Constructive worlds
The beginnings of a new universal language of art
One hundred years ago - the year he was appointed to the Bauhaus Weimar - Wassily Kandinsky created the cycle "Small Worlds". In the same year, 1922, the "Constructivist International" met in Düsseldorf and Weimar. This marked the beginning of a new world language of non-objective art.
In addition to Kandinsky, the exhibition also features his Bauhaus colleagues Oskar Schlemmer and László Moholy-Nagy, who significantly influenced this new visual language, as well as the Eastern European avant-garde artists Lajos Kassák, László Peri and Nikolai Michailowitsch Suetin. They all found their own way into abstraction. Their works thus form a fascinating complement to those of Kandinsky and document the international character of this new art movement.
In Germany, Constructivism had distinct regional centers, which included Weimar and Hanover in particular. The artist group "die abstracten hannover" with Kurt Schwitters, El Lissitzky, Carl Buchheister and Rudolf Jahns set the tone in Hanover. Their works form a separate focus in the exhibition.
A group of works by Eduard Steinberg shows in an exemplary manner how later generations of artists dealt with historical models and is proof that Constructivism does not represent a closed chapter in art history, but still has creative potential.
Dates and events
-
Exhibition opening
-
Lecture by Michael Siebenbrodt, Weimar
-
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Hubertus Gaßner, Hamburg
(1st row from left to right) Carl Buchheister, Picture with Black Wedge, 1931, ahlers collection, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022. Walter Dexel, Small Machine, 1922, State Museum for Art and Cultural History Oldenburg, © Estate of Walter Dexel. László Moholy Nagy, Suprematist 1, around 1925, ahlers collection. (2nd row from left to right) Wassily Kandinsky, Small Worlds II, 1922, ahlers collection. Kurt Schwitters, Mz 30.8, 1930, ahlers collection. Edik Steinberg, Composition, 2009, ahlers collection, © Estate of Edik Steinberg.