In 1976 the Galerie am Sachsenplatz in Leipzig sold 148 Bauhauser works to the City of Dessau. The objects kept in this distinctive Dessau Collection told the story of teaching and learning, free design, the development of industrial prototypes, artistic experiment and links with the marketplace. And consider its stars across a range of disciplines, including typographer Herbert Bayer, textile artist Anni Albers and sculptor Marianne Brandt. Teachers included artist Wassily Kandinsky and architect Mies van der Rohe.
The Bauhaus Museum Dessau design came from Barcelona, selected from 800+ submissions in a 2015 international competition. The jury wanted a soaring steelwork block in a glass envelope, designed in the Bauhaus spirit and paid for by the Federal and the State Governments in Germany.
RIBA Collections
The foundation stone for the new museum was laid in Dec 2016. The transparent ground floor, the Open Stage museum foyer, serves as an open platform offering temporary exhibitions of contemporary works. The museum is located in the city park in the centre of Dessau, connecting the central business district and the periphery of the park. In Sept 2018, the upper floor and roof area were completed.
The opening of Bauhaus Museum Dessau in Sept 2019 was a highlight of the centenary. And the unique collection, with 49,000 catalogued objects, has been on display. Called Versuchsstätte Bauhaus - The Collection visitors can travel the historical exhibition that follows the history of the school in Dessau. See the furniture, lamps, textiles and works of visual artists. The Arena connects directly to the social understanding of historic Bauhaus as a collective community. An Open Stage as platform for contemporary and temporary exhibitions on the ground floor.
For the school's 100th anniversary year in 2019, art and design museums and galleries around the world have hosted, and will host events. The Moscow, Sao Paulo, Munster, New Delhi, Berlin, Gera, Rotterdam, London, Essen, Tel Aviv and Chicago exhibitions have already ended.
Note the following important exhibitions and conferences that will be continuing into 2020 and beyond:
April–Oct 2019 In Herzogliches Museum in Gotha Germany, the exhibition focused on the life and work of Oskar Schlemmer: Bauhaus and the Path to Modernity, famous for his multi-disciplinary work as a painter, graphic artist, sculptor, stage designer and muralist.
March 2019–Jan 2020 Centred around his Haus Schulenburg in Gera Germany, this exhibition explores the life and work of modernist architect and artist Henry van de Velde. It also features his neo-impressionist paintings and book designs.
April 2019–March 2024 The Neues Museum in Weimar is celebrating the legacy of the school with the early works of modernist Weimar art, and its relationship to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. See Van de Velde, Nietzsche and Modernism.
Sept-Oct 2019 Operating over 3 consecutive weeks in three different cities (Berlin, Dessau and Weimar), the Triennale der Moderne has built a network of modernism.
Architect William Lescaze
High Cross House, Devon, 1932
RIBA Collections
This exhibition highlights include:
A] Drawings and plans by the partnership of Walter Gropius and Maxwell Fry, including the unbuilt Isokon 3 building;
B] Unseen illustrations, sketches and personal photography from the archive of Leslie Martin;
C] Furniture & interiors by Marcel Breuer & Wells Coates;
D] Photographs by ex-Bauhaus student Edith Tudor-Hart;
E] Works by Elizabeth Denby, Sadie Speight, Margaret Blanco-White, Norah Aiton & Betty Scott, important female architects engaged with modernist avant-garde ideals.
F] Archival 1930s films incl László Moholy-Nagy; and
G] Personal correspondence and ephemera that tracked the personal lives of the key protagonists
Oct 2019–Feb 2020 The Royal Institute of British Architects/RIBA in London explores the development of British modernist architecture via the Bauhaus movement. The exhibition focuses on 3 notable Bauhausers: Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Moholy-Nagy, and their impact on Britain. In 1936 Breuer left Germany for England and associated with British architect FRS Yorke, which led him to some design motifs he later used.
Enjoy the article “Bauhaus exhibitions in 2019 celebrating the school’s centenary”.
The foundation stone for the new museum was laid in Dec 2016. The transparent ground floor, the Open Stage museum foyer, serves as an open platform offering temporary exhibitions of contemporary works. The museum is located in the city park in the centre of Dessau, connecting the central business district and the periphery of the park. In Sept 2018, the upper floor and roof area were completed.
The opening of Bauhaus Museum Dessau in Sept 2019 was a highlight of the centenary. And the unique collection, with 49,000 catalogued objects, has been on display. Called Versuchsstätte Bauhaus - The Collection visitors can travel the historical exhibition that follows the history of the school in Dessau. See the furniture, lamps, textiles and works of visual artists. The Arena connects directly to the social understanding of historic Bauhaus as a collective community. An Open Stage as platform for contemporary and temporary exhibitions on the ground floor.
For the school's 100th anniversary year in 2019, art and design museums and galleries around the world have hosted, and will host events. The Moscow, Sao Paulo, Munster, New Delhi, Berlin, Gera, Rotterdam, London, Essen, Tel Aviv and Chicago exhibitions have already ended.
Note the following important exhibitions and conferences that will be continuing into 2020 and beyond:
April–Oct 2019 In Herzogliches Museum in Gotha Germany, the exhibition focused on the life and work of Oskar Schlemmer: Bauhaus and the Path to Modernity, famous for his multi-disciplinary work as a painter, graphic artist, sculptor, stage designer and muralist.
March 2019–Jan 2020 Centred around his Haus Schulenburg in Gera Germany, this exhibition explores the life and work of modernist architect and artist Henry van de Velde. It also features his neo-impressionist paintings and book designs.
April 2019–March 2024 The Neues Museum in Weimar is celebrating the legacy of the school with the early works of modernist Weimar art, and its relationship to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. See Van de Velde, Nietzsche and Modernism.
Sept-Oct 2019 Operating over 3 consecutive weeks in three different cities (Berlin, Dessau and Weimar), the Triennale der Moderne has built a network of modernism.
High Cross House, Devon, 1932
RIBA Collections
This exhibition highlights include:
A] Drawings and plans by the partnership of Walter Gropius and Maxwell Fry, including the unbuilt Isokon 3 building;
B] Unseen illustrations, sketches and personal photography from the archive of Leslie Martin;
C] Furniture & interiors by Marcel Breuer & Wells Coates;
D] Photographs by ex-Bauhaus student Edith Tudor-Hart;
E] Works by Elizabeth Denby, Sadie Speight, Margaret Blanco-White, Norah Aiton & Betty Scott, important female architects engaged with modernist avant-garde ideals.
F] Archival 1930s films incl László Moholy-Nagy; and
G] Personal correspondence and ephemera that tracked the personal lives of the key protagonists
Oct 2019–Feb 2020 The Royal Institute of British Architects/RIBA in London explores the development of British modernist architecture via the Bauhaus movement. The exhibition focuses on 3 notable Bauhausers: Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Moholy-Nagy, and their impact on Britain. In 1936 Breuer left Germany for England and associated with British architect FRS Yorke, which led him to some design motifs he later used.
Enjoy the article “Bauhaus exhibitions in 2019 celebrating the school’s centenary”.
21 comments:
We looked at Bauhaus architects at CAE, but mainly in Germany, Israel and the U.S. I don't remember much in Britain.
Students,
have a look at the British architecture designed by Bauhaus architects in my blogs (which in turn came from my CAE lecture notes):
Bexhill-On-Sea https://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/2009/08/bauhaus-in-britain-chermayeff-and.html and
Hampstead https://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/2014/07/spies-writers-and-artists-in-hampstead.html
But on the whole, you are right. We concentrated far more on other countries.
With an emphasis on new materials and methods, his glass, steel and concrete constructions felt like modernist cathedrals. Factories, apartment blocks and civic buildings across Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands emerged with distinctive floor to ceiling glass windows, flat roofs and simple colour schemes of beige, grey and white alongside everyday items of furniture, from tubular looking armchairs to chess sets to tableware. Gropius wrote ‘The Bauhaus strives to bring together all creative effort into one whole. To reunify all the disciplines of practical art (sculpture, painting, handicrafts and crafts) as inseparable components of a new architecture.’
100 Years of Bauhaus: How Britain Embraced The German Design Movement
Luxury London
excellent thank you. Bauhaus may not have been entirely rebuffed by Britain after all, as you say. "But for Gropius and the other Bauhaus pioneers, their tenure in the Isokon building would be brief. They had all taken relatively lucrative academic positions in the United States by 1937".
When the pics are in B&W, it has a special appeal.
Haddock
Exactly. Bauhaus designs depended on strong geometric lines, a limited range of black-grey-white colours and a minimum of decorative elements. So stark black and white photos reinforced the very qualities that Bauhaus designers stressed.
Hello Hels, An exhibition like this is good because it emphasizes that the new thoughts in design did not apply only to architecture, and the ephemera which is so importantly preserved fills in the gaps about the designers' thoughts, issues and personalities that influence the school as a whole.
--Jim
Parnassus
that is so true. When I did art history at Melbourne Uni, fine art largely meant paintings, architecture and sculpture. If students or professionals wanted to examine any other form of (so called) decorative art, they had to find a specialist in porcelain, gold and silver, furniture, textiles or whatever they were fascinated by.
Bauhaus sorted that out. On every Bauhaus project, all the artists and craftsmen worked together, collectively and equally. (Except for the architect who was *cough* the chair of the group).
Coincidence: I went to a presentation recently in which someone spoke at length about the new Dessau museum. I think I prefer the way you presented it.
When I look at the rigidly ornate architecture of 1880- 1925 (apart from what turned out to be the sideline of Art Nouveau) I always feel someone really needed to invent the Bauhaus look. If it hadn't been done then, something similar would surely have appeared in another guise soon afterwards.
Jenny
the Bauhaus movement started for very specific ideological reasons, in the aftermath of the worst war the world have ever seen. They promoted:
The equality of women
Materials should reflect the true nature of objects
Form/utility follows function, instead of following aesthetic appeal
Use of minimalism i.e linear and geometrical forms
The equal importance of all art forms
Modern mass production techniques, to enable all families could afford Bauhaus arts etc
So yes, if Bauhaus didn't emerge in Germany in 1919, it would have been inevitable in any other centre of modernism and shared ideology.
Hi Hels - I'm not going to be able to get to the Tate exhibition ... but thanks for the note re the RIBA one - I'll get there.
When Lothar Goetz mentioned how he was influenced by Bauhaus ... I think he was born in Weimar and thus could only escape west later on ... it reminded me of some of my dealings with Eastern Europe when working in London.
I'm looking forward to understanding more through the RIBA exhibition ... cheers Hilary
Hilary
Each of the Bauhaus Exhibitions around the world have focused on the aspects of Bauhaus that interested them most. But there was enough in common to give potential visitors the ability to visit some cities and omit others.
I think you will find RIBA very helpful, especially since they have my three favourite architects - Gropius, Breuer and Moholy-Nagy :)
Explore the connections between the progressive Bauhaus art school and the visual arts in Britain in the 1930s. The display at the Tate Modern, that celebrates the centenary of the founding of the Bauhaus, is well reviewed in Books and Boots:
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2019/11/22/the-bauhaus-and-britain-tate-britain/
Nice Post
You provide good information and keep updating. We also have some information.
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Rahul
are you also fascinated with Bauhaus? It dominated my thinking for many years of reading and lecturing.
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Monica
I agree .. international exhibitions have always been important, for the host country and for the overseas visitors. This was as true in the mid 19th century as it is true today.
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Perfect timing, builder :)
I was always very interested in the exhibitions, but I haven't travelled at all since before Covid. Now is the time to start reading again. Thank you.
Come and look at the Bauhaus chair designs in the blog post that was published today.
https://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/2023/01/very-modern-chair-designs-1920-32.html
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When I did my art and architecture courses at uni, I knew a great deal about medieval, renaissance and early modern art schools, but Bauhaus was new and exciting.
When you present the Expo Stand Services exhibition in Berlin these days, do you refer back to Bauhaus, Gropius etc.
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