Recommended Reading: A Book List on The Bauhaus School

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  Silvana Editoriale Josef Albers Recent exhibitions and publications on Josef Albers (1888–1976) have established this influential artist as a true Renaissance man of modernism--a painter, furniture designer, glass artist, writer, pedagogue and even album cover designer. Published on the occasion of the first major retrospective of Josef Albers in more than 20 years, and drawing on a wealth of information from the Albers archive, this volume consolidates this broad perspective, covering the full scope of Albers’ achievement. The artist’s career on both sides of the Atlantic is documented here, from his Weimar Bauhaus beginnings to his tenure as a teacher at Black Mountain College, to his years at Yale University and his considerable influence as a painter and theorist. The catalogue reproduces nearly 200 works, including 12 works in glass produced between 1921 and 1932; nearly 30 photographs and photocollages, many of which are previously unpublished; a selection of woodcuts and gouaches, and several items . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Marco Pierini, Nicolas Fox Weber. Pbk, 9.75 x 11.5 in. / 288 pgs / 185 color. Publication Date: 3/31/2012 List Price: US $55.00

  La Fábrica László Moholy-Nagy: The Art of Light An artist and thinker of astounding energy and ability, László Moholy-Nagy was a true world citizen of the early twentieth century, an ambassador-at-large for Constructivism, Suprematism, Dada and the Bauhaus. He brought the same Constructivist optimism to every medium he tackled, from plexiglass and light sculpture to typography to his photographic experiments in color to his Suprematist canvases, his influential pedagogy at the Bauhaus and at the Institute of Design in Chicago. Moholy-Nagy's concept of the arts as a totality, his pedagogy and his confidence in the new industrial culture that would level distinctions between art and craft led him into all fields of creative production. The ultimate modernist Renaissance man, Moholy-Nagy was prolific in so many realms that his detractors inevitably charged him with dilettantism. This accusation ignores his very real innovations in photography--for example his photograms--and light sculpture, as well as the fact that the artist's aims possessed a . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Hattula Moholy-Nagy. Text by Oliva María Rubio, Vicenzo Vitiello, Hubertus von Amenluxen, Hattula Moholy-Nagy, Frans Peterse, Oliver A.I. Botar, Jeanpaul Goergen. Clth, 8.75 x 10.75 in. / 256 pgs / illustrated throughout. Publication Date: 9/30/2010 List Price: US $55.00

  Kerber The Bauhaus at the Newsstand Die Neue Linie 1929-1943 Between 1929 and 1943, an outstanding new lifestyle magazine called Die Neue Linie (“The New Line”) was published by Beyer Press in Leipzig. No other publication in this period was so consistent in bringing avant-garde typographic ideas to a mass audience, as leading graphic designers from the Bauhaus, including László Moholy-Nagy, Umbo and Herbert Bayer, steered the look of the magazine, whose contents combined fashion, literature, graphic design and art. Unembellished fonts, dynamic diagonals and dramatic use of photomontage were key to the journal's striking appearance. Its authors included Walter Gropius, Aldous Huxley, Gottfried Benn and Thomas Mann; even the advertising pages, designed by Bauhaus veterans Herbert Bayer and Kurt Kranz, were always attractively composed. Despite widespread media conformity during the Nazi era, strangely Die Neue Linie was largely spared the regime's sanctions. The Bauhaus at the Newsstand illustrates the turbulent times in which the magazine appeared, reproducing spreads, statements, articles, . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Patrick Rössler. Pbk, 9.75 x 13.5 in. / 160 pgs / 163 color / 90 b&w. Publication Date: 1/31/2010 List Price: US $46.50

  The Museum of Modern Art, New York Bauhaus 1919-1933 Workshops for Modernity The Bauhaus, the school of art and design founded in Germany in 1919 and shut down by the Nazis in 1933, brought together artists, architects and designers--among them Anni and Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feininger, Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, Lilly Reich, Oskar Schlemmer, Gunta Stölzl--in an extraordinary conversation on the nature of art in the industrial age. Aiming to rethink the form of modern life, the Bauhaus became the site of a dazzling array of experiments in the visual arts that have profoundly shaped the world today. Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity, published to accompany a major multimedia exhibition, is The Museum of Modern Art's first comprehensive treatment of the subject since its famous Bauhaus exhibition of 1938, and offers a new generational perspective on the twentieth century's most influential experiment in artistic education. Organized in collaboration with the three major Bauhaus . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Barry Bergdoll, Leah Dickerman, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Brigid Doherty, Hal Foster, Charles W. Haxthausen, Andreas Huyssen, Michael Jennings, Juliet Kinchin, Ellen Lupton, Christine Mehring, Detlef Mertins, Marco De Michelis, Peter Nisbet, Paul Monty Paret, Alex Potts, Frederic J. Schwarz, T'ai Smith, Adrian Sudhalter, Klaus Weber, Christopher Wilk, Matthew S. Witkovsky. Clth, 9.5 x 12 in. / 328 pgs / 510 color. Publication Date: 12/11/2009 List Price: US $75.00

  Hatje Cantz Bauhaus Conflicts 1919-2009 Controversies and Counterparts From its founding in 1919, the function and identity of the Bauhaus was mobilized by warring factions, as it passed through the guiding hands of its three directors (the apolitical Walter Gropius, the Communist Hannes Meyer and the progressive Mies van der Rohe). Even beyond the well-known controversies that arose between colleagues during the heroic Bauhaus years, the reception and legacy of the various Modernist icons associated with the Bauhaus led to dispute: Socialists, Communists, Nazis, Stalinists, Capitalists, Cold Warriors, student revolutionaries in the 1960s and later dissidents, all have created their own image of the Bauhaus. Bauhaus Conflicts 1919-2009 examines the critical reception of the legendary school, its teachers, students and pedagogical philosophy and the battles over its legacy that continue to this day. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Philipp Oswalt. Text by Gerda Breuer, Magdalena Droste, Jörn Etzold. Pbk, 5.5 x 8.25 in. / 304 pgs / 31 b&w. Publication Date: 1/31/2010 List Price: US $30.00

  Hatje Cantz Bauhaus A Conceptual Model One of Walter Gropius' guiding principles in founding the Bauhaus was that "design is neither an intellectual nor a material affair, but simply an integral part of the stuff of life, necessary for everyone in a civilized society." As a result of this ethos, Bauhaus artists and designers experimented freely with everything from painting to furniture, producing countless masterpieces in many genres. This comprehensive volume takes stock of the Bauhaus' output by highlighting 68 projects, with a particular focus on neglected aspects of the school's legacy. A different author is assigned to respond to each work, creating an inventory of celebrated and lesser-known works that helps the reader to tangibly cohere the Bauhaus' daunting achievements. Marking the ninetieth anniversary of the school's founding, this comprehensive volume, with nearly 400 color illustrations, is made possible through the collaborative efforts of three institutions: the Bauhaus-Archiv Museum of Design in Berlin, Dessau's Stiftung Bauhaus . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Michael Siebenbrodt, Jeff Wall, Klaus Weber. Hbk, 11.75 x 10.5 in. / 376 pgs / 236 color. Publication Date: 11/30/2009 List Price: US $60.00

  Jovis Bauhaus Dessau: Architecture-Design-Concept Walter Gropius's Bauhaus Dessau was, from 1925 to 1932, the headquarters of the famous Bauhaus School of Design. After a dozen years of National Socialist use and then half a century's worth of restoration, it is now a UNESCO world cultural-heritage site, attracting some 80,000 visitors a year who seek the roots of twentieth century Modernism. This is the first book of photographs to document Gropius's masterpiece since its renovation, and it features more than 110 black-and-white images of the building and its wide range of architectural and artistic textures. It illustrates its history, its architectural elements and the interior design created for it by the Bauhaus artists, as well as its functions then and since: Bauhaus Dessau describes the work carried out in the former workshops and their most important products. For its original denizens--and again, at last, for those who visit today--the architecture, design and philosophy of the Bauhaus . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Kirsten Baumann. Flexi, 8 x 11 in. / 144 pgs / 78 color / 4 b&w. Publication Date: 7/1/2007 List Price: US $35.00

  Hatje Cantz Bauhaus: Art to Hear Series A Conceptual Model About 35 major works from the twentieth century's most successful school of design are featured on this original audio and book tour of the show, as part of Hatje Cantz's educational and informative Art to Hear series. The companion volume features full-color illustrations of each of the selected classic Bauhaus works of art and craft, that provide a perfect introduction to the achievements of this extraordinary institution. To celebrate the ninetieth anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus, a large exhibition has been organized by three of the most important Bauhaus institutions in Germany: the Bauhaus Archiv Museum of Design in Berlin, the Stiftung Bauhaus in Dessau and the Bauhaus Museum of the Klassik Stiftung in Weimar. This exhibition has prompted the re-evaluation of the history and influence of the art school upon which this guide is based. . . . . [see book details]

  Hbk, 8.75 x 8.75 in. / 48 pgs / 46 color / Audio CD. Publication Date: 11/30/2009 List Price: US $30.00

  Jovis Icon of Modernism: The Bauhaus Building Dessau Edition Bauhaus Vol. 24 The Bauhaus building in Dessau, Germany, is not just an Icon of Modernism but an international media star: ever since December 4, 1926, when Walter Gropius dedicated this building for his world-famous school of design, hundreds of magazines, books, postcards and even advertising campaigns have imprinted its image in people's minds. Of late the Bauhaus building has come to be seen as somewhat of an aging star, but on this, its 80th anniversary, its long restoration process has finally come to an end. This volume discusses the building's undiminished capacity to fascinate across three chapters--Architecture, Images and Monument--exploiting recent findings in the history and theory of architecture as well as outcomes from the renovation of the complex. Another section deals with the impact of the Bauhaus building's iconic image, while a flip-book gives a tour of the edifice. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Walter Prigge. Paperback, 6.5 x 9 in. / 144 pgs / 70 b&w. Publication Date: 4/1/2007 List Price: US $29.95

  Jovis Umbauhaus Updating Modernism Should the Director's House Gropius in Dessau, a masterpiece of Modernism, be rebuilt? Should an attempt be made to continue the traditions of Bauhaus? What role do modern principles play in today's architecture? What can be expected from alternative approaches such as manipulation or an entirely new design? These and other questions are examined here--through numerous black and white images and two DVDs--in order to continue the debate concerning the Director's House that was destroyed during the Second World War. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Matthias Hollwich and Rainer Weisbach. Paperback, 6.5 x 9.5 in. / 144 pgs / 185 color. Publication Date: 3/15/2005 List Price: US $29.95

  Jovis Theater at the Bauhaus Edition Bauhaus Vol. 21 While theater isn't as widely associated with the Bauhaus as some other genres, the theater workshop at the Bauhaus was a catalyst in Weimar and Dessau performing arts. Eventually, its ideas were adopted internationally, including the use of color and light as meaningful elements of a dramatic production, new relationships between figure and space, and a move away from the fourth-wall stage. Today, the robust theater component of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation's work includes house productions, guest appearances, productions and workshops, and successful revivals of the great Bauhaus festivals. The Theater at the Bauhaus continues to work within the exciting, conflicting spectrum of architecture and city, body and space, performing arts and design, and this book presents its key issues and concepts, along with a chronological survey of important periods and events. An accompanying DVD shows excerpts from works developed for the Theater at the Bauhaus in Dessau since 2000. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Marie Neumllers and Burghard Duhm. Paperback, 6.5 x 9.5 in. / 272 pgs / 40 color and 80 b&w. Publication Date: 9/15/2006 List Price: US $35.00

  Jovis The Path of Modernism From the World Heritage of Breslau to That of Dessau, The Architecture, 1900-1930 This architectural guide beats a path from Breslau to Dessau to conduct the reader on a tour of the World Cultural Heritage highlights of Bauhaus and German Modernist architecture, from the Centennial Hall and the Bauhaus Dessau building to the numerous highlights in between, and taking in such cities as Görlitz, Dresden-Hellerau, Leipzig and Chemnitz. Along the way we encounter all of the great German Modernist architects, from Hans Poelzig and Henry van de Velde to Heinrich Tessenow, Richard Riemerschmid, Hans Scharoun, Erich Mendelsohn and Walter Gropius. An overview of World Cultural Heritage Bauhaus architecture, the focus of this guide is also on the cities themselves, and on the progressive building councilors who were among the pioneers of European urban development, initiating top-quality housing schemes for the masses, and commissioning these architects to redesign the face of Germany's urban architecture for a new era. . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Gert Kähler. Pbk, 6.5 x 12 in. / 160 pgs / 250 color. Publication Date: 12/31/2009 List Price: US $28.00

  Hatje Cantz László Moholy-Nagy: The Photograms Catalogue Raisonné László Moholy-Nagy was one of the Bauhaus' most influential teachers; his photographic skills, as well as his writing on the subject, helped to secure the medium's integral place in modern art. One of Moholy-Nagy's most notable contributions was his extensive exploration--from 1922 through 1943--of the aesthetic possibilities of the photogram (he coined the term). These ghostly traces of objects placed on photographic paper during exposure are part of a prolific legacy that included painting, sculpture and stage design. Moholy-Nagy's photograms have become emblematic of the medium, though they have yet to be fully critically explored. This well-illustrated catalogue raisonné is the first to feature all of his known photograms--nearly 450--in chronological order. This exhaustive volume examines the artistic, technical and biographical circumstances under which the works were created, places them in relation to other parts of Moholy-Nagy's practice and analyzes selected pieces at length. László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) taught at the Bauhaus for . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Hattula Moholy-Nagy, Renate Heyne, Floris M. Neusüss. Text by Herbert Molderings. Clth, 9.75 x 11.75 in. / 312 pgs / 48 color / 568 duotone. Publication Date: 1/31/2010 List Price: US $120.00

  RM/Fundación de Arquitectura Tapatía Luís Barragán/The josef and anni Albers Fou Josef Albers: Homage to the Square Influential teacher, writer, painter and color theorist Josef Albers was the first Bauhaus student to be asked to join the faculty. By 1933, when the Nazis forced the school to close, Albers had become one of its best-known artists and teachers. Having migrated with his wife Anni to the U.S., where he taught at Black Mountain College and at Yale, Albers began to experiment with the optical effects of simple color combinations. The experimentation blossomed into a lifelong obsession that would culminate in his best-known series of paintings, Homage to the Square, in which he painted several differently-colored squares within larger squares in order to illustrate his theory that alterations in environment, shape and light would produce changes in color. This edition contains impeccable reproductions of Albers' famous series, which beautifully illustrate the artist's primary thesis, that the discrepancy between visual information received by the retina and what the mind perceives . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Nicholas Fox Weber, Brenda Danilowitz. Text by Edgardo Ganado Kim, Juan Palomar Verea. Slip, Hbk, 9.5 x 9.5 in. / 52 pgs / 13 color / 43 duotone. Publication Date: 12/31/2009 List Price: US $50.00

  RM/The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation The Prints of Anni Albers: Catalogue Raisonné Catalogue Raisonné Anni Albers (1899-1994) was one of the twentieth century's greatest textile pioneers, and a versatile artist/craftswoman who could turn her hand with ease to jewelry, writing or printmaking. Of her work in printmaking, American audiences had a glimpse when the Brooklyn Museum organized a survey in 1977. Several years previously, in 1963, Albers had visited the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles, and was immediately attracted to the printing process and the potentials of lithography. Over the next 20 years, she created a series of prints that translated her textile innovations and her Bauhaus sensibility into this medium, introducing Mexican colors into her palette and exploring new lithography techniques, offset printing, photographic processes and silkscreen. Now, RM Verlag and The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation have collaborated on a catalogue raisonné of these prints, creating at last a definitive collection of this extremely significant and previously underdocumented portion of Albers' output. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Nicholas Fox Weber, Brenda Danilowitz. Clth, 9.25 x 12.25 in. / 200 pgs / 200 color / 30 b&w. Publication Date: 10/31/2009 List Price: US $70.00

  Wasmuth Walter Gropius With Adolf Meyer: Haus Auerbach Haus Auerbach tells the story of an almost forgotten building: the private residence designed for Jewish scientist Felix Auerbach and his wife Anna. Built in 1924, the Auerbach House is one of only six private homes that Walter Gropius ever constructed. Here Gropius realized for the first time his famous Baukastenprinzip,” which combines the highest level standardization with the greatest possibilities for variation. The Auerbach House is thus one of the most important examples of early era Neues Bauen.” Furthermore, it is the only Gropius building with an original colored interior: all of the inside walls and windows were colored based on the ideas of Alfred Arndt, also a member of the Bauhaus. The house, which has always been well conserved, was recently restored to better match its original appearance. . . . . [see book details]

  Essays by Barbara Happe and Martin S. Fischer. Preface by Annemarie Jaeggi. Hardcover, 6.5 x 9.5 in. / 168 pgs / 90 color. Publication Date: 3/2/2004 List Price: US $35.00

  Hatje Cantz In Paul Klee's Enchanted Garden Many call Paul Klee a magician. He was no such thing; he did not conjure up anything. He was a creator who found beauty in the world around him, wrote one of Klee's students from the legendary Bauhaus. The Swiss-born painter, like many of his contemporaries--Kandinsky among them--was interested in Transcendentalism and found nature an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Much of his oeuvre depicts gardens and parks--from real locations such as the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz in Germany or the Tunisian Hammamet to fantastic, fragmentary vegetal abstractions. An amateur naturalist, Klee would often collect flowers and leaves on walks, to later identify and store in an herbarium. With more than 200 color illustrations, this publication explores the spiritual, scientific and aesthetic manifestations of Klee's engagement with nature, revealing a complex approach, by turns coolly analytical and completely subjective. Born in 1879, Paul Klee belonged to the Munich-based proto-Expressionist group Der Blaue . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Michael Baumgartner, Arnfinn Bř-Rygg, Richard Hoppe-Sailer, Ole-Henrik Moe, Osamu Okuda. Hardback, 7 x 9.75 in. / 200 pgs / 220 color / 20 b&w. Publication Date: 8/1/2008 List Price: US $50.00

  Guggenheim Museum Kandinsky No other artist epitomizes the character of the Guggenheim Museum quite like Vasily Kandinsky, who is closely linked to the history of the museum and has been collected in depth in the permanent collection since its founding. Kandinsky accompanies the first full-scale retrospective of the artist's career to be exhibited in the United States since 1985, when the Guggenheim culminated its trio of groundbreaking exhibitions of the artist's life and work in Munich, Russia and Paris. This presentation of nearly 100 paintings brings together works from the three institutions that have the greatest concentration of Kandinsky's work in the world: the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; as well as significant loans from private and public holdings. This traveling exhibition's final iteration at the Guggenheim Museum will investigate both Kandinsky's formal and conceptual contributions to the course of abstraction in the . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Tracey Bashkoff. Text by Vivian Endicott Barnett, Christian Derouet, Matthias Haltemann, Annegret Hoberg, Gillian McMillan. Hbk, 10 x 10 in. / 320 pgs / 260 color. Publication Date: 10/31/2009 List Price: US $55.00

  Poligrafa Vasily Kandinsky As a painter and a teacher, and co-founder of the Blaue Reiter, the Russian-born artist Vasily Kandinsky has played a leading role in the unfolding of modern art. Greatly influenced by music-- "music is the ultimate teacher," he once averred--Kandinsky painted his first abstract compositions during his Bavarian period (1906-1914), and these riotously musical canvases, with their intense symphonies of color and wildly jostling forms, have influenced successive generations of abstract artists to the present day. The Swiss artist, designer and founder of Concrete art, Max Bill, whose excellent preface opens this perfect introduction to the world of Kandinsky, was a student at the Bauhaus during the artist's tenure there, and was the editor of the first edition of Kandinsky's collected writings. His inclusion in this volume adds a useful historical perspective, while Carola Giedion-Welcker contributes a concise essay on the artist. . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Carola Giedion-Welcker, Max Bill. Hbk, 8 x 11 in. / 96 pgs / 74 color. Publication Date: 7/31/2009 List Price: US $25.00

  Hatje Cantz Ludwig Mies van der Rohe & Lilly Reich: Furniture and Interiors Businessman and art collector Hermann Lange kept an especially close friendship with architect Mies van der Rohe and the interior designer Lilly Reich, regularly sharing family, friends and each other's company. Between 1927 and 1930, this mutually energizing association resulted in collaborative structures such as Lange's own home, the famous Haus Lange in Krefeld, and the "Crous" apartment designed for Lange's eldest daughter and her husband in Berlin--the decor and furnishings of which the couple took with them to all of their later apartments, even into the 1990s--down to the original bell plate. It is worth noting that van der Rohe did not successfully develop any contemporary furniture before or after his 13-year collaboration with Reich. This volume is the first to present many of van der Rohe's and Reich's furniture works, as well as the original decor from Haus Lange, now a museum, thus providing new insights into the fruitful . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Christiane Lange. Hardcover, 8.5 x 11 in. / 208 pgs / 86 color / 37 b&w. Publication Date: 6/1/2007 List Price: US $55.00

  Poligrafa Mies van der Rohe: Objects and Furniture Design German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) is without doubt one of the pioneering masters of Modern architecture: The contemporary cityscape betrays his influence at every turn. Equally significant, though smaller in scale, are his adventures in furniture design. Like any good architect, Mies knew that architecture and furniture inevitably slip into dialogue and affect one another (he brought his knowledge of recent industrial technologies to bear on many of the chairs and tables he produced) and consequently, his earliest designs, beginning in the mid-1920s, were conceived for specific interiors. At first furniture design seemed more daunting than architecture: "There are endless possibilities and many problems--the chair has to be light, it has to be strong, it has to be comfortable. It is almost easier to build a skyscraper than a chair," he once declared. But Mies soon found novel ways to marry traditional luxurious fabrics and leathers with contemporary . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Patricia de Muga, Laura G. Hintze, Sandra Dachs. Hardback, 6.5 x 8.25 in. / 128 pgs / 180 color. Publication Date: 9/30/2010 List Price: US $30.00