Press Room
Letterform Archive Announces the Opening of Its First Gallery with Bauhaus Typography Exhibition
Media Contact
David Perry, [email protected], +1.415.676.7007
Press Kit
Bauhaus Typography at 100
Exhibition Dates
November 13, 2021 – April 27, 2022
Press Preview
Date & Time
November 11, 2021, 9:30am–12pm
SAN FRANCISCO, California, September 2, 2021 — After 18 months of COVIDenforced remote curation, the internationally esteemed nonprofit museum Letterform Archive is ready to open its new, custom-designed gallery at 2339 Third Street, Floor 4R, in San Francisco’s Dogpatch Cultural District. The inaugural exhibit, Bauhaus Typography at 100, opens on Saturday, November 13, 2021.
The exhibition, curated by Rob Saunders and Henry Cole Smith, will feature more than 150 pieces from the Archive’s permanent collection, including graphic design by Bauhaus artists such as László Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Joost Schmidt, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Johannes Itten. The event will be the city’s first post-COVID grand opening of a cultural institution’s new brick-andmortar location.
Bauhaus Typography at 100 draws a throughline from the Bauhaus’s iconic style to the shape of typography today. Founded in 1919 by German architect Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus school embraced the tools of mass production in the creation of radical new art. To communicate the school’s vision in print, Bauhaus graphic design had a bold utilitarian look with sans-serif typefaces, asymmetrical layouts, experimental alphabets, and photomontage. Bauhaus Typography at 100 explores the school’s unique legacy in graphic design and typography through artifacts of its own making — its books and magazines, pedagogical and promotional ephemera — as well as objects created by its many luminaries before and after the time of the school. The exhibition also features women, such as Friedl Dicker, whose innovative typographic contributions are often overlooked. Though the school only lasted fourteen years, from 1919 to 1933, its influence endures.
“We’re excited to share the Archive’s Bauhaus collection, which focuses as much on the earlier, more expressive work as on the better known ‘new typography’ style,” says Curator Rob Saunders. “We’re also really thrilled to unveil our first gallery, with its custom modular panels and vitrines designed to flexibly adapt to a broad range of upcoming exhibits.”
The hardcover exhibition catalog, Bauhaus Typography at 100, features 280 pages with high-fidelity images of objects from the exhibition and an introduction by Bauhaus design expert Ellen Lupton. It will be available at the show as well as online and in bookstores.
To serve the Archive’s global community, Bauhaus Typography at 100 will also be presented as a rich online exhibition designed by Jon Sueda and Chris Hamamoto. Lectures, gallery tours, and other special events — both in-person and online — will accompany the exhibition throughout its run. Complete details will be released on the Archive’s website and through its mailing list.
Visitor Information
Admission
$10 for adults; $5 for students and seniors (65+); Archive members and children under 12 free. Advanced tickets available beginning September 21, 2021 at https://letterformarchive.org/visit.
Regular Exhibition Hours
Thu–Fri, 3–8pm; Sat, 11am–3pm; closed Sun–Wed.
COVID-19 Safety Measures
Letterform Archive is implementing a comprehensive safety plan to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Archive’s enhanced safety protocols include a proof of vaccination requirement for all staff and visitors over the age of 12; a mask requirement for all staff and visitors over the age of two; and reduced capacity. For questions about Letterform Archive’s visitor policies related to COVID-19, visit https://letterformarchive.org/visit#covid-safety.
About Letterform Archive
Based in San Francisco, Letterform Archive is a nonprofit center for inspiration, education, and community. It preserves important artifacts in the history of letterforms and graphic design, and it strives to actively share them with the public. Since it opened to visitors in 2015, the collection has quintupled in size through the generosity of donors, and now includes over 75,000 items related to the letter arts. Lovers of letters will again have hands-on access to the collection when its new reading room and classroom open in January 2022. The Archive serves a global community through social media, publications, and the Online Archive, and offers a full-year postgraduate certificate program in type design as well as public workshops in calligraphy, lettering, and typography. Additionally, the Archive curates local and international exhibitions, organizes lectures, and hosts salons to showcase collections. Learn more at letterformarchive.org.