Oil Drilling (Industrialization I), 1964, watercolor and pencil on ivory watercolor paper, 30 x 21 cm

Oil drilling (Industrialization I), 1964

At the Baumgarte ironworks, Ruth Baumgarte found her own sources of inspiration during the period of the so-called economic miracle. For a series of calendars from 1952 to 1969, she sketched lifelike scenes in the machine halls and handling facilities, with which the artist "occupied an absolutely special position in West Germany" (Eckhart J. Gillen). The present sheet belongs to a group of six watercolors that were originally intended for the calendar edition of the Eisenwerke Baumgarte of 1965, but were not used.

In this sheet, the worker takes center stage. His gloved hand guides the lever, his eyes cast a scrutinizing glance at the process outside the picture that starts the machinery in the background. Ruth Baumgarte masterfully understands how to build up an immediately tangible tension in the picture through the bold concentration on blue and red and the opposing movement of the figure to the right (hand) and to the left (gaze). The strong colorism of the calendar page series already shows the influence of American Pop Art, popular in the Rhineland since the 1960s.