Exhibition
Bauhaus Art as Life - Barbican Art Gallery
More than 400 works have been brought together to provide visitors with a whirlwind tour though Bauhaus life and times, from its original call for artists to apply their creative expertise to the functional realm, to the embracing of a rationalised visual language of geometric and typographic forms. Beyond its role at the genesis of contemporary design, the international community of artists at the Bauhaus has an added contemporary significance – as a ‘monument to internationalism on the eve of the world arriving in London for the 2012 Olympic Games’. Look what can be achieved when we work together, says the voice of History... before it chokes on World War Two. 
The biggest Bauhaus exhibition in the UK in over 40 years presents the modern world’s most famous art school. From expressionist beginnings to a pioneering model uniting art and technology the Bauhaus’ utopian vision sought to change society in the aftermath of the First World War. Bauhaus: Art as Life explores the diverse artistic production that made up its turbulent fourteen-year history and delves into the subjects at the heart of the school: art, culture, life, politics and society, and the changing technology of the age.
Bauhaus: Art as Life will feature a rich array of painting, sculpture, design, architecture, film, photography, textiles, ceramics, theatre and installation. Exemplar works from such Bauhaus Masters as Josef and Anni Albers, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Hannes Meyer, László Moholy-Nagy, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Gunta Stölzl, will be presented alongside works by lesser-known artist Masters and Bauhaus students .
The Bauhaus: Art as Life public programme will feature a host of workshops, talks, films and performances as well as a major Creative Learning initiative, the Bauhaus Summer School, an intensive two-week school held at the Barbican and led by leading practitioners from all artistic backgrounds.
A Barbican Art Gallery exhibition in co-operation with Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Museum für Gestaltung, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and Klassik Stiftung Weimar.
