Eighty years ago László Moholy-Nagy founded the New Bauhaus in Chicago, thus providing American photography with a decisive creative impulse. The Bauhaus-Archiv photography collection’s holdings related to the New Bauhaus and to the Institute of Design, which grew out of it and still exists today, are unique outside of the US, and this anniversary has provided an occasion for presenting them. Photographs, films, publications and documents from the legendary school of photography, whose teachers included György Kepes, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind and Arthur Siegel, bring this exuberantly experimental workshop atmosphere back to life.

Together with collection curator Dr Sibylle Hoiman, guest curator Dr Kristina Lowis has prepared this exhibition and catalogue on photography at the New Bauhaus. During research trips to Chicago, Kristina Lowis identified works to be loaned from archives, museums and galleries there in order to effectively supplement the objects from the Bauhaus-Archiv’s own extensive holdings.

A richly illustrated catalogue was published to accompany the exhibition: “New Bauhaus Chicago: Experiment Photography”, ed. by Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung, Berlin 2017. With contributions by A. Bähr, S. Daiter, J. Grimes, S. Hoiman, K. Lowis, E. Siegel. German & English editions, c. 200 pages, c. 150 colour illustrations, 24 × 30 cm, hardback, ISBN 978-3-7774-2938-0 (German), ISBN 978-3-7774-2937-3 (English).