OSKAR SCHLEMMER THE DANCING ARTIST CONTENTS 1. EXHIBITION OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................... 03 2. TIMELINE .................................................................................................................................................... 04 3. EXHIBITION LAYOUT ........................................................................................................................... 07 4. ARTISTS ....................................................................................................................................................... 17 5. PARTNERS ................................................................................................................................................. 18 6. PRESS VISUALS .................................................................................................................................... 20 2 OSKAR SCHLEMMER THE DANCING ARTIST 1. EXHIBITION OVERVIEW OSKAR SCHLEMMER THE DANCING ARTIST From 13th October 2016 to 16th January 2017 GALERIE 2 The Centre Pompidou-Metz is pleased to announce an exhibition dedicated to a major figure of the 20th century, the German artist and choreographer Oskar Schlemmer (1888-1943), who revolutionized dance and performance art especially within the Bauhaus. Through his focus on bodies in motion and in relationship to space, Oskar Schlemmer laid down early and essential milestones in the history of performing arts. The present exhibition demonstrates his desire to turn performing arts into a modern art form in its own right, as embodied by his manifesto artwork, The Triadic Ballet, as well as his performances, dances and costume parties, and even his staging of works by great composers like Igor Stravinsky or Arnold Schönberg. Schlemmer’s ambition was no less than to renew the art conceptions of his time through the combination of avant- garde thinking and humanist ideas from the Renaissance. His thoughts and theories started to give rise to entirely new art forms between 1921 and 1929, when hired as a Master of form at the Bauhaus and in charge of the seminar on “Men”. Based on major and sensational artworks mostly coming from the Bühnen Archiv Oskar Schlemmer’s collection, the exhibition highlights Schlemmer’s artistic rigor and constant openness to novelty. Through the work of Oskar Schlemmer, we are invited to discover another side of the Bauhaus. Beyond the famous school of applied arts, the Bauhaus was also a leading place experiments in the field of performance arts and choreography in the inter-wars years, and continues to impact today’s creation. At the center of the exhibition, the fascinating sculpture-costumes invented by Oskar Schlemmer are displayed on a large stage around which gravitates a selection of drawings. Among them are his Tanz Figurinen’s exceptional sketchbook, which captures Schlemmer’s thinking for about fifteen years, as well as photography and movie archives representative of this area. The exhibition also showcases a large selection of artworks by Giorgio de Chirico, Constantin Brancusi, Alexandra Exter and other artists met at the Bauhaus – like Vassily Kandinsky, László Mohoy- Nagy and Paul Klee- in the aim of emphasizing the reciprocal influences between Schlemmer’s work and the artists of his generation. Along with an extensive program of events, the exhibition will be the opportunity to revive the effervescence of the Bauhaus as the ultimate place of experiments. This project makes all the more sense at the Centre Pompidou- Metz -heir of these pioneering experiments in breaking down barriers between art forms- that the Musicircus. Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou collection exhibition exploring the relationship between music and visual arts in the 20th century, is still on in the Grande Nef. Curators: C. Raman Schlemmer Emma Lavigne, Director of Centre Pompidou-Metz 3 OSKAR SCHLEMMER THE DANCING ARTIST 2. TIMELINE (Extracts from Oskar Schlemmer’s biography by C.Raman Schlemmer, grandson of the artist, published in Oskar Schlemmer, under the dir. of Corine Diserens - RMN- Musées de Marseille, 1999). 1888 Oskar Schlemmer is born in Stuttgart, on with white house), the only work by Schlemmer September 4th. accepted by the jury. Schlemmer is disappointed that his Berlin paintings are not exhibited. On 1905 He attends Stuttgart School of Applied Arts. He May 6th, he creates the Neuer Kunstsalon am makes his first nude drawings and paintings Neckar tor (1913-1914) with his brother Willy, an such as Stillleben mit Kasperpuppe (Still life art salon where they show modern painting as an with puppet). alternative to the official Stuttgart exhibitions censured by juries: the salon features artists 1906- He receives a scholarship and enters the Fine Art like Gabrielle Münther, Otto Meyer-Amden, Willi 1909 Academy of Stuttgart. He meets Willy Baumeister Baumeister, George Braque, Juan Gris, Vassily and the three years older Swiss painter Otto Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, August Meyer-Amden, who became a life-long friend Macke, and Franz Marc among others. and with who he kept an intense correspondence along the years. 1914 Hölzel commissions his pupils Schlemmer, Impression, Sunrise by Monet is revealed during Baumeister and Hermann Stenner three mural the first impressionist exhibition at Nadar’s paintings for the hallway of the main building former photography studio. The painting gives of the Werkbund exhibition in Cologne. On this the movement its name. occasion, Schlemmer is noticed by architects Max Lievermann makes a much-noticed Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. participation to the Salon de Paris. He takes part in several exhibitions in Europe. In September 1914, he enlists as a volunteer 1910- Schlemmer leaves the Academy to work in Berlin. on the Western front. Injured in October, he is 1912 In 1911, he paints many landscapes, still lives, treated in several military hospitals. homes and self-portraits in which he tries to simplify forms and use strict compositions based 1915 Once recovered, Schlemmer is transferred to the on cubist principles. He meets Herwarth Walden, Eastern front where he is injured again. After who started publishing the Der Sturm review another stay at the hospital, Schlemmer recovers in 1910 and exhibits Oskar Kokoschka and the in his original garrison and meets Johannes Blue Rider in spring 1912, as well as futurist Itten, another student of Hölzel. artists later on. At Gurlitt, Schlemmer sees the He takes his distance with pictorial traditions last exhibition of Die Brücke (The Bridge), which and, during this year, abstraction takes over his splits up the same year. paintings, as shown in Komposition auf Rosa. In spring 1912, he reads the recently published Verhältnis dreier Figuren (Composition on pink Concerning the spiritual in Art by Vassily ground. Relationship of three figures). Kandinsky and buys the Blue Rider Almanach in July. Back to Stuttgart, he becomes one of Adolf 1916 Military service. In March, he is transferred in Hölzel’s master students in spring 1912 and Mulhouse in a measurement service that settles takes over his lessons. First experience of dance in Colmar later on. Around the end of the war, and first notes on dancing in his diary. he comes back to Stuttgart and works on the dances to be shown during the charity party of 1913 In May, the Kunstgebäude, a new building the regiment. Das Triadiche Ballet (The Triadic hosting two artistic institutions, is inaugurated Ballet) is partially performed for the first time. in Stuttgart, along with an exhibition featuring works by Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Manet, 1918 Exhibition in Stuttgart with Baumeister. Monet, and Renoir as well as a selection of Released from military service, he comes back contemporary artworks, among which some to Stuttgart as an assistant professor at the Fine of Hölzel and his master student, Oskar Art Academy, were a workshop is made available Schlemmer. The Der Stadt gallery in Stuttgart to him. buys Landschaft mit weissem Haus (Landscape 4 OSKAR SCHLEMMER THE DANCING ARTIST 1919 Schlemmer is elected at the students’ committee (Schlemmer dances under the pseudonym of of the Academy. His attempted reforms meet the Walter Schoppe). opposition of the school teachers. Additionally, Gropius commissions him the interior and his proposal to appoint Paul Klee as Hölzel’s curtain design of the municipal theater of Iena successor is declined. he is rebuilding with Meyer. Schlemmer works In May, he receives the manifesto of the Bauhaus on the project with his students, but after Theo recently created by Gropius in Weimar, after van Doesburg’s criticism of the design, Gropius merging two former Fine Art Academies that has it covered up before the inauguration. were closed during the war. His second daughter Ute Jaïna is born. Schlemmer focuses on his dance projects and creates a couple of paintings as well as his first 1923 For the first exhibition of the Bauhaus, Schlemmer sculptures. suggests painting the entrance workshop and to exhibit sculptures. During the Bauhaus week, 1920 Schlemmer leaves the Academy in April in order The Triadic Ballet is performed in Weimar. to focus on The Triadic Ballet. He meets musician Paul Hindemith. In September, he marries 1924 Schlemmer creates his Galeriebilder (Gallery Helena Tutein, nicknamed Tut. In January 1920, paintings) as well as mural paintings for Meyer’s Walden showcases new artworks by Baumeister, house in Weimar. He