Index Magazine

Object Lessons: The Bauhaus and Harvard

March 9, 2021
Index Magazine

Object Lessons: The Bauhaus and Harvard

This black and white photograph shows the ceiling and upper wall of a room. The corner at left is in a darker shade and there seems to be an open door. On the right is the top half of a glass vase with three long stems. The title “Object Lessons” is printed in white.
Detail of the front cover of Object Lessons: The Bauhaus and Harvard, showing a portion of British photographer Lucia Moholy’s Bauhaus Masters’ Housing, Dessau (Lucia Moholy and László Moholy-Nagy’s Living Room), 1927–28. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

Hear from Laura Muir, editor of Object Lessons: The Bauhaus and Harvard and curator of the 2019 exhibition The Bauhaus and Harvard, with a special preview in advance of the book’s launch in May 2021. Filled with beautiful illustrations—some of never-before-published objects—this book yields fascinating insights for Bauhaus devotees and design aficionados. 

Founded in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius (1883–1969), the Bauhaus was the 20th century’s most influential school of art, architecture, and design. After the school was shuttered under pressure from the Nazis in 1933, many Bauhaus artists brought their innovative practices and teaching methods to the United States. Gropius himself accepted a position at Harvard, where he would help establish a collection of Bauhaus material that has since grown to more than 32,000 objects—the largest such collection outside Germany. Harvard in turn became an unofficial center for the Bauhaus in the United States.

Object Lessons: The Bauhaus and Harvard expands on the special link between the two institutions while highlighting understudied aspects of the Bauhaus, including art made by women. Containing essays written by established and emerging voices in the field, the book took shape during the run of The Bauhaus and Harvard, a major exhibition and programming initiative presented by the Harvard Art Museums on the occasion of the Bauhaus centennial in 2019. A plate section presents a diverse selection of objects in a range of media. Included at the back of this beautifully designed volume is a full reproduction of the short catalogue produced by the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art for its 1930 exhibition—the first Bauhaus exhibition in the United States!

Object Lessons: The Bauhaus and Harvard is available for pre-order on the Yale University Press website. In the meantime, we invite you to explore the more than 32,000 Bauhaus-related objects in the museums’ online resource The Bauhaus. 

Led by:
Laura Muir, Associate Director of Academic and Public Programs and Louis Miller Thayer Research Curator

Lynette Roth, Daimler Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum and Head, Division of Modern and Contemporary Art

Related articles

A three-image montage shows a red rug with colorful designs; a brown rubbing of a gravestone with text and an angel; and a painting of a dark-skinned man in a white shirt leaning against a carved door frame.

Collections in Motion: What’s New on View

Our galleries are ever-changing, with new installations occurring each month throughout the museums. This fall, we’re welcoming rarely seen works of art into our galleries and celebrating diverse materials and styles. 

Four students, with their backs to the camera, look at a large rectangular photograph of an older woman in a yellow coat, walking across a city street.

Fostering Museum Literacy and Museum-Going Identity at the Harvard Art Museums

Two staff members from our Division of Academic and Public Programs discuss how the museums foster museum literacy and a sense of welcome among student visitors.

A woman in a white shawl standing next to a drawing displayed within a glass case.

Artworks in Honor of Director Martha Tedeschi’s Tenure

Upon director Martha Tedeschi’s departure after eight years of leadership, gifts of art were made in her honor.