An exhibition on “NEW ARCHITECTURE! Modern Architecture in Images and Books” at the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung in Berlin– from 12 March to 10 June 2014 – is providing photographic insights into the wide range of architecture seen in early 20th-century Germany. Based on four photo books on “Contemporary German Architecture” published by the architectural journalist and art historian Walter Müller-Wulckow (1886–1964) between 1925 and 1932, numerous original photographs illustrate the stylistic breadth of buildings erected between 1900 and 1930 – from innovative Bauhaus buildings to conservative variants on modernist architecture.
An exhibition on “NEW ARCHITECTURE! Modern Architecture in Images and Books” at the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung in Berlin– from 12 March to 10 June 2014 – is providing photographic insights into the wide range of architecture seen in early 20th-century Germany. Based on four photo books on “Contemporary German Architecture” published by the architectural journalist and art historian Walter Müller-Wulckow (1886–1964) between 1925 and 1932, numerous original photographs illustrate the stylistic breadth of buildings erected between 1900 and 1930 – from innovative Bauhaus buildings to conservative variants on modernist architecture. The exhibition is accompanied by a varied programme of events, as well as a 285-page highly illustrated catalogue.
“Walter Müller-Wulckow’s books are contrasted in the exhibition with other contemporary publications about the New Architecture, showing how photography was used to tell very different stories about modernism,” says Dr. Annemarie Jaeggi, Director of the Bauhaus-Archiv.
Müller-Wulckow’s four photographic books were divided into different building types – “Bauten der Arbeit und des Verkehrs” [Work and Traffic Buildings] (1925), “Wohnbauten und Siedlungen” [Residential Buildings and Estates] (1928), “Bauten der Gemeinschaft” [Community Buildings] (1928) and “Die Deutsche Wohnung” [The German Apartment] (1930). They were published inexpensively with large print runs in the popular “Blue Books” series by the Karl Robert Langewiesche publishing house, with the popular-educational aim of making progressive architectural developments in Germany accessible in a simple and comprehensible way to a wide public. Reduced to a minimum of text, they present full-page architectural photos, usually arranged in pairs, according to formal and aesthetic criteria. Almost forgotten for decades, Walter Müller-Wulckow is regarded today, thanks to his publications on modern architecture and housing, as one of the most influential advocates of the architectural avant-garde in Germany.
In preparing the publications, Müller-Wulckow collected thousands of architectural photographs, 451 of which were published. Along with the original books, the exhibition is now showing more than 100 original photographs that illustrate how the books were compiled – from the collection of the photos to their selection, arrangement and retouching, up to publication. Architectural photos by Arthur Köster, Hugo Schmölz and the Bauhaus photographer Lucia Moholy can be seen, along with work by many other photographers. Photos of many works by Bauhaus architects are included: the Fagus-Werk Factory, the Bauhaus building and the Masters’ Houses in Dessau designed by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius can be seen in the exhibition, as well as images of furniture by Bauhaus members such as Alfred Arndt, Erich Dieckmann and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Buildings by famous architects such as Erich Mendelsohn and Peter Behrens are documented, as well as less familiar works.
“NEW ARCHITECTURE! Modern Architecture in Images and Books” is an exhibition presented by the Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Oldenburg in collaboration with the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung in Berlin.
Exhibition catalogue (in German):„Neue Baukunst. Architektur der Moderne in Bild und Buch“,ed. Claudia Quiring, Andreas Rothaus and Rainer Stamm. Bielefeld: Kerber, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86678-877-0, museum price € 24.80, bookshop price € 49.95
Additional exhibition venue:27 June–14 September 2014, Museum of Architecture, Wrocław, Poland
Photographers (Selection): Hermann Collischonn, Gustav Dähn, Adolf und Carl Dransfeld, Arthur Köster, Edmund Lill, Reinhold Lissner, Otto Lossen, Lucia Moholy, Ernst Scheel, Hugo Schmölz, Fritz Stoedtner, Arthur von der Trappen, Paul Wolff et al.
Architects (Selection): Adolf Abel, Alfred Arndt, Otto Bartning, Ernst Becker, Peter Behrens, Paul Bonatz und Friedrich Eugen Scholer, Anton Brenner, Curt von Brocke, Emil Fahrenkamp, Hans und Oscar Gerson, Walter Gropius, Erwin Gutkind, Bernhard Hermkes, Josef Hoffmann, Fritz Höger, Jacob Koerfer, Ferdinand Kramer, Carl Krayl, Ludwig Lemmer, Luckhardt & Anker, Ernst May, Erich Mendelsohn, Edmund Meurin, Adolf Meyer, Josef Maria Olbrich, Hans Poelzig, Karl Schneider, Thilo Schoder, Schupp & Kremmer, Bruno Taut, Heinrich Tessenow, Wilhelm Ulrich, Wirminghaus & Kamper