La Cienega Area

German artist Rudolf Bauer helped spearhead the wave of nonobjective art that hit Europe at the beginning of the 20th Century. In the ‘30s his art could be seen alongside Kandinsky’s in Peggy Guggenheim’s museum in New York. When the museum closed in the ‘40s, his works were stored away until recently when several shows in Europe revived interest in the artist.

A current exhibition provides a look at a staunch abstractionist before and after his conversion. Dating from the 1910s are poster like, caricatured figurative drawings show a man of humor and humanity. “Uber Der Wolken,” a gouache-on-paper parody of fashion and feminine vanity, shows a hag-faced vamp with a droopy bustline treading through clouds. In the pen-and-ink “The Bar,” neither gender is spared.

The abstract works--small watercolors and larger oils owe an unavoidable debt to Kandinsky. What strikes us as unique to Bauer is a heavier and more passionate hand. Kandinsky’s forms floated lightly, almost weightlessly, and his lines were airy and fluid. Bauer’s abstract works are built from thick, robust paint and heavy oval forms that scream where Kandinsky’s whispered. (Fiorella Urbinati Gallery, 8818 Melrose Ave., to Oct. 30.).