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Local art academy buys Bauhaus treasures
By Xu Wenwen |
May 16, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
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UP to 7,010 pieces from a collection of Bauhaus works, a school in Germany that was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught, can now be found at the Xianshang campus of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou.
Bauhaus was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts operating from 1919 to 1933. The Bauhaus style was one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design, which had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design and typography.
The Hangzhou municipal government paid 55 million euros (US$78.1 million) to purchase the artworks from German collector Torsten Broehan, who is internationally recognized as an authority on the subject of design.
The collection includes furniture, vessels, stamps and posters, of which the time of creation spans from the 1850s to the end of the 20th century. Each piece is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
Many of the purchased pieces are noted as landmarks in the design industry.
For example, the Red and Blue Chair designed by Gerrit Rietveld in 1917, which signaled a radical change in architectural theory, represents one of the first explorations by De Stijl (a Dutch art movement) in three dimensions.
Similarly, the Barcelona Chair, an icon of modernism exclusively designed by Ludiwg Mies van der Rohe for the Germany Pavilion which he also designed for the 1929 International Exposition held in Barcelona, Spain.
The chair features an X-shaped steel frame and the design was inspired by the campaign and folding chairs of ancient times.
And door handles designed by Walter Gropius in 1923, which are now considered an icon of 20th-century design and often listed as one of the most influential designs to emerge from Bauhaus, are also part of the collection.
Collector Broehan intended to sell his collection as "he is aging and has no offspring," said Song Jianming, vice president of the China Academy of Art, who went on to explain that Broehan was willing to transfer his collection to Asia as he had witnessed the rise of the continent.
Aware of the news last October, the China Academy of Art immediately contacted Broehan. Hangzhou was competing against Seoul, South Korea, who bid a higher price.
"Hangzhou won eventually, partly due to the nice appearance of the Xiangshan campus of the China Academy of Art," Song said.
The Xiangshan campus is nestled among green mountains on the outskirts of Hangzhou and features skillfully designed buildings that match the landscape.
The campus has contributed 1.5 million yuan (US$230,767) for establishing a storage space exclusively for the Bauhaus treasures.
The academy plans to establish a Bauhaus Art Gallery at the campus, which will cover 12,000 square meters and be open to the public for free.
A Bauhaus graduate school will be founded in the school later this year, and doctoral candidates studying Bauhaus are now being recruited.
Both the local government and the university expect the action will help put the city on the international map.
"As Hangzhou is dedicated to making itself a 'creative city,' it needs a first-class international art brand as a platform to communicate with other international cities," said Chen Zhenlian, deputy director of the Standing Committee of Hangzhou People's Congress.
"Western collections have seldom been collected by Asians on such a large scale," said Xu Jiang, principal of the China Academy of Art. "We not only buy the collections, but the thought behind them, which will influence not only the city but even the nation."
Bauhaus was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts operating from 1919 to 1933. The Bauhaus style was one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design, which had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design and typography.
The Hangzhou municipal government paid 55 million euros (US$78.1 million) to purchase the artworks from German collector Torsten Broehan, who is internationally recognized as an authority on the subject of design.
The collection includes furniture, vessels, stamps and posters, of which the time of creation spans from the 1850s to the end of the 20th century. Each piece is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
Many of the purchased pieces are noted as landmarks in the design industry.
For example, the Red and Blue Chair designed by Gerrit Rietveld in 1917, which signaled a radical change in architectural theory, represents one of the first explorations by De Stijl (a Dutch art movement) in three dimensions.
Similarly, the Barcelona Chair, an icon of modernism exclusively designed by Ludiwg Mies van der Rohe for the Germany Pavilion which he also designed for the 1929 International Exposition held in Barcelona, Spain.
The chair features an X-shaped steel frame and the design was inspired by the campaign and folding chairs of ancient times.
And door handles designed by Walter Gropius in 1923, which are now considered an icon of 20th-century design and often listed as one of the most influential designs to emerge from Bauhaus, are also part of the collection.
Collector Broehan intended to sell his collection as "he is aging and has no offspring," said Song Jianming, vice president of the China Academy of Art, who went on to explain that Broehan was willing to transfer his collection to Asia as he had witnessed the rise of the continent.
Aware of the news last October, the China Academy of Art immediately contacted Broehan. Hangzhou was competing against Seoul, South Korea, who bid a higher price.
"Hangzhou won eventually, partly due to the nice appearance of the Xiangshan campus of the China Academy of Art," Song said.
The Xiangshan campus is nestled among green mountains on the outskirts of Hangzhou and features skillfully designed buildings that match the landscape.
The campus has contributed 1.5 million yuan (US$230,767) for establishing a storage space exclusively for the Bauhaus treasures.
The academy plans to establish a Bauhaus Art Gallery at the campus, which will cover 12,000 square meters and be open to the public for free.
A Bauhaus graduate school will be founded in the school later this year, and doctoral candidates studying Bauhaus are now being recruited.
Both the local government and the university expect the action will help put the city on the international map.
"As Hangzhou is dedicated to making itself a 'creative city,' it needs a first-class international art brand as a platform to communicate with other international cities," said Chen Zhenlian, deputy director of the Standing Committee of Hangzhou People's Congress.
"Western collections have seldom been collected by Asians on such a large scale," said Xu Jiang, principal of the China Academy of Art. "We not only buy the collections, but the thought behind them, which will influence not only the city but even the nation."
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