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16 events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus

With the Bauhaus celebrating its centenary next year, museums and galleries across the globe are hosting events to mark the occasion. As part of our Bauhaus 100 series, we reveal the exhibitions and conferences that are not to be missed.

Architect Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, in 1919. Although it was in operation for just 14 years before it was shut down by the National Socialist Party, as part of the Nazi regime, it has become the most influential art and design school in history.

The school birthed a generation of acclaimed alumni across a range of disciplines, including typographer Herbert Bayer, textile artist Anni Albers and sculptor Marianne Brandt. Meanwhile teachers included artist Wassily Kandinsky, designer Piet Zwart, and architect Mies van der Rohe.

For the school's 100th anniversary year, art and design museums and galleries around the world are hosting exhibitions and events, including Tate Modern in London, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam and Garage in Moscow.

Here's our pick of the top 16 for your calendar:


Bauhaus Imaginista: Moving Away, the Internationalist Architect
12 September – 30 November 2018
Garage, 9/32 Krymsky Val, 119049, Moscow, Russia

Bauhaus Imaginista is a major programme exploring the global influence of the school, with events taking place in nine cities around the world.

There are just a few days left to catch the fifth edition, taking place at Garage in Moscow. This exhibition that looks at the relationship between the Bauhaus and the Soviet Union through accounts by former Bauhaus teachers and students in Moscow in the 1930s.


Anni Albers
11 October 2018 – 27 January 2019
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, UK

London's Tate Modern is shining a light on German textile artist Anni Albers, staging the first UK retrospective of her work. The exhibition features 350 objects from the Bauhaus student-turned-teacher, from small-scale pictorial weavings to large wall-hangings, prints and drawings.

The gallery is also hosting a conference on 1 December 2018 exploring the designer's work and legacy, including relation to "feminist politics and a politics of labour".


Successor of the Bauhaus: Two generations of artists in East Germany
17 September 2018 – 15 February 2019
Haus Schulenburg Gera, Str des Friedens 120, 07548 Gera, Germany

This exhibition features the works of artists who worked and taught in the tradition of the Bauhaus from the 1950s until the present day, all over Germany. Artists featured include Ingo Kirchner, Günter Hornig, Peter Sylvester, Veit Hoffmann, Jürgen Schieferdecker and Hermann Glöckner.


A Little Piece of Bauhaus
17 September 2018 – 21 December 2018
Goethe-Institut Chicago, 150 N Michigan Ave Suite 200, Chicago, USA

Contemporary artist Monika Wulfers draws on the work of Bauhaus alumni Oskar Schlemmer to create her abstract light installations. This exhibition at Chicago's Goethe-Institut celebrates that relationship, showcasing Wulfers' work while simultaneously screening Schlemmer's seminal Triadic Ballet.


Bauhaus Imaginista: Learning from São Paulo
24 October 2018 – 6 January 2019
SESC Pompéia São Paulo, R. Clélia, 93 - Pompeia, São Paulo - SP, 05042-000

The sixth instalment of the Bauhaus Imaginista series is an exhibition that explores how cultural appropriation factored into Bauhaus history, from Paul Klee's Maghrebi-inspired carpets to the Peruvian-influenced textiles of Anni Albers and others. It will also focus on legacy of the school across the Americas..


Bauhaus and America: Experiments in light and movement
9 November 2018 – 10 March 2019
Westphalian State Museum of Art and Cultural History, Domplatz 10, 48143 Münster, Germany

The relationship between the Bauhaus and America is also the topic of this exhibition in northwest Germany.

Focusing on the Bauhaus' relationship between light and movement, it showcases the work of both Bauhaus members and Americans artists, from light art and experimental film to dance and performance art.


Bauhaus Imaginista: Moving Away, Lagos
23 November 2018 – 24 November 2018
Goethe-Institut Nigeria, Catholic Mission St, Lagos Island, Lagos, Nigeria

The seventh Bauhaus Imaginista event is an exhibition examining the influence of the Bauhaus on art and design in Nigeria, through paintings, photography and design objkcts.


Bauhaus Imaginista: Corresponding with New Delhi
1 December 2018
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, DLF South Court Mall, Shaheed Pankaj Juyal Marg, Saket, New Delhi, India

The eighth instalment in the Bauhaus Imaginista series is a one-day event looking at how the Bauhaus impacted the Indian capital.


Photograph is by Interactive Media Foundation

Opening Festival: 100 years of Bauhaus
16 January 2019 – 24 January 2019
Various locations, Berlin

The Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin has organised a one-week festival to celebrate the centenary. The museum will offer a series of performance art, music and new music showcases, examining the relationship between body, space and movement, as well as between man and machine.


Bauhaus: Pioneers of a New World
9 February – 26 May 2019
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Museumpark 18, 3015 CX Rotterdam, Netherlands

This wide-ranging retrospective will feature over 60 artists, designers, architects from the Netherlands, all of whom were involved with the Bauhaus between 1919 and 1933.


Bauhaus Imaginista: Still Undead, Berlin
15 March 2019 – 10 June 2019
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin, Germany

This exhibition looks to the immaterial and performative nature of Bauhaus alumni Kurt Schwerdtfeger's reflecting light plays, which were originally produced for an institution party in 1922.


Photography is by T Frenzen

Henry van de Velde: Pioneer of the Bauhaus on the crossroads of modernism
15 March 2019 – 15 January 2020
House Schulenburg Gera, Str des Friedens 120, 07548 Gera, Germany

This exhibition will explore the life and work of modernist architect and artist Henry van de Velde, centred around the Haus Schulenburg – a building he created as a holistic artwork. It will also feature his neo-impressionist paintings and book designs.


Van de Velde, Nietzsche and Modernism around 1900
6 April 2019 – 1 March 2024
Neues Museum Weimar, Jorge-Semprún-Platz 5, 99423 Weimar, Germany

The Neues Museum in Weimar – the city where the Bauhaus began – is celebrating the legacy of the school with a new long-term exhibition of early works of modernist art from Weimar, and its relationship to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.


Oskar Schlemmer: The Bauhaus and the Path to Modernity
28 April 2019 – 29 July 2019
Herzogliches Museum Gotha, Schlossplatz 1, 99867 Gotha, Germany

This exhibition focuses on the life and work of avant-garde artist Oskar Schlemmer, who is recognised for his cross-disciplinary contributions as a painter, draughtsman, graphic artist, sculptor, stage designer and muralist.


Photography is by T Frenzen

Bauhaus Museum Dessau opening
8 September 2019
Bauhaus Museum Dessau, Mies-van-der-Rohe-Platz 1, Dessau-Roßlau, 06844

A new museum is set to open at the Bauhaus' school building in Dessau. Bauhaus Museum Dessau, designed by Barcelona-based studio Gonzalez Hinz Zabala, will present the second-largest Bauhaus collection in the world. It is designed in the Bauhaus spirit, featuring expanses of glazing and an exposed framework.


Photography is by T Frenzen

Triennale der Moderne
16 September 2019 – 13 October 2019
Various locations, Berlin, Dessar and Weimar

Operating over three consecutive weeks in three different cities, the Triennale der Moderne aims to build a "network of modernism" and raise greater public awareness of the buildings and avant-garde relationships of the early 20th century.

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