The Bauhaus Series: 2 free lectures, 2 exhibitions

For immediate release May 13 2002

The Bauhaus Series: Two free lectures, two new exhibitions

Fabric samples, pictorial weavings and prints by a Bauhaus trained artist considered the foremost textile designer of the 20th century will be on show at The University of Auckland’s Gus Fisher Gallery later this month.

Anni Albers: Works on Paper from the collection of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Connecticut, USA, is an exhibition of work by pioneering textile designer and weaver Anni Albers (1899 - 1994). Albers trained at the now famous Bauhaus School of Design in Germany in the early 1920s, and was the first weaver to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

The exhibition shows how the artist moved from expressing her designs on paper and translating them to the loom, to her ultimate use of the loom as part of the design process. This evolution coincided with the artist’s flight from Nazi Germany in 1933, to the USA.

The exhibition is curated by Brenda Danilowitz, chief curator of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and former student of Professor Elizabeth Rankin, Head of Art History at The University of Auckland.

A concurrent exhibition adds a New Zealand dimension to the Albers show. Along Bauhaus Lines is a selection of New Zealand avant-garde modernist work from the 1950s that reflects the influence of Bauhaus thinking on New Zealand modernist art. It will feature artists Ilse von Randow, Colin McCahon, Theo Schoon, Frank Carpay, Patricia Perrin, Milan Mrkusich, Clifton Firth and Tibor Donner. It is curated by Douglas Lloyd-Jenkins, who has published widely on modernism in New Zealand.

The shows will run from 18 May - 6 July 2002 at The Gus Fisher Gallery, The Kenneth Myers Centre, 74 Shortland Street, Auckland. Gallery hours: weekdays 10-5pm, Saturdays 10-3pm.

ENDS

Curator Brenda Danilowitz will present a free public lecture: Bauhaus: Twentieth Century Utopia or Real World? which will be held in Architecture Lecture Room One, Level 2, 26 Symonds St, The University of Auckland on Wednesday 15 May 2002 from 6- 7pm.

A guided tour of the Anni Albers exhibition with curator Brenda Danilowitz will take place at the Gus Fisher Gallery on Monday 20 May 2002 from 6pm-7.30. It is open to the public at no charge.

You may pre-register for both of these events with The Centre of Continuing Education, 22 Princes St, The University of Auckland, Basement, room 012, email conted@auckland.ac.nz, phone 09 3737599 ext7831/7832. You are also welcome to register at the door.

Douglas Lloyd-Jenkins is also giving a talk on Monday 10 June at 6pm at the gallery, entitled Eric Westbrook's Dream: a Bauhaus School for Auckland.

For further information please contact Alison Booth, Faculty of Arts Event Co-ordinator, The University of Auckland, phone 3737 599 x 2546

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