willi Baumeister Foundation  has the written estate and the larger part of the complete graphic works of the artist Fritz Seitz (1926–2017) in its collection. The foundation maintains the entire collection and supports Prof. Esther Hagenlocher's research and other scholars. 

 

Fritz Seitz –
Work, Preservation and Research

In 1991, Esther Hagenlocher took Professo Fritz Seitz's Color Theory seminar as a student at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart.   

Twenty-one years later, in 2013, Esther Hagenlocher, Professor of Architecture and Interior Architecture at the University of Oregon, meets Professor Klaus Lehmann, former president of the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, to begin talking about her research on "Color in Interior Spaces."   Esther's discourse with Klaus Lehmann led to the thought that these relationships of "Adolf Hölzel – Willi Baumeister – Fritz Seitz" should be examined further. In turn, this leads to her reconnecting with Fritz Seitz.

Esther gains insight into his complex but the little-known body of work, documented by photographs and audio recordings of numerous conversations. 
 
Hagenlocher recognized the exceptional quality, importance, and the need to research and preserve Seitz's work. She documented and cataloged the works and, in consultation with Fritz Seitz, decided to include them in her research. Fritz Seitz meticulously arranged his works in the appropriate spirit of preservation. In 2015, the most significant part of his work was gifted to the Willi Baumeister Foundation. An additional selection of his works joined the State Academy of Fine Arts collection the following year.    

Professor Esther Hagenlocher, who has been working on the academic indexing of Seitz's oeuvre since 2014, is entitled to the right of first publication.