The Bauhaus & the U.S.

Bauhaus & The US

Here, you'll find a timeline of events surrounding Bauhaus in the U.S., background articles on Bauhaus members who emigrated to the U.S. and general information on Bauhaus. 
A project on the occasion of the Bauhaus centennial 2019, in the framework of the Year of German-American Friendship.

Members of the Bauhaus who emigrated to the U.S.

After the Bauhaus school was shut down by the Nazi regime, a lot of the teachers and representatives of Bauhaus emigrated to the U.S. – we take a look at some individuals and some of their work in the U.S.


Anni Albers winding a bobbin at Black Mountain College, 1941 Photo courtesy of Claude Stoller

Anni Albers in the US
From Weimar to Black Mountain – the Afterlife of the Bauhaus Textile

In 1933, the artist Anni Albers left Germany for the US, where she was invited to teach at at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina.


Objects from the Busch-Reisinger Museum’s Bauhaus collection installed in the exhibition “The Bauhaus and Harvard”, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Mass. © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The Ultimate Odd Couple
How Harvard Became a Center for Bauhaus in the United States

Of the many places Bauhaus artists flourished after leaving Germany, Harvard University might be the most unexpected – after all, the two schools couldn’t be more different.


Excerpt of a photo of members of the TAC on a sculpture by Richard Lippolt, Graduate Center, Harvard University (around 1950) Photo of members of the TAC (excerpt); courtesy of the Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin

A New Beginning
Walter Gropius and “The Architects Collaborative”

After emigrating in 1937, Walter Gropius (1883-1969) was able to pursue a second major career in the US as an architect and as a teacher. Remaining active well into old age, he ran an internationally successful firm of architects in Boston and Cambridge: “The Architects Collaborative” – or TAC for short. 


Gropius House, Lincoln (exterior north elevation spring) © Historic New England

A New England “antiquity”
The Gropius House in Lincoln, Massachusetts

Walter Gropius built the Gropius House as his family home in Lincoln, Massachusetts, in 1938, after he had accepted a teaching position at Harvard Graduate School of Design in Architecture.



Luftwerk on Mies van der Rohe: Reinterpreting Space Through Light and Color

On June 28, Iker Gil (MAS Context) spoke with German-American artist duo Luftwerk about their works. In the Q+A session that followed the artist talk, Ivan Blasi (Fundació Mies van der Rohe), John McKinnon (Elmhurst Art Museum/McCormick House) and Scott Mehaffey (Farnsworth House) were available to answer questions about the Mies van der Rohe structures in their care.
On June 28, Iker Gil (MAS Context) spoke with German-American artist duo Luftwerk about their works. In the Q+A session that followed the artist talk, Ivan Blasi (Fundació Mies van der Rohe), John McKinnon (Elmhurst Art Museum/McCormick House) and Scott Mehaffey (Farnsworth House) were available to answer questions about the Mies van der Rohe structures in their care.

Learn more on the Bauhaus

Form follows function: Some of the Bauhaus’ maxims have found their way into everyday speech as well. Photo: © Tobias Schrank

Celebrating 100 years of Bauhaus
In a nutshell: six sentences that encapsulate the Bauhaus

We run into the Bauhaus more often than we know – and not just while out shopping for furniture. Some of the design school’s maxims have found their way into everyday speech as well.


Group photo of Bauhaus masters in Dessau (1926): f. l. t. r: Josef Albers, Hinnerk Scheper, Georg Muche, László Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Joost Schmidt, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Gunta Stölzl und Oskar Schlemmer. Photo (detail): © picture alliance akg images

Celebrating 100 years of Bauhaus
Eight things you should know about the Bauhaus

Minimalist design, simplicity and efficiency – how the Bauhaus aimed to change the way we live.


Visitor to the Bauhaus Museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo (detail): © picture-alliance/dpa/Sara Lemel

Bauhaus centenary hype
“The Bauhaus should be understood, not just indiscriminately celebrated.”

Arne Winkelmann, an architecture expert based in Frankfurt am Main, would like to see more a more critical approach to the Bauhaus school: an interview. 


Bauhaus Student Newspapers

In the spirit of celebrating Bauhaus centennial, the IIT Institute of Design’s student group mediaID and students of the School of the Art Institut of Chicago produced two Bauhaus newsletters. These are collections written, photographed, designed, and curated by students. Here, they reflect on the influence of the Bauhaus, examining its relevance and impact today while also looking toward the future.



Events in the U.S. 2019


Virtual Bauhaus: An Interactive exhibition

Now available free of charge!

On the occasion of the Bauhaus centennial, the Goethe-Institut presents Virtual Bauhaus, an exhibition on the German school of art and design using innovative Virtual Reality technology.
 


Virtual Bauhaus offers visitors a one-of-a-kind experience, transporting them into the architectural space of the iconic Bauhaus Dessau building, which was constructed in 1925–26 according to designs by the school’s first director, Walter Gropius, as it existed in the 1920s. Through this immersive environment, visitors explore the school’s central ideas through encounters with its architectural interior.

For more information on Virtual Bauhaus, visit the Goethe-Institut Boston

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