Auf der Grafik im Hochformat sind acht geometrisch stilisierte Figuren gestaffelt auf der Treppe des Dessauer Bauhaus-Gebäudes dargestellt. Die Treppe führt steil nach oben und macht eine Rechtskurve. Links und rechts des Bildes sind Figuren angeschnitten, weitere Personen steigen hintereinander die angedeuteten Stufen hoch.
Who hasn’t heard of Oskar Schlemmer’s famous “Bauhaustreppe” (“Bauhaus Staircase”)? This painting is one of the best-known Bauhaus works, not least because of its prominent position in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. But the painting was actually created after Schlemmer’s time at the Bauhaus, when he had already been teaching at the State Academy of Art and Design in Breslau (now Wrocław) for several years. This is revealed by a full-size preparatory drawing in the collection of the Bauhaus-Archiv. It is dated 4 September 1932 and was created as a tribute to the Bauhaus, whose closure had just been ratified by the town council in Dessau a few days earlier. The drawing also documents Schlemmer’s working process for his famous painting. Done in charcoal and graphite, it already captures all the essential elements that Schlemmer subsequently transferred to the canvas: the staggered placement of the figures, the staircase and the characteristic glass wall, with which Schlemmer unmistakably locates the scene in the Dessau Bauhaus building.