Busch-Reisinger Museum

Now on view: Lucia Moholy's photographs of the Bauhaus building in Dessau! Between 1926 and 1928, Lucia Moholy (1894-1989) photographed the newly built Dessau campus of the Bauhaus, the influential school of art, design, and architecture. Founded in Weimar in 1919 by Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925, where Moholy photographed the school’s buildings, faculty housing, and products. Visual identity was integral to the Bauhaus, and the iconicity of its architecture is largely due Moholy’s meticulously crafted images. The selected examples demonstrate a variety of printing, coloring, and editing techniques used by the artist, including handwritten notes and the cropping of her own shadow. Far from straightforward documentation, the intentional construction of the now famous images framed on the wall illuminate our understanding of Moholy as an artist in her own right. Hundreds of Moholy’s Dessau photographs were part of Gropius’s personal archive, which was donated to the Busch-Reisinger Museum in 1981. For decades, the photographs were attributed to Gropius until recently when they were properly catalogued to include both the photographer and the subject’s designer, allowing Moholy’s oeuvre to find its rightful place in the museum’s collection as art. Can you spot the differences? See these photographs and more in “Future Minded: New Works in the Collection“ through July 21 at the @harvardartmuseums ! #buschreisingermuseum #buschhall #harvardartmuseums #germanart #luciamoholy #bauhaus #waltergropius @bauhaus_archiv @bauhaus_dessau_foundation -- Photographs: Lucia Moholy Architect: Walter Gropius (1883-1969) 1: Bauhaus Building, Dessau, 1925-1926: South face, 1927. BRGA.20.455 2: Bauhaus Building, Dessau, 1925-1926: South face, 1927. BRGA.20.480 3: Bauhaus Building, Dessau, 1925-1926: Roof garden, 1926. BRGA.20.452 4: Bauhaus Building, Dessau, 1925-1926: Roof garden, 1926. BRGA.20.465 5: Bauhaus Building, Dessau, 1925-1926: Corner of the technical school, 1926. BRGA.20.459 6: Bauhaus Building, Dessau, 1925-1926: Corner of the technical school, 1926. BRGA.20.458 Credit for all: Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Ise Gropius