Bauhaus 1919–1933: workshops for modernity

November 8, 2009–January 25, 2010 The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor This retrospective, presented in collaboration with a consortium of the three Bauhaus collections in Germany (Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin; Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau; and Klassik Stiftung Weimar), is the first comprehensive treatment of the Bauhaus at MoMA since 1938 and the first major show in the United States on the subject in decades. With a wide diversity of objects, including examples of industrial design, furniture, graphics, film, photography, book design, weaving, theater, painting, and sculpture, the exhibition will highlight the school's revolutionary ideas of artistic education and production, as well as its enduring influence. Several of the key objects in the exhibition have never been shown in the U.S. Representing an innovative pedagogical approach, works by Bauhaus masters such as Walter Gropius, Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, László Moholy-Nagy, Johannes Itten, and Paul Klee will be joined by little-known student work created in the school's workshops. Other important themes that will be explored in the exhibition and catalogue are the school's strategy of self-promotion, its connection with industrial production and commerce and the question of authorship. After the exhibition is presented at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin in summer 2009 for the ninetieth anniversary of the school's foundation, the show will travel to New York during MoMA's eightieth anniversary year. The exhibition is organized by Barry Bergdoll, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design; Andres Lepik, Curator, Department of Architecture and Design; and Dara Kiese, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art. Website