Bauhaus Building, Dessau
- Artist: Lucia Moholy
- Date: 1925–6
- Medium: Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
- Dimensions: image: 99 x 141 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is "Bauhaus Building, Dessau" by Lucia Moholy. A small black‑and‑white gelatin silver print from 1925‑26. She was the unofficial photographer at the Dessau Bauhaus, where her husband László taught. The image captures the whole low‑rise complex from a distance, the word “BAUHAUS” hanging vertically on the darkened wall of the left‑hand building, while a taller structure on the right is lined with regular railed balconies. The clean white façades contrast sharply with the dark sky above, and the foreground landscape ties the buildings together. Moholy’s objective, almost documentary style reflects the New Objectivity movement’s search for a new vision in modern life. Although she produced dozens of photos of the school, her work was often misattributed to her husband or to architect Walter Gropius. This photograph remains a key visual record of the early Bauhaus.
See it in person
Bauhaus Building, Dessau is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
