PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

· Australia’s major contribution to the centenary of the Bauhaus in 2019: this three-year, Australia-led international research project brings together the region’s leading experts in modern art, design and architecture (and the celebrated authors of Modernism & Australia and Modern Times: The Untold Story of Modernism in Australia, both MUP)

· Three distinct exhibitions and a substantial new book: each element uncovers untold stories of how European modernism’s revolutionary ideas on art, design and architecture came to Australia and New Zealand

· Addresses a half-century of Australian art, architecture and design history, 1930s–1970s: Bauhaus Diaspora starts with the Australian reception of the Bauhaus as ‘a spirit that is strange, distorted, and stern’ before tracing key international figures of art, architecture and design as they arrive into the internment camps and end up running top institutions

· Powerful personal stories: the artists featured led the interrupted lives of refugees and migrants who fled the Second World War, continued to teach art in difficult conditions, and changed Australian and New Zealand cultures forever.

KEY ACTIVITIES

· Lantern procession from RMIT to Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne, 12 July

· Leading Bauhaus expert to tour Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, 24 July–3 August

· VIP book launch and Triadic dance performance at Buxton Contemporary, 24 July

· Opening of Bauhaus Now! Buxton Contemporary, 25 July

· Expert panel discussions and book launch, University of Technology Sydney, 30 July

· VIP book launch at a historic modernist Sydney building, 31 July

· Keynote lecture and book launch at Museum of Brisbane, 1 August

· Roundtable discussion at Museum of Brisbane, 3 August

· Exhibition Bauhaus Now at Museum of Brisbane, April to October 2020

· Exhibition Bauhaus Now! at Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney, mid-2021

LEADING BAUHAUS EXPERT TO TOUR SYDNEY, MELBOURNE AND BRISBANE

Forgács is an internationally renowned expert in movements of 20th century art, examining their different trends as they migrated across countries. She has long specialised in the Bauhaus, writing the definitive title The Bauhaus Idea and Bauhaus Politics in 1993 (since translated, reprinted and updated) and can speak with authority on the impact of Central European Avant-Gardes globally and how these will be celebrated everywhere from Europe and the United States to Asia in this anniversary year.

ABOUT ÉVA FORGACS

Éva Forgács teaches at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena/California. She was professor of Art History at the László Moholy-Nagy University in her native Budapest, until 1994. Her books include: The Bauhaus Idea and Bauhaus Politics (1991, 1995); the co-edited Between Worlds: A Sourcebook of Central European Avant-Gardes (2002); and Hungarian Art. Confrontation and revival in the Modern Movement (2016). She has published widely in journals and edited volumes.

KEY INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES

SYDNEY:

Philip Goad in conversation with Penelope Seidler AM, on location at Seidler Offices

Talking points: The life and times of migrants and refugees who found themselves interned in Australia during the Second World War, disparagingly referred to as ‘reffos’ after their release, and went on to have a significant impact on Australian culture, particularly architecture, such as Harry Seidler.

Penelope Seidler AM is an architect, an accountant and director of Sydney-based architectural firm Harry Seidler and Associates. She is an avid collector and patron, and is a widely recognised contributor to Australia’s creative culture. Harry and Penelope were recognised just recently, on 18 June, with entry into the Australian Property Hall of Fame.

MELBOURNE:

Ann Stephen in conversation with Eva Forgacs, on location at Bauhaus Now! exhibition

Talking points: Celebrated curator Ann Stephen will launch her centenary exhibition Bauhaus Now! at Buxton Contemporary alongside Bauhaus Diaspora. In Bauhaus Now! she asks, ‘How do contemporary artists re-imagine a relationship to this legendary school? Are they scavengers raiding the ruins of modernism, appropriators of ‘good design’ kitsch or acolytes of an unholy sect?’ Bauhaus Now! explores the historical legacy of Bauhaus Diaspora in Australia—both for contemporary artists and for art education—highlighting the ongoing relevance of these visionary, collectivist ideals and radical practices.

Artists featured: Mikala Dwyer & Justene Williams | Gertrude Herzger-Seligmann, Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, Paul Klee | Michael Candy, Peter D Cole, Christopher Handran, Shane Haseman, Rose Nolan, Elizabeth Pulie, Jacky Redgate

BRISBANE:

Museum of Brisbane, August 1: 6-7.30pm

Keynote lecture and book launch: Éva Forgács, "Everyone is talented. Bauhaus Pedagogy"

Museum of Brisbane, Saturday August 3: 1-3pm

Roundtable discussion: “The legacy of the Bauhaus in its centenary”

Speakers: Eva Forgacs, Philip Goad, Andrew McNamara and Isabel Wünsche

Moderator: Susan Best

BAUHAUS DIASPORA

THE EDITORS

Harriet Edquist is Professor of Architectural History in the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University and Director of RMIT Design Archives. She has published extensively on Australian architecture, art and design with a particular focus on the 20th century and has pioneered studies on émigré architects in Melbourne and the Australian Arts and Crafts movement. Her most recent books are Pioneers of Modernism: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Australia (2008) and George Baldessin: Paradox and Persuasion (2009).

Selected topics: Designers and design groups: Slawa Duldig; Dahl and Geoffrey Collings; George Kral and the Gallery A Design Group; Indigenous communities and the émigrés.

Philip Goad is Chair of Architecture and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the University of Melbourne, where he is also a co-Director of the Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage (ACAHUCH). With Ann Stephen, Andrew McNamara, Harriet Edquist and Isabel Wünsche, he is co-editor of Bauhaus Diaspora and Beyond: Transforming Education through Art, Design and Architecture(Miegunyah and Power, 2019).

Selected topics: tracing architecture from Vienna to Australia via Ernst Fooks, Harry Seidler, Fritz and Kathe Janeba, and Robin Boyd.

Andrew McNamara teaches art history at QUT. His most recent publications include: Undesign (Routledge, 2018); Surpassing Modernity: Ambivalent in Art, Politics and Society (Bloomsbury, London, 2018/19); and with Philip Goad, Ann Stephen, Harriet Edquist and Isabel Wünsche, Bauhaus Diaspora and Beyond: Transforming Education through Art, Design and Architecture (Miegunyah and Power, 2019).

Selected topics: the exile, internment, and cultural impact of artist and educator Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack.

Dr Ann Stephen is senior curator, University Art Gallery, University of Sydney. Her publications include Vision of a Republic: The work of Lucien Henry, 2001, On looking at looking: The Art and Politics of Ian Burn, 2006, and Modernism & Australia: Documents on Art, Design and Architecture 1917-1967 and Modern Times: The untold story of modernism in Australia, both co-edited with Andrew McNamara and Philip Goad. She is co-editor of Bauhaus Diaspora and Beyond: Transforming Education through Art, Design and Architecture (Miegunyah and Power, 2019).

Selected topics: Gertrude Herzger-Seligmann (almost unknown Sydney-based Bauhäusler, artist, weaver and jeweller); Paul Klee; Bauhaus legacy in contemporary Australian art.

Isabel Wünsche is Professor of Art and Art History at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany since 2001. Her research interests are 19th- and 20th-century art, specifically European modernism and the historic avant-garde movements; among her book publications are Biocentrism and Modernism (2011), Meanings of Abstract Art: Between Nature and Theory (2012), The Organic School of the Russian Avant-Garde: Nature’s Creative Principles (2015), Practices of Abstract Art: Between Anarchism and Appropriation (2016), and The Routledge Companion to Expressionism in a Transnational Context (2018).

Selected topics: Bauhaus pedagogy and colour theory.

BAUHAUS NOW!

26 July – 20 October 2019, Buxton Contemporary

Guest curated by Ann Stephen

In the year of its centenary the Bauhaus returns to haunt our museums. How do contemporary artists re-imagine a relationship to this legendary school? Are they scavengers raiding the ruins of modernism, appropriators of ‘good design’ kitsch or acolytes of an unholy sect? Bauhaus Now! explores its legacy in Australia—both for contemporary artists and for art education—highlighting its visionary, collectivist ideals and its radical practices.

Mondspiel, the ground floor installation by Mikala Dwyer and Justene Williams, is part resurrection and part zombie dance. The first-floor gallery displays rare Bauhaus archival material from the two former Bauhaus students exiled to Australia, Gertrude Herzger-Seligmann and Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack.

Reconstructions by kinetic artists Michael Candy and Christopher Handran will demonstrate the celebrated Bauhaus experiments with colour and light, in Hirschfeld-Mack’s Colour-Light Plays (Farbenlichtspiele) and Moholy-Nagy’s Light Space Modulator.

The recent Bauhaus Weaving of Elizabeth Pulie and Rose Nolan’s constructions are both made from the cast-off litter of domestic life. Other artists in this exhibition channel colour theory, like Peter D Cole’s miniature multiples, Jacky Redgate’s experiments with colour, light and photography, and Shane Haseman’s performance Triadic Dance of the Secondaries. Students across art, design and architecture schools will collaborate in a parade and exhibit a series of abstract toys.

Artists: Mikala Dwyer & Justene Williams | Gertrude Herzger-Seligmann, Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, Paul Klee | Michael Candy, Peter D Cole, Christopher Handran, Shane Haseman, Rose Nolan, Elizabeth Pulie, Jacky Redgate

Image credit: Mikala and Justene Williams, Red Rockers 2010, video still, Courtesy of Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney and Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney © the artists

Bauhaus Now

April-October 2020, Museum of Brisbane

Museum of Brisbane will present ‘Bauhaus Now’ from 9 May – 25 October 2020. Curated by Dr Ann Stephen and Professor Andrew McNamara this exhibition will focus on the legacy of three former Bauhäusler who came to Australia: Gertrude Herzger-Seligmann, Georg Teltscher and Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack. There will also be a strong local components, such as architectural section highlighting architect Harry Seidler and his major projects in Brisbane developed by Professor Philip Goad and McNamara as well as another section focusing on the Viennese exiles, Karl and Gertrude Langer, wh oarrived in Brisbane at the beginning of World War Two.