Weimar goes Paris: New exhibition celebrates Bauhaus classics
Timelessness was invented in Weimar. At least a design philosophy that, like no other, stands for furniture and living objects that have endured over the decades, which unfold their effect in the stucco-decorated old building as well as in the high-tech loft with a lift for the convertible.
Because while one has had enough of the wood-panelled 1960s and the psychedelic patterns of the 1970s, the works of the Bauhaus still bear witness to optical 97 years after the founding of this influential school of art and architecture by Walter Gropius and Henry van de Velde timeliness.
So it's hardly surprising that a Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer easily withstands various furnishing updates – new wall paint, a different sofa or carpet. Moving anyway. When the school was founded by 36-year-old architect Gropius in 1919, the cool and no-nonsense design was a real sensation. Next to the massive and ornate furniture of the Art Deco movement, the sleek and pared-down designs seemed like a distant piece of the future. And even today it means recognition when the sentence "That's real Bauhaus!" is uttered about a design.
Even after the (forced) dissolution of the school in 1933, the designs by Johannes Itten, Wassilij Kandinsky and Laszlo Moholy Nagy were never really forgotten. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris will demonstrate how diverse and trend-setting they were and still are from October 19 to February 26, 2017 in the impressive exhibition “The Bauhaus Spirit”.
More than 900 pieces are on display - such as objects, furniture, textiles, drawings and models - which revive the spirit of the Bauhaus. During the tour full of historical references, the visitor slips into the role of a Bauhaus student. Using various workshops, the individual phases of the curriculum are presented, which include, among other things, the preliminary, form, work and construction apprenticeship. A cultural excursion that is not dry at all, in which no one longs for the sign “Exit through the Gift Shop”.
More information: www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr
Photos: Vassily Kandinsky © Center Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN Grand Palais / Philippe Migeat; Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Bauhaus lamp © Center Pompidou, MNAM-CCI,/ Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Jean-Claude Planchet / ADAGP 2016; Marianne Brandt © Bauhaus Archive Berlin / ADAGP 2016; Marcel Breuer © Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, Jean Tholance / ADAGP 2016; Muller Van Severen, 2012 © Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, Jean Tholance
