Original Bauhaus. The Centenary

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The Bauhaus existed for only 14 years in Germany, but for 100 years its ideas have now been passed on and its products relaunched, imitated and further developed. Marking the centenary of the Bauhaus’s founding, the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung’s exhibition at the Ber-linische Galerie is presenting famous, familiar and forgotten Bauhaus originals and recounting the history behind the objects. Around 1,000 exhibits will be on display: art and design from the Bau-haus-Archiv’s collection, exceptional loans from international collections and artistic positions which take a new look at the Bauhaus legacy.
On the basis of 14 key objects, the exhibition will develop 14 case histories: How did the woman sitting on the tubular-steel chair become the most famous anonymous figure from the Bauhaus? Does the Haus am Horn in Weimar have a secret twin? Why have Marianne Brandt’s tea infusers which were created as prototypes for industrial production always remained one-of-a-kind pieces?

“original bauhaus” sheds light on how unique work and series, remake and original are inseparably linked in the history of the Bauhaus. This is because Bauhaus artists did not see art and technology as opposed to each other. Instead, they used technical innovations to create exceptional works of art, and they took serial production into account from the moment they began drafting their de-signs. Today there have been almost 100 years of responses to the Bauhaus, as compared to 14 years of Bauhaus production. Reproductions, re-editions and remakes have made the Bauhaus the 20th century’s most influential school of architecture, design and art.

The centenary exhibition by Berlin’s Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung in cooperation with the Berlinische Galerie is supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe and the German Federal Cultural Foundation.