Willi Baumeister (1889-1955) was one of the key figures of abstraction in European post-war art. This volume traces his artistic development from the early 1920s through 50 selected drawings. Even in his later works, his drawings are rooted in the human figure, which gradually evolves into an archaic pictogram. To illustrate the various levels of abstraction, works by other artists are presented for comparison, including those by Juan Gris, Oskar Schlemmer, El Lissitzky, and Fernand Léger, thereby significantly broadening the access to Baumeister's art. Individual works by artists from subsequent generations, such as Philip Guston and A. R. Penck, testify to Baumeister's pioneering ability to formulate figurative art on paper.