Celebrate 100 years of Bauhaus at these two new exhibits

This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the first Bauhaus school opening in Weimar, Germany. Bauhaus—from 1919 to 1933—brought together arts, crafts, and industry with a focus on aesthetics and objects. Though it lasted only a few years, it forever changed design.

Today’s architecture has Bauhaus roots (e.g., white, curves, glass corner), which can be seen in many contemporary buildings, especially those of the Silicon Valley variety. And you can still purchase Bauhaus items like a Junghans wristwatch (with its evocative number “4”) by industrial designer Max Bill; Alessi’s series of ashtrays, like this one designed by Marianne Brandt; or Marcel Breuer’s tubular-steel Wassily Chair.

American Institute of Architects San Francisco (AIASF), the Center for Architecture + Design, and the Museum of Craft and Design (MCD) worked together to bring a traveling Bauhaus exhibition to San Francisco, kicking off October 10 until November 8.

The exhibit at AIASF (130 Sutter, SF) will feature, fittingly enough, 100 photographic reprints detailing the ways in which photography was used to document and develop creativity at the Bauhaus. Images will show celebrations and everyday life in the workshops, architecture and products created by the school, and shots from the Bauhaus’ only photography course.

The Museum of Craft and Design (2569 3rd Street, SF) will also display 30 photographs on design objects, weaving workshops (women students were urged to go into weaving), and Bauhaus products shot by Lucia Moholy, László Moholy-Nagy, and T. Lux Feininger.

The exhibition, stylized as “bauhaus.photo,” is free to all visitors at MCD and AIA locations.

If you can’t make it to the show, check out Curbed’s celebration of Bauhaus women, a look at the new Bauhaus Museum, and—best of all—a recollection of the school’s costume parties that put ’90s club kids to shame.

Photo by Grit Kallin-Fischer, courtesy of Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

Photo courtesy of Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin