Bauhaus at the Barbican

As a fan of Modernism, I’m very excited about the Bauhaus:Art and Life exhibition opening today at the Barbican Centre, London. It is the first such exhibition in the UK for over 40 years and is a great opportunity to see art and design produced by the pioneering  German art school.

At MoDA , we have a catalogue from the first major Bauhaus retrospective in Britain, Jahre 50 Bauhaus. The exhibition celebrated 50 years since the school’s founding, and toured Britain, Germany and America.

Herbert Bayer, Jahre 50 Bauhaus, 1968, Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture, JMR949.

The cover was designed by Herbert Bayer (1900-85), who studied at the Bauhaus under luminaries like Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Laszlo Moholy- Nagy. The unusual square format and text-less cover make it stand out from many of the books in the collection. It’s definitely one of my favourite covers and I look forward to seeing many more designs like it at the Barbican. If you get a chance to go along to the show, I’d love to hear your thoughts.