PICTURING THE BAUHAUS: ERICH CONSEMÜLLER‘S PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS DESIGN SCHOOL

In collaboration with the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, the Goethe-Institut Hong Kong, the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong and the HKU Museum Society, the University Museum and Art Gallery will present Picturing the Bauhaus: Erich Consemüller‘s Photography of the World's Most Famous Design School from April 12 to July 21, 2019. Picturing the Bauhaus celebrates 100 years of the famed design school’s influence through the photographic eye of Bauhaus student and instructor Erich Consemüller.

Erich Consemüller (1902–1957) trained as a carpenter before moving to Weimar to enrol in the Bauhaus School, where he studied from 1922–1927. Apart from time spent in the workshop in Dessau, Consemüller was commisioned to photo-document the building, and to capture images of his fellow students and their design work.

This UMAG exhibition of Erich Consemüller’s photographs highlights the school building’s interior features and artistic works created by Bauhaus artists, including Consemüller’s own design for a tea table and his collaborations with Marcel Breuer on Thost House in Hamburg.

At the core of Bauhaus training was the ‘bau’ (building), within which students would spend their first year experimenting with colour, form and materials before choosing specialisations. One example of this cross-discplinary expertise can be seen in the designs of Marianne Brandt, who established herself as a master in metal, wood and various forms of lighting.

Works shown here highlight a range of novel techniques developed from students and teachers, such as textile innovations like Eisengarn and Marcel Breuer’s furniture forms structured on bent tubular steel. These new materials and technologies merged into a utilitarian grace which established the Bauhaus as arguably the most significant modernist art movement of the 20th century.

Details of the Exhibition 
Period: April 12, 2019 (Friday) to July 21, 2019 (Sunday) 
Opening Hours: 
09:30 –18:00 (Monday to Saturday) 
13:00 –18:00 (Sunday) 
Closed on University and Public Holidays 
Venue: 1/F, Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, HKU, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam 
Tel/Email: (852) 2241 5500 (General Enquiry) / museum@hku.hk 
Admission: Free 
Website: http://www.umag.hku.hk/en/