Angelica Bäumer
Austrian art critic and art historian (1932–2025)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Angelica Bäumer (13 January 1932 – 18 July 2025) was an Austrian art critic, art historian, and exhibition curator who specialised in Art Brut and photography. She was also a survivor of the Holocaust.
Angelica Bäumer | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 13 January 1932 |
| Died | 18 July 2025 (aged 93) |
| Burial place | Hietzing Cemetery, Vienna, Austria |
| Alma mater | University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna University of Applied Arts Vienna |
| Occupations | Art critic, art historian, and exhibition curator |
| Employer | Österreichischer Rundfunk |
| Organization | International Association of Art Critics (AICA) |
Early life and family
Bäumer was born on 13 January 1932 in Frankfurt, Hesse.[1] Her father was the German painter Eduard Bäumer [de].[2] Her mother Valerie Bäumer (née Feix) came from a Jewish Viennese family of manufacturers.[2] They met in the 1920s whilst both students of the Swiss painter Johannes Ittenat at the Städelschen Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt.[2][3][4]
Bäumer was the eldest of three children in her family.[1] Her siblings were called Michael and Bettina.[5]
Bäumer's fathers painting were considered "degenerate art" by Nazi Germans[3] and her family's assets were confiscated once the Nazi Party came to power.[6][7] Her maternal grandmother, Ida Feix, was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Poland.[3]
Bäumer and her immediate family fled to Salzburg, Austria,[6] as it was safer there than in Germany until the annexation of Austria in 1938.[3] Bäumer's mother was denounced to the Nazis by a relative in 1943[1] and she was persecuted as a "full Jew."[5] Bäumer and her two siblings were considered "mixed race" and were not allowed to attend school.[1][5] Bäumer, her mother and siblings were forced to wear the yellow Star of David and their passports were stamped with a large "J" for "Jew."[5] Her parents were forced to labour.[3]
Bäumer and her family escaped from Salzburg and fled to the village Grossarl in August 1944,[5] where they were sheltered by Austrian Catholic priest Balthasar Linsinger.[1][3][8] They sheltered in Grossarl, with false identities,[9] and Bäumer's father painted a ceiling fresco in Linsinger's church.[8] They did not have ration cards, but Bäumer and her family managed to survive the war.[10] After the war, the family returned to Salzburg,[5] where Bäumer worked supporting Jewish children who had survived the concentration camps and wanted to emigrate to Israel.[1]
Bäumer spoke about her childhood experiences in World War II as a contemporary witness at live events, schools and for recorded interviews,[10][11][12][13] including for the Witness of Our Time series.[3] She also successfully campaigned for Balthasar Linsinger to be honoured as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem and he was added to the list on 13 April 2011.[9][14][15]
Bäumer married urban planner and architecture critic Paulhans Peters.[15]
Career
Bäumer studied music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, then art history, architecture and tapestry weaving at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.[15][16]
From 1971, worked for the Austrian national broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF),[16] reporting on art and culture and making documentaries.[17] In 1984, she became secretary to the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) politician and then Minister of Education Herbert Moritz [de].[16]
As an art critic, Bäumer specialised in the Art Brut movement and photography.[16] Her feminist work about the Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt and women was translated from German to English by the Czech translator Ewald Osers in 1986.[18][19] She also wrote about Austrian artists including Soshana Afroyim,[20] Otto Mauer [de],[21] Herbert Stejskal,[22] and Irma Rafaela Toledo [de],[citation needed] as well as the Austrian photographer Erich Lessing.[23]
As a curator, Bäumer exhibited with Harald Gfader [de] and Robert Kabas.[citation needed] She was commissioner of Biennial art festivals in Sydney (1988)[15][24] and Puerto Rico (1993, 1995 and 1997).[15][25]
In the 1990s, Bäumer was chairwoman and managing director of the Lower Austrian Cultural Forum, a member of the Lower Austrian Cultural Senate. She was also head of the Austrian editorial team of the German art magazine "neue bildende kunst."[15] Bäumer was also a board member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA)[4][26][27][28] (a UNESCO NGO based in Paris, France) and was President of the Friends' Association for the Vienna Künstlerhaus.[4]
Bäumer was honoured as a Berufstitel Professor [de] in 1988 and was a recipient of the Golden Medal of Honor for services to the state of Lower Austria.[15]
Later life and death
A multi-disciplinary symposium was held in Vienna in November 2012 in honour of Bäumer's 80th birthday.[29]
Bäumer died on 18 July 2025 in Austria, aged 93.[15][16][17][25] She was buried in the Hietzing Cemetery in Vienna, Austria.[30][better source needed]