Swimmers on the Ladder 1929

Willi Baumeister made this painting, Swimmers on the Ladder, in oil paint, and right away I'm struck by how deliberately things fit together and how that reminds me of the way we build things up in a painting. The colors are so crisp and distinct. The blocks of red, blue, and yellow—it's like Baumeister is playing with the primary colors, but in a very controlled way, almost like a diagram. He’s showing us a world built from basic shapes, where everything is essential. It makes me think about the Bauhaus, about trying to find the perfect form, the perfect relationship between elements. Look at the ladder. It's not just a ladder, it's a series of lines and rectangles that create a sense of depth. It’s a game of balance, a conversation between form and function. It's how we, as artists, talk to each other across time, riffing on the same ideas, pushing them further, finding our own way to say something new with the oldest tools in the world.