News
Bauhaus Typography at 100 Opens Nov. 13, 2021
The wait is over. Letterform Archive welcomes you to our new home to experience the inaugural exhibition of our first-ever gallery.
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We’re thrilled to announce the opening of our first gallery with an exhibition of more than 150 pieces from our permanent collection.
Experience Bauhaus Typography at 100
Bauhaus Typography at 100, curated by Rob Saunders and Henry Cole Smith, will feature work by Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, László Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, and Joost Schmidt, along with others whose innovative typographic contributions are often overlooked, including women such as Friedl Dicker.
Few design movements have shaped contemporary typography quite like the Bauhaus. Founded in 1919 by German architect Walter Gropius, the school embraced the tools of mass production in the creation of radical new art. Though the institution only lasted fourteen years, its influence endures.
Bauhaus Typography at 100 explores the school’s unique legacy in graphic design through artifacts of its own making – its books, magazines, course materials, product catalogs, stationery, promotional fliers, and other ephemera — as well as objects created by its many characters before and after the time of the school. The exhibition draws a throughline from the Bauhaus’s iconic style to the shape of typography today.
A handsome exhibition catalog, with an introduction by Bauhaus design expert Ellen Lupton, is now available for preorder worldwide. Or, you can grab a copy at the Archive when you come to see the show.
The Bauhaus Typography at 100 catalog is an unprecedented look at the school’s typography and print design, from its early expressive tendencies to the functional modernism for which it is famed today.
Featuring hundreds of full-color reproductions from leading figures, as well as many of their contemporaries and some of ours, Bauhaus Typography at 100 is the first book in Letterform Archive’s exhibition catalog series.
A special postcard set celebrates the rarely seen artwork created by Bauhaus masters to announce the opening of the school’s landmark 1923 exhibition, presenting all 20 of their extraordinary postcard designs at actual size in a box of 60 cards. The box set, catalog, and exhibition were designed by James Williams, The Common Era.
To serve our global community, Bauhaus Typography at 100 will also be accessible as a rich online exhibition designed by Chris Hamamoto, Jon Sueda, and Minkyoung Kim. The site will be available to all for a limited time and permanently accessible to Archive members. While we count down the days to its full launch, you can get a peek at selected objects from the show which grow in size as the opening approaches.
You’re invited to our premier gallery opening celebration on November 13 from 5pm to 8pm. Enjoy live painting and a curator talk and toast, alongside refreshments and other live entertainment. Register here.
The Archive will also present other lectures, gallery tours, and other special events — both in-person and online — throughout the show’s run. Keep an eye on the exhibition website and our newsletter for details and reminders.
Join us as we launch our inaugural in-house exhibition while simultaneously opening the doors to our jewel box of a gallery. Then, later in 2022, we’ll welcome you back to our reading room for tours and other visits. We can’t wait to see you in person again!