Bauhaus Ausstellung Weimar Juli - September 1923

The influential lithograph Bauhaus Ausstellung Weimar Juli - September 1923 was created by Vasily Kandinsky in 1923. This seminal piece of graphic design served as the primary promotional material for the landmark Bauhaus exhibition held that summer in Weimar, Germany, which marked a pivotal moment in the school’s history, shifting its focus toward functional design and industry. Executed as a lithograph, the print medium allowed for the sharp, reproducible imagery essential for modern mass distribution.

Kandinsky was one of the key masters teaching at the revolutionary German design school when he developed this visual manifesto. The work perfectly encapsulates the institution's direction during the 1923 period, embracing Constructivist aesthetics and rational geometry. The composition relies entirely on pure geometric forms-the square, the circle, and the triangle-rendered in stark black and white, occasionally offset by primary colors (though color may vary in different print versions). This abstract arrangement, where shape, line, and value communicate function, places the piece firmly within the classification of modern Design.

Although the Bauhaus movement was centered in Germany, the cultural impact and subsequent international collections were profound. This work, demonstrating the height of European geometric abstraction, contributes significantly to the visual history of modern art and reflects the expansive artistic networks, including those centered in French artistic circles, that influenced postwar European modernism.

This significant artifact of the early 20th century is housed in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The legacy of this 1923 design continues today; high-quality prints of this masterwork are widely sought after, and digitized versions are frequently made available through public domain resources, allowing broad access to Kandinsky’s foundational contribution to graphic design and abstraction.