Contract Magazine - November 2019 - 96

bauhaus chicago

A new exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago
will trace the legacy of the influential German school
in the Windy City.
(Left) Reginald Malcolmson.
Hall of Sport and Culture,
Collage, 1971/74. The Art
Institute of Chicago, Gift
of Reginald Malcolmson
and Margaret Malcolmson.
(Below) Edgar Bartolucci.
Jack Waldheim. Barwa
Lounge Chair, c. 1950.
The Art Institute of Chicago,
Gift of Stanley Tigerman and
Margaret McCurry.

To celebrate the centenary of the Bauhaus this year,
a new permanent exhibition opens on November 23
at the Art Institute of Chicago. Bauhaus Chicago:
Design in the City is an extensive look at the principles
of the renowned German art school, which
operated from 1919 to 1933, and went on to take
refuge in the city of Chicago in the onset of World
War II. The exhibition takes a deep dive into the
Bauhaus programs that took place in 1938 at the
Institute of Design (ID) and the Illinois Institute
of Technology (IIT), led by émigré teachers László
Moholy-Nagy and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
A wide range of work-inspired by the school's
avant-garde ideals, as well as its multidisciplinary
teachers and staff-will be on display, from
architectural drawings and industrial designs to
textiles, photography, and much more, including
many objects from the Bauhaus Chicago
Foundation. Organized by Alison Fisher, associate
curator of Architecture and Design at the Art
Institute of Chicago, the expansive exhibition aptly
highlights the many roles that architecture
and design play in both our history and daily lives.
"While this history of the Bauhaus is fairly
well-known, the story of the many instructors and
students who came through new programs at the
Institute of Design and the School of Architecture
at the Illinois Institute of Technology, particularly
the ID, is not well understood," says Fisher. "By
96

looking closely at these varied careers and design
networks, new, more interesting and more diverse
stories emerge about the relationship between
experimentation and production, and about the
profound influence of the city of Chicago-its
spaces and its materials-on this translation of
avant-garde practice to the American Midwest."
Moholy-Nagy left Germany in 1937 to direct
the New Bauhaus in Chicago-a design program
that lives on today at the Institute of Design at the
Illinois Institute of Technology-while Mies van
der Rohe directed the architecture program at the
same institution. Both programs focused on Bauhaus
methods and media, including a focus on mass
production, the use of collage and photography,
and an intense study of materials: concepts of the
Bauhaus ethos that live on in the industries, markets,
and neighborhoods of Chicago and beyond.
The exhibition's five themes-Light,
Materials, Production, Shelter, and Urbanism-
are centered around the Bauhaus-inspired courses
and the work that came from the hands of both
teachers and students. Many works in the
exhibition can fit easily into numerous categories-
a testament to Moholy-Nagy's passion for teaching
students to be multidiscipinarians rather than

artists, with the ability to address the complexity
of modern life and technology.
"While we are pretty far removed from the
culture of the 1930s, I think that the radical spirit
of the German Bauhaus-its blend of community,
political engagement, experimental practice, and
interest in new technology-remain really powerful
and relevant contemporary ideas in society and
commerce," says Fisher. "In Chicago, it is really
hard to know where the city would be without
the Bauhaus. Certainly, there was modernism here
before and after the arrival of Mies and Moholy,
but I think that many things that continue to shape
the culture here and around the world would not
look the same." -MEGHAN DWYER

contractdesign.com

NOVEMBER 2019

PHOTOGRAPHY: IMAGES COURTESY ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO.

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