THE THEATER OF THE BAUHAUS
Oskar Schlemmer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Farkas Molnar, Walter Gropius [introduction]
Oskar Schlemmer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Farkas Molnar, Walter Gropius [introduction]: THE THEATER OF THE BAUHAUS. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1961. First English-language edition (Wesleyan's edition was the first English language edition of the classic BauhausBucher Die Buhne im Bauhaus from 1924). A near-fine hardcover book in decorated coth with a very good or better dust jacket: DJ rubbed with one short, closed tear. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. 7 x 10 hardcover book with 110 pages and profusely illustrated with more than 70 photographs, illustrations and diagrams from the 1924 edition. This book also retains Moholy-Nagy's original typographic treatments, as well as the full-color 22˛ x 9˛ "Theater, Circus, Variety" fold-out by Moholy-Nagy. Translated by Arthur S. Wensinger.
The book, a translation of Die Bühne im Bauhaus, offers the theatre historian, critic, and practitioner an accessible English translation of the landmark study of Bauhaus stagecraft. Although the name "Bauhaus" primarily connotes advances in architecture, this volume reinforces how much Bauhaus experimentation in stage design and theory prefigured the advances of twentieth-century theatre.
The text is a loose collection of essays by Oskar Schlemmer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Farkas Molnár (who in an illustrated essay shares his vision of a total theatre space), with an introduction by Bauhaus leader Walter Gropius. While each essay develops specific ideas about theatre practice, it is the common themes of form and space that tie this volume together. So dominant are these themes that scarcely a page goes by without reference to one or the other. While this is a subject that has been explored by theatre visionaries like Adolphe Appia, the stage work at the Bauhaus framed the question of spatial relationships in an extremely unique manner. In Appia's world, humans may be the measure of all things, but at the Bauhaus the human form relinquished its Appian centrality to be placed on equal footing with all elements of theatre: light, sound, movement, form, color, and shape.
Emerging as the central focus of The Theater of the Bauhaus is the work of Oskar Schlemmer, whose concerns about form and space became the subject of a variety of Bauhaus experiments. Essays included are "Man and Art Figure" and "Theater (Buhne)", both by Schlemmer; "Theater, Circus, Variety" by Moholy-Nagy (which includes a 22˛ x 9˛ fold-out color illustration representing a visual synthesis of form, motion, sound, light, and odor for a musical variety show); and "U-Theater" by Molnar. The Bauhaus aesthetic of stage design and presentation are elucidated here by Bauhaus masters themselves.
A very cool production.
Spreads from this volume can be viewed here.
Price: $150.00
PayPal Secure Payment
Domestic Shipping: $10.00
International Shipping: $15.00