The exhibition, entitled ?Albers and Moholy-Nagy, From the Bauhaus to the New World?, examines the relationship between the two artists? careers as well as their shared venture toward more abstract ways of expression in the 1920s. Sponsored by BMW United Kingdom, the exhibition runs from March 9 to June 4, 2006.
With more than 200 works in a variety of media ranging from painting and moving sculptures to photography, film, furniture and graphic design, this is the first Tate exhibition dedicated to early Modernist abstraction for more than two decades.
Spanning four decades, the exhibition takes as its starting point the early 1920s, when Albers and Moholy independently developed a rigorously abstract language.
Though their careers overlapped for barely five years, when both taught at the Bauhaus, their creative visions shared a number of concerns. These include an emphasis on experimentation, the subversion of traditional boundaries between high and applied art and a Utopian belief in art as a force for positive social change.
Of particular focus at the exhibition is the creative explosion of the Bauhaus years, when both artists moved freely between media and disciplines. It follows their separate paths through to their emigration to the US in the 1930s, where both men continued to tirelessly push the conventions of artistic practise. As highly influential teachers, Albers and Moholy became important catalysts for the transition of Modernist ideas from Europe to the 'New World'.
Source: Tate Modern
