Mary Bauermeister, Fluxus matriarch, dies at 88

Mary Bauermeister, the German artist known as the "mother of Fluxus," died on March 2, 2023, in Rösrath after a long illness. Born in Frankfurt in 1934, she was a pivotal figure in the European avant-garde, hosting artists like John Cage, Nam June Paik, and George Maciunas in her Cologne studio at Lingstrasse 28, which alongside Yoko Ono's New York loft, served as a birthplace for Fluxus. She collaborated with Karlheinz Stockhausen, whom she later married, at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt. Her own artistic practice included the "lens boxes," glass- or plastic-covered cases with magnifying or shrinking elements over drawings, writings, or found objects, blending Optical Art, objet trouvé, and flux boxes. In the 1970s, she turned to geomancy, using natural materials like sands, stones, and rocks from Sicilian beaches arranged in mandala-like compositions. The author recalls meeting her in 2016 in Bologna at a CUBO Unipol exhibition curated by Angela Memola.