Pattern-book for Bauhaus wallpapers from the Rasch company in Bramsche, near Osnabrück: bauhaus,1930 / Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / © Firma Rasch

Pattern-book for Bauhaus wallpapers from the Rasch company in Bramsche, near Osnabrück: bauhaus,1930 Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin © Firma Rasch

Pattern-book for Bauhaus wallpapers from the Rasch company in Bramsche, near Osnabrück: bauhaus,1930

The first collection of Bauhaus wallpapers went on sale in 1929. The design broke through the usual clichés of wallpaper production: instead of large-format, illusionistic flower patterns, they show small-format structures with restrained colouring. Their matt surface is borrowed from mural paint and gives the impression of dematerializing the wall that Hinnerk Scheper repeatedly aimed for. By contrast, the second collection in 1931 again used more detailed relief prints – made possible by new printing colours. Several of the Bauhaus wallpapers continue to be reissued even today.