Josef Albers and students in a group critique at the Bauhaus Dessau, 1928-29. The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. © Phyllis Umbehr/Galerie Kicken Berlin/ DACS 2012 © Otto Umbehr (Umbo
‘Junge Menschen – kommt ans Bauhaus!’ read a 1929 promotional brochure written by the Swiss architect and second director of the Bauhaus school Hannes Meyer. Now, more than eighty years later, the same slogan has been inscribed above the entrance to London’s Barbican Art Gallery where a new, extensive exhibition surveying the world’s most famous modern art and design school has opened earlier this month. Set among customarily black, red and white walls, the Bauhaus: Art as Life is an impressive showcase (the biggest show dedicated to the 1919-founded school and its masters to be held in the UK for more than four decades) of more than 400 works spanning across the mediums of architecture, product design, furniture, painting, textiles, photography, film and theatre.
Bauhaus: Art as Life; photo by Jane Hobson 2012, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery
‘Loosely chronological and arranged thematically’, the exhibition features some of the most recognisable works by, amongst many, Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, László Moholy-Nagy, Oskar Schlemmer and Gunta Stölzl. Additionally a comprehensive programme of special events including; workshops, talks, walks, film screenings and even a costume party, runs parallel to the exhibition while an experimental, two-week Arts School Lab (2 – 14 July) will open to ‘celebrate the lively spirit of the time.’
3 May – 12 August 2012
Barbican Art Gallery, London
Barbican Centre
Silk Street
London EC2Y 8DS
view ‘Bauhaus: The Originals’ theme on Architonic which presents a comprehensive selection of approved Bauhaus designs which are still or once more in production today
Bauhaus: Art as Life; photo by Jane Hobson 2012, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery
Bauhaus: Art as Life; photo by Jane Hobson 2012, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery
Bauhaus: Art as Life; photo by Jane Hobson 2012, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery
Bauhaus: Art as Life; photo by Jane Hobson 2012, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery
Set of four stacking tables by Josef Albers, c.1927; photo by Jane Hobson 2012, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery
Bauhaus: Art as Life; photo by Jane Hobson 2012, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery
Bauhaus: Art as Life; photo by Jane Hobson 2012, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery
Bauhaus: Art as Life; photo by Jane Hobson 2012, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery
Bauhaus: Art as Life; photo by Jane Hobson 2012, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery
Bauhaus: Art as Life; photo by Jane Hobson 2012, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery
