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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 6 april 2019

German birthplace marks Bauhaus centenary with new museum

By GEIR MOULSON Bauhaus headquarters and
Associated Press a residential estate with
WEIMAR, Germany (AP) — 90 apartments were built.
The German city where the Dessau’s Nazi-dominated
Bauhaus was born a cen- council forced the Bau-
tury ago is paying tribute to haus to close in 1932, and
the school behind a string an attempt by Mies van der
of modern design icons Rohe — the last director —
with a new museum open- to keep it going in Berlin
ing Friday meant to anchor lasted only a few months.
it in its turbulent historical Gropius, the first Bauhaus
context. director, left Weimar a
The Bauhaus Museum in collection of 168 Bauhaus
Weimar, a functional but objects including ceram-
elegant concrete cube ics, metalwork, furniture
designed by German ar- and rugs that is a mainstay
chitect Heike Hanada, of the museum’s collec-
showcases many of the tion. It survived World War
items that blurred the lines II packed up in a room at
between the artistic and Weimar’s city palace.
the industrial — producing Curators are keen to stress
some of the precursors of that the Bauhaus didn’t
modern mass design and A man holds a camera during the press preview prior to the opening of the new Bauhaus Museum come from nowhere, and
helping make the Bauhaus of the ‘Klassik Stiftung Weimar’ (Classic Foundation Weimar) in Weimar, Germany, Thursday, April the collection at the simul-
influential far beyond its rel- 4, 2019. taneously restored Neues
atively brief existence. Associated Press Museum nearby underlines
Visitors can admire exhibits chitect Walter Gropius as Thuringia state’s culture door to the Gauforum, a that — showcasing work by
such as Peter Keler’s cra- Germany grappled with its minister. monumental Nazi-era ad- Belgian designer Henry van
dle made of a blue circle, political future after World Weimar stands for both the ministrative complex and de Velde and others that
a yellow triangle and red War I. It reflects the politi- high points of German clas- parade ground, where a foreshadowed the school’s
square, produced in 1922 cal troubles that forced the sical culture and the low permanent exhibit on Nazi attempts to fuse fine and
under the direction of artist school to move twice then points of the country’s his- slave labor is to open next applied art. Bauhaus Muse-
Wassily Kandinsky; Wilhelm close down shortly after tory. It was home to the po- year. um director Ulrike Bestgen
Wagenfeld’s domed table the Nazis came to power in ets Johann Wolfgang von The Bauhaus itself fell foul said it’s a myth that “every-
lamp of 1924; Ludwig Mies 1933. Goethe and Friedrich Schil- of right-leaning local au- thing was totally revolution-
van der Rohe’s steel easy The aim is not just to show ler and composer Franz thorities in Weimar — long ary and totally new.”
chair and stool from 1929, off architecture and de- Liszt, but later to the Nazis’ suspicious of its unconven- But Gropius and his associ-
and early precursors of the sign but also to see the notorious Buchenwald con- tional students and teach- ates took a very different
fitted kitchen. school and its leading centration camp. ers — who slashed funding direction. Gropius’ Bauhaus
But the museum also ex- lights “in their diversity, with The new museum offers in 1925. manifesto urged young
plores the wider and con- their contradictions and views toward the histori- That forced it to move people to “help work not
stantly shifting ambitions of how they are anchored cal center and a tower northeast to Dessau, then a just on physical construc-
the Bauhaus, which started in the 20th century,” said built as a memorial to Bu- rising industrial city, where tion but on a new society,”
work in April 1919 under ar- Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff, chenwald. It was built next the iconic glass-fronted Bestgen said.q

Unseen photos of Frida Kahlo by her lover to be auctioned

By SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS artist, by Nickolas Muray, go on range of people that were in-
Associated Press sale,” Sotheby’s specialist Aimee volved in their circle.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Frida Kahlo with Pflieger told The Associated Press Portraits of composer Carlos
her head wrapped in bandages. in a recent interview. Chávez, muralist Roberto Monte-
Diego Rivera posing with a gas The anonymous consigner origi- negro and actress Margo Albert
mask. Miguel Covarrubias at the nally bought them from the pho- are some examples.
beach. The photographs of the tographer’s estate, according to Many photos of Kahlo shot by
three Mexican painters and other the auction house. Muray have become iconic, like
works by Nickolas Muray, many of Muray met Kahlo and Rivera one from 1939 in which the paint-
them never seen before, are go- through Covarrubias, whom he er appears with her hair braided
ing on sale this week in New York. befriended while working for Van- through with purple yarn and
The images, dating from around ity Fair, where Covarrubias served wrapped around her head in a
1925 to 1946, are among 78 por- as a cartoonist. They later intro- sort of crown while a deep ma-
traits by the renowned Hungari- duced him to other prominent fig- genta shawl drapes her shoulders.
an-born American photographer, ures of the arts. Some are currently on display at
who had a decade-long affair There are at least 20 photographs the Brooklyn Museum, as part of
with Kahlo after meeting her in of Kahlo, Rivera or both of them “Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can
This 1940 photo provided by Sotheby’s 1931. They will be auctioned Fri- together. Be Deceiving.”
shows artist Frida Kahlo with her head day as part of Sotheby’s “Photo- Pflieger noted that the collec- But Pflieger said the ones in the
suspended by straps. The image is graphs” sale, each with a starting tion “doesn’t necessarily show sale are much more intimate.
part of a collection of photographs price of $15,000. the progression of the relationship The collection can be seen at the
by Nicholas Muray up for auction on
Friday, April 5, 2019. “It is the first time that such a large between Frida and Nickolas, but auction house in New York or on-
Associated Press group of photographs by this it does show this incredibly wide line, at www.sothebys.com.q