Herbert Bayer: From Bauhaus to Aspen
On view through June 2022
Herbert Bayer (1900–1985) studied and taught at the Bauhaus, an art school in 1920s Germany that shaped art and design on an international scale. As a commercial artist and catalog designer in 1930s Berlin, he strove to communicate clear messages to mass audiences. At the same time, his experiments with surreal photomontage and sculpture reveal a more fantastical side to his work. Bayer claimed his art was apolitical, but he was a highly sought-after designer during the Nazi regime. Bayer moved to the United States in 1938 where he helped design the Aspen Institute in Colorado and made promotional materials for the Aspen Skiing Company. The works in this exhibition are by Bayer and chronicle his career from the Bauhaus to Aspen.
This exhibition was curated by Trevor Kenny, Mari McCarville and Alexander Sellers, graduate students in German Studies enrolled in a seminar led by Professor Patrick Greaney. The curators would like to thank Patrick Greaney, Elizabeth Gregg, Chris Herron, Traci McDonald, Hope Saska, Johanna Willruth and Paula Wittmann. Lenders to the exhibition include the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art and Rare and Distinctive Collections, University of Colorado Boulder Libraries.