Category Archives: DESIGN

BAUHAUS BEGINNINGS AT THE GETTY

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“The aim is an alliance of the arts under the wing of great architecture.” — Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus

BAUHAUS BEGINNINGS, now at the Getty Center, celebrates the centenary of the founding of the school in Weimar.

The exhibition “reexamines the founding principles of this landmark institution,” considering the school’s “early dedication to spiritual expression and its development of a curriculum based on elements deemed fundamental to all forms of artistic practice.”*

BAUHAUS BEGINNINGS*

Through October 13.

Getty Center

1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, Los Angeles.

From top: Léna Bergner, Durchdringung (Penetration) for Paul Klee‘s course, circa 1925–1932, © the heirs of Léna Bergner; Walter Gropius, undated photograph by Lucia Moholy, © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Gerd Balzer, Color wheel for Vassily Kandinsky’s Preliminary Course, 1929, gouache on paper, pasted on black paper; Material exercises in paper (2), photographs by Alfred Ehrhardt, circa 1928–1929, © Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung; Erich Mzozek, Study for Vassily Kandinsky’s Farbenlehre (Course on color), circa 1929–1930, collage with gouache on paper, © Estate Erich Mrozek; Léna Bergner, Carpet design, circa 1925–1932, © the heirs of Léna Bergner; Joost Schmidt, Form and color study, circa 1929–1930; Benita Koch-Otte, Einfamilienwohnhaus auf der Ausstellung des Staatlichen Bauhauses (Single-family house at the exhibition of the State Bauhaus), 1923, Georg Muche, architect, 1923, from Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar 1919–1923 (Munich: Bauhausverlag, 1923), p. 165, courtesy and © Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel; Lyonel Feininger, Villa am Strand (Villa on the shore), 1921, from Bauhaus Drucke: Neue Europaeische Graphik, Erste Mappe [first portfolio], Meister d. Staatlichen Bauhauses in Weimar (Potsdam: Müller, 1921), © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Ringl + Pit (Grete Stern and Ellen Auerbach), Bald Head (Johannes Itten), 1930, printed 1985, The Jewish Museum, © Ringl + Pit, courtesy Robert Mann Gallery, New York; Hilde Reindl, Color wheel and tone study for Paul Klee’s Course, circa 1927. Images courtesy of the Getty Research Institute.

ETTORE SOTTSASS AND THE SOCIAL FACTORY

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ETTORE SOTTSASS AND THE SOCIAL FACTORY “connects Sottsass’ production to momentous postwar economic and social changes,” and is on view in Miami until October.

“During il miracolo economico, Italy went from being a low-cost manufacturer to an economy that used design to create premium products it could sell around the world. Fiat would stop building the faintly comic Topolino in 1947, and move towards the formal brilliance and technical innovation of the Cinquecento in 1959… In the space of twelve years, Ettore Sottsass went from building workers’ housing and designing fruit bowls made from knitted wire to being called in by Olivetti to design a computer.” —Deyan Sudjic*

ETTORE SOTTSASS AND THE SOCIAL FACTORY

Through October 6.

Institute of Contemporary Art

61 NE 41st Street, Miami.

*Deyan Sudjic, “Post-War to America,” in Ettore Sottsass and the Poetry of Things (London: Phaidon, 2015), 104.

From top: Ettore Sottsass, Monumento di Merda Alle Patrie, 1966, photograph © Silvia Ros, courtesy of Kim and Al Eiber; Ettore Sottsass, Mobili grigi, 1970, fiberglass, manufactured by and courtesy Centro Studi Poltronova, photograph by A. Fioravanti and Sottsass, © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, and ADAGP, Paris; Ettore Sottsass and the Social Factory, 2019, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, installation views (3), photographs courtesy and © Silvia Ros;

BAUHAUS — DOCUMENTA

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BAUHAUS / DOCUMENTA—VISION UND MARKE—a new exhibition in Kassel curated by Philipp Oswalt and Daniel Tyradellis—looks at the crosscurrents between two iconic German institutions:

“Bauhaus aimed to confront the crisis of industrialization and the damages caused by the First World War through the applied design of objects, spaces and buildings; documenta took up the romantic idea of the engagement with fine art, through which people should become responsible citizens again.”*

The show—part of the celebration of the Bauhaus centenary—includes works by Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Bazon Brock, Hans Haacke, Wassily Kandinsky, Barbara Klemm, Aleksandr Ptuschko, and Gilles Raynaldy.

BAUHAUS / DOCUMENTA—VISION UND MARKE*

Through September 8.

Neue Galerie

Schöne Aussicht 1, Kassel.

From top: Staircase of the Fridericianum with tapestry by Fritz Winter, 1956–1957, documenta 2, 1959, photograph by Günther Becker; Sculpture Hall at documenta I, Kassel, 1955, featuring works by Hans Arp, Henri Laurens, Alexander Calder, and Henry Moore; rotunda at the Fridericianum, documenta I, photograph by Günther Becker. Below: invitation card for Bauhaus/documenta—Vision und Marke, featuring images of Haus-Rucker-Co, Oase Nr. 7 (Oasis No. 7), documenta 5, 1972, photograph by Carl Eberth; and Wilhelm Wagenfeld ‘s Tischleuchte (table lamp), 1924, photograph by Joachim Fliegner. Images courtesy and © documenta archiv.

VOTE TOGETHER — VOTE FOR EUROPE

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“The EU has made our lives much better in many ways—and even though there is undoubtedly room for improvement, using our democratic rights is the way to shape it for the better…

“What we are experiencing is a reactionary rebellion against a hundred years of social progress… After three and a half years of part-time dedication to activism, I’ve concluded that above all democracy comes down to electoral participation. What’s really necessary is mediating through the basic principle of one person, one voice.” — Wolfgang Tillmans

Vote Together—a Between Bridges initiative advocating an affirmation of the European Union in this week’s elections—has released a series of images by (and featuring) a large cohort of Tillmans’ friends and associates in the art, music, and fashion worlds.

From top: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster by Stefano Cozzi in Venice; Vivienne Westwood by Andreas Kronthaler in Alpbach; Rita Roque and Joana Machado by Nuno Vieira in Porto; Giselle Mapp by Wolfgang Tillmans in Berlin; Rem Koolhaas by Dana Lixenberg in Amsterdam; Yvon Lambert and Walther König by Katja Rahlwes in Paris; Oko Ebombo by Tim Elkaim in Paris; Gillian Wearing by Joana Piotrowska in London; Noemi Smolik by Ruth Magers in Prague; Dan Sablon by Rahlwes in Paris; Tomasz Armada and Kacper Szalecki by Karol Radziszewski in Warsaw; Patricia, Roland, Ruggiero, and Bernardo de Middel by Cristina de Middel in Madrid; Nick Knight and Wolfgang Tillmans, poster. Images courtesy and © the photographers, their subjects, and Vote Together.

ELIO PETRI — THE 10TH VICTIM

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In THE 10TH VICTIM, the great Italian director Elio Petri sets his characteristic socio-political critique amid sci-fi thrills and an explosion of mid-sixties glamour—courtesy of production designer Piero Poletto and iconic stars Ursula Andress and Marcello Mastroianni.

The populace of Rome, ensconced in an Op-art wonderland, compete for televised fame and fortune in a legal game of hunter and hunted—themes borrowed by The Hunger Games nearly half a century later.

Gianni Di Venanzo—who, like Poletto, worked with Antonioni—was the film’s cinematographer. Tonino Guerra, Giorgio Salvioni, and Ennio Flaiano wrote the screenplay with Petri, and Piero Piccioni composed the propulsive score.

This weekend, the American Cinematheque, the Art Directors Guild Film Society, and The Hollywood Reporter present a rare local screening of THE 10TH VICTIM, followed by a panel discussion with Frances Anderton—host of KCRW‘s DnA: Design and Architecture—USC professor Nicholas J. Cull, and production designers Guy Hendrix Dyas and John Muto.

THE 10TH VICTIM

Sunday, May 19, at 5:30 pm.

Egyptian Theatre

6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles.

Ursula Andress and Marcello Mastroianni in The 10th Victim (1965), directed by Elio Petri, production design by Piero Poletto. Elsa Martinelli on phone (fourth from top).