Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb Zagreb, 2015 Bauhaus networking ideas and practice NETWORKING IDEAS AND PRACTICE Impressum Proofreading Vesna Meštrić Jadranka Vinterhalter Catalogue Bauhaus – Photographs Ј Archives of Yugoslavia, Belgrade networking Ј Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin Ј Bauhaus-Universitat Weimar, Archiv der Moderne ideas Ј Croatian Architects Association Archive, Graphic design Zagreb Aleksandra Mudrovčić and practice Ј Croatian Museum of Architecture of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb Ј Dragan Živadinov’s personal archive, Ljubljana Printing Ј Graz University of Technology Archives Print Grupa, Zagreb Ј Gustav Bohutinsky’s personal archive, Faculty of Architecture, Zagreb Ј Ivan Picelj’s Archives and Library, Contributors Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb Aida Abadžić Hodžić, Éva Bajkay, Ј Jernej Kraigher’s personal archive, Print run Dubravko Bačić, Ruth Betlheim, Ljubljana 300 Regina Bittner, Iva Ceraj, Ј Katarina Bebler’s personal archive, Publisher Zrinka Ivković,Tvrtko Jakovina, Ljubljana Muzej suvremene umjetnosti Zagreb Jasna Jakšić, Nataša Jakšić, Ј Klassik Stiftung Weimar © 2015 Muzej suvremene umjetnosti / Avenija Dubrovnik 17, Andrea Klobučar, Peter Krečič, Ј Marie-Luise Betlheim Collection, Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb 10010 Zagreb, Hrvatska Lovorka Magaš Bilandžić, Vesna Ј Marija Vovk’s personal archive, Ljubljana ISBN: 978-953-7615-84-0 tel. +385 1 60 52 700 Meštrić, Antonija Mlikota, Maroje Ј Modern Gallery Ljubljanja fax. +385 1 60 52 798 Mrduljaš, Ana Ofak, Peter Peer, Ј Monica Stadler’s personal archive A CIP catalogue record for this book e-mail: [email protected] Bojana Pejić, Michael Siebenbrodt, Ј Museum of Architecture and Design, is available from the National and www.msu.hr Barbara Sterle Vurnik, Karin Šerman, Ljubljana University Library in Zagreb under no. Darko Šimičić, Jadranka Vinterhalter, Ј Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb 000915608. Bogo Župančič, Isabel Wünsche Ј Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb Ј National Museum in Belgrade This project has been funded Ј Peter Krečič’s personal archive, Ljubljana with support from the European For the publisher Ј Public Open University Zagreb Archive Commission. The publication Snježana Pintarić Ј Sanela Jahić’s personal archive, Ljubljana reflects the views of the authors, Translation Ј Selman Selmanagić’s personal archive, and the Commission cannot be held Milena Baljak Berlin responsible for any use which may Janet Berković Ј Stadtarchiv Dessau-Roßlau be made of the information contained Mirta Jurilj Ј Škofja Loka Museum therein. Editor Marina Miladinov Ј Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau / Bauhaus Jadranka Vinterhalter Mladen Šipek Dessau Foundation Ј Zagreb City Museum, Zagreb Ј Universalmuseum Joanneum / Neue Galerie Graz Ј Expert associate Language advisor Ј Filip Beusan Vesna Meštrić Janet Berković Ј Srećko Budek 4 Contents 01 Vesna Meštrić, Jadranka Vinterhalter Foreword 8 Contents 02 Tvrtko Jakovina The Germans, Germany, and the Slavic South (1919-1961) 18 03 Michael Siebenbrodt The Bauhaus in Weimar – A School of Invention / A prototype of a modern, twentieth century university 36 04 Regina Bittner Bauhaus Products: Life-changing Didactic Objects? 50 05 Isabel Wünsche From Vorkurs to Vertikale Brigaden: Visual Arts Education at the Bauhaus 60 06 Lovorka Magaš Bilandžić Theatre at the Bauhaus: A Testing Ground for a Theoretical and Practical Examination of the Performing Arts 80 07 Bojana Pejić bauhaus in 57 seconds - ivana tomljenović, the moving image, and the avant-garde film-net around 1930 94 08 Éva Bajkay On the Road (ÙT): the Hungarian Works of Pécs – Weimar – Novi Sad – Zagreb 120 09 Karin Šerman The Bauhaus Weimar in Zagreb: the Marie-Luise Betlheim Collection 136 10 Ruth Betlheim The Souvenir Portfolio / Illustrated letters from Lou Scheper to Marie-Luise Betlheim, Weimar – Dessau – Berlin, 1922-1936 146 11 Peter Krečič The Journey of Avgust Černigoj to the Bauhaus in Weimar, or Laying the Foundations of the Slovenian Historical Avant-garde 152 12 Barbara Sterle Vurnik A Brief Tale of a Long Search for the Nearly Lost Legacy of Avgust Černigoj 164 13 Peter Peer “Responsibility to oneself and society is even more important than expertise.” (Hubert Hoffmann) 182 14 Aida Abadžić Hodžić Architecture beyond Four Walls: Selman Selmanagić and the Bauhaus 200 15 Jadranka Vinterhalter Bauhaus Dossier: Zagreb – Dessau 226 16 Antonija Mlikota Otti Berger – Textile Designer, Theoretician, Educationalist, Innovator 238 17 Darko Šimičić Ivana Tomljenović 256 18 Karin Šerman, Dubravko Bačić, Nataša Jakšić The Croatian Architect Gustav Bohutinsky and the Bauhaus 266 19 Jasna Jakšić The Bauhaus in the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Library 286 20 Vesna Meštrić The Avant-garde Experiment – from the Bauhaus to EXAT 300 21 Maroje Mrduljaš Synthesis in Croatian Architecture: 1947-1965 314 22 Iva Ceraj Bernardo Bernardi and EXAT 51: From Avant-garde Activism to the Culture of Living 332 23 Ana Ofak Expo Lab / Pavilions between Art and Industry in 1950 344 24 Andrea Klobučar The Textile Department of the Crafts School and Academy of Applied Arts in Zagreb – an Example of the Bauhaus Educational Model 362 25 Bogo Župančič The B Course – the Slovenian Bauhaus of the Early 1960s 376 26 Darko Šimičić Chronology 1918-1961 392 27 Zrinka Ivković Bibliography on the Bauhaus and its Impact 410 List of exhibits 418 Lectures, conversations, book launches, events, workshops, exhibitions, as part of the Bauhaus - networking ideas and practice (BAUNET) project 428 6 21 Synthesis in Croatian Architecture: 1947-1965 Vjenceslav Richter, Pavilion of Yugoslavia at EXPO 58, Brussels, interior, 1958, Archives of Yugoslavia, Belgrade Maroje Mrduljaš Synthesis in After the Second World War, the international map of research trends in architecture was in the pro- cess of restructuring. Most of the leading figures in the European architectural avant-garde – including Bauhaüslers Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, and others – had emigrated to the USA. CIAM was dominated by the prominent partisans of modernism: Le Corbusier, Sigfried Giedion, and José Croatian Luis Sert. Behind the Iron Curtain, where some CIAM cells were still active, there was conflict between modernism and social realism. The main topics of CIAM included the new monumentality and synthe- sis of decorative arts, whose foundations had been laid in the pre-war period through the activities of Architecture: the Bauhaus and De Stijl. The issue of synthesis within CIAM was presented by Giedion at a post-war congress in Bridgewater in 1947, and the same subject was at the core of the Bergam congress working group in 1949, entitled Art and Architecture. The debate on synthesis was particularly vigorous in France. 1947 Nicola Pezolet has emphasised that the various approaches of individuals, groups, and institutions such 1. Nicola Pezolet in his doctoral as Le Corbusier, the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, or the Groupe Espace did not only continue research into dissertation Spectacles Plastiques: ‘total art’, but were also part of the complex process of finding a role for modern art within the modern- Reconstruction and the Debates on the 1965 ‘Synthesis of the Arts’ in France, 1 isation processes of the post-war welfare state. Comparable tendencies in exploring decorative forms 1944-1962 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 21 could be observed in peripheral settings such as Finland or Brazil. 2013). 21 Synthesis in Croatian Architecture: 1947-1965 From the early 1950s, synthesis was also a central topic in Croatia in discussing new trends in architec- Richter: “The road to synthesis leads through ture and the visual arts in the turbulent cultural and socio-political context of the post-war reconstruc- abstract art” 2. The group’s members included tion of Yugoslavia. Discussions of synthesis were largely associated with the activities of EXAT 51,2 but in the architects Bernardo Bernardi, fact it was multifaceted and involved other protagonists and positions. In the architectural discourse of Zdravko Bregovac, Zvonimir Radić, the 1950s and 1960s, there was no accurate elaboration of synthesis as a concept, but the relationship Vjenceslav Richter, who enjoyed the strong political support of SKOJ members from 1939 on and bene- Božidar Rašica, Vjenceslav Richter, and Vladimir Zarahović, and the between various theoretical or critical texts and practice means two principal positions can be identi- fited from the fact that he had participated in the anti-fascist struggle, gathered young artists such as painters Vlado Kristl, Ivan Picelj, and fied. The first was promoted by EXAT 51 and it blurred the boundaries between architecture, design, and Ivan Picelj, Aleksandar Srnec, and the architect Zvonimir Radić around him, and collaborated with them Aleksandar Srnec. painting, and between the ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ arts. The problem was formulated universally, as a primar- on a series of pavilions for trade fairs and exhibitions, while still a student. These exhibition pavilions in- ily visual phenomenon. The aesthetics and interests of EXAT 51’s members were heterogeneous, but the cluded syncretistic references to various historical avant-gardes. Vladimir Kulić has accurately detected 3. For an analysis of trends in Croatian design during the 1950s, the concept of synthesis was most consistently elaborated by the architect Vjenceslav Richter. The activities these sources, which included the “constructivist reduction of the language of design to floating linear role of EXAT 51 and the Triennial, see