Balance study, replica

After Johannes Itten left the Bauhaus, László Moholy-Nagy and Josef Albers took over the compulsory preliminary course and supplemented it with exercises on construction, balance and the appropriate use of materials. László Moholy-Nagy had students examine various materials in terms of their different properties, dimensions and proportions, statics and dynamics, and their effect in space. Metal, wood, glass and wire were used to create delicate three-dimensional structures that were balanced upright or apparently floating weightlessly in space, reminiscent of constructivist sculptures. Balance studies like these were reconstructed by students at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm (Ulm School of Design). Created for a Bauhaus exhibition, they were based on historical photographs – in this case, a photograph by Lucia Moholy of an exercise by an unknown student.