"Many people have heard of Herbert Bayer mainly through the commercial graphics and typographic work that he designed at the Bauhaus. The exhibition is now examining in detail a little‐investigated aspect of his creative work. It reveals the scope for design in the applied arts that existed in Nazi Germany and the way in which it was exploited for Nazi propaganda," explains Dr. Annemarie Jaeggi, Director of the Bauhaus Archive.
After leaving the Bauhaus, Bayer – now based in Berlin – consistently continued to pursue the principles of modern commercial graphic design that he had developed there. In the pictorial and formal language that was typical for him, with its characteristic linkage of photography, collage and airbrush illustrations, he designed hundreds of posters, title pages for books and magazines, advertisements and advertising brochures from 1928 until he emigrated to the USA in 1938. His clients came from the consumer‐goods industry, publishers and state and semi‐state institutions. From 1933 onwards, he also put his innovative design ideas at the service of the Nazi regime. After emigrating, Bayer worked successfully in the USA as an art director and became one of the key figures in the reception of the Bauhaus through his work for the Bauhaus exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1938 and in Stuttgart in 1968.
Seventy‐five years after Bayer’s emigration, the exhibition is presenting some 200 works which as a whole provide for the first time a comprehensive insight into his commercial graphic work in Germany after 1928. Numerous advertisements and posters from his main area of activity in business advertising are being shown, which he designed as freelance artistic director of the Dorland advertising agency for manufacturers of furniture, clothing and cosmetics. Various covers of journals and books are also presented, including several title pages from the journal die neue linie (1929–1938). Bayer’s most famous poster – "section allemande" (1930) for the Werkbund exhibition in Paris – can be seen, as well as Bayer’s only preserved poster design for the Pergamon Altar (1931) from the estate of Herbert Bayer in the Denver Art Museum, which following costly restoration is now being shown for the first time in Germany. The printed materials designed by Bayer for the three large Nazi exhibitions "German People, German Work" (1934), "The Miracle of Life" (1935) and "Germany" (1936) are included in the exhibition, as well as the small posters and publications he designed for the Nazi organization "Strength through Joy" (Kraft durch Freude) (1934/1938) and his cover for a Hitler Youth brochure (1936). Previously unpublished private film recordings by Herbert Bayer with his daughter Julia Alexandra (1933) and the documentary filmHerbert Bayer – the man and his work (1974) complete the exhibition.
The exhibition is a contribution to the Berlin theme year on "Diversity Destroyed – Berlin 1933‐1938‐1945". An accompanying publication examines Bayer’s life and professional success during the period from 1928 to 1938 and includes a survey of his commercial graphic work from the period.
The exhibition has been prepared in collaboration with communications specialist Prof. Patrick Rössler of the University of Erfurt on the basis of the extensive estate of Herbert Bayer in the Bauhaus‐Archiv. The exhibition is open at the Bauhaus Archive from 20 November 2013 to 24 February 2014.