Everyday Richness

This extraordinary “252” on the otherwise completely ordinary building caught my eye. I figured that while I had my camera out, I’d snap my way down the rest of the block.



















And this is just one side of the street.

Bauhaus: The Book

“Excuse me,” says the young designer to the clerk in my imaginary, vaguely Monty Pythonesque skit. “I’m looking for a book called Bauhaus.” The clerk replies "walk this way," and proceeds to show her an entire section where every book is titled “Bauhaus.”

The legendary design school is synonymous with creativity and innovativeness, and over the years there have been many lavish and scholarly books published about its history and influence. But where was the creativity when it came to titling these many tomes? True, there is the occasional under-line, over-line, or date range in tiny print. But basically, an enormous number of books fall into perfect lockstep and boldly feature the single–word title of “Bauhaus.”

On the other hand, there is something to be said for clarity in messaging. After all, shouldn’t form follow function?

Really, it's just an excuse to post a bunch of them. The selection here is by no means comprehensive, and many of these are alternate or later printings of earlier editions.

50 Jahre Bauhaus, 1968 catalog (Herbert Bayer cover)
for the exhibition in Stuttgart. The gray cover at the top
of this post, is a 1975 abridged version of the catalog.



Bauhaus, by Fiedler and Feierabend was originally
published in 1999 with the red cover. The cover
of the 2008 edition is white.


Bauhaus by Xavier Girard, Assouline, 2003.



The original edition, top, and the second printing of the
book compiled for MoMA's 1938 Bauhaus exhibition. It was
edited by Herbert Bayer, Walter Gropius and Ise Gropius.



Two books by Magdalena Droste from Taschen.(top, bottom)



Siebenbrodt & Schobe, Parkstone, 2009.


Gerd Fleischmann’s 1995 book incorporates Herbert Bayer’s
design for a 1928 cover of the Bauhaus Journal.


Hans Wingler’s Bauhaus “bible,” by MIT Press, 1969.
Hard cover edition with slipcase, top, and the
soft cover version.


Even the catalog for the recent MoMA show included
“Workshops for Modernity” in the tiniest type possible.

A really great resource for Bauhaus books is the site Modernism 101. There is a blog associated with the site called Bauhaus Cowboy. It seems to have ended in the summer of 2009, but there are still many interesting posts there to peruse.

Architectural Forum Covers

The first three, of these Architectural Forum issues were offered as
one lot on eBay last week…





This next group of issues are available on eBay, from various sellers, right now …









The following are covers from a Frank Lloyd Wright archive at The Steiner Agency. You can go there and see many more wonderful covers of issues referencing Wright.

September 1956

January 1949

February 1961

May 1959

October 1970

December 1970

November 1957

September 1958

November 1959
Apologies for the lack of info on art direction/design/photo credits, etc., but I do not have access to the issues at this time. I hope you can just enjoy the candy for now ...