A one-day research workshop at Tate Britain, co-organised by Emilie Oléron Evans, explores the material, textual, and historiographical legacies of the Bauhaus
The research workshop 'Reconfiguring Relationships' at Tate Britain on Friday 18 October, convened by Elizabeth Darling (Oxford Brookes University), Emilie Oléron Evans (Queen Mary University of London) and Rachel Rose Smith (independent, Tate Research), runs parallel to the Spotlight display on 'Bauhaus in Britain' at Tate Britain (until 17th November) and brings together scholars and curators with research interests related to connections between Britain and the Bauhaus school.
Topics include the interplay of material legacies (e.g. via archives, images, objects) and people-based narratives in research areas connected to migration and refuge, reflecting upon the impact of absences (especially in object-based displays or visually oriented studies) of, for example, actions, events, and important forms of connection, such as teaching or supportive networks. Networks also emerged in textual encounters and through specific publications transmitting and translating ideas associated with the Bauhaus. Through processes of selection, translation and circulation, the printed discourse not only facilitated, it also reconfigured the reception of the movement in Britain. Talking about legacies also means interrogating more generally the way the Bauhaus and its relationship to Britain has been talked about subsequent to its closure: what and who has been included in that history, and might future focuses in considerations of Britain and the modern lie elsewhere?
This event is sponsored by the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations, as part of the research programme of their Visual Arts and Film section, and has been generously funded by a Small Educational Programme Grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
Session 1: People-based narratives and material historiesChair: Rachel Rose SmithValeria Carullo, Walter Gropius in London, May 1934Tanya Harrod, ‘the living texture’ - Ethel Mairet, weaving and the BauhausRachel Dickson (presentation read by Sarah MacDougall), “The Man From The Bauhaus”: The LostCareer of Werner “Jacky” JacksonRespondent: Michael White
Session 2: Texts and their circulationChair: Emilie Oléron EvansHarriet Atkinson, ‘From the tail of the class to the front row’? The impact of Bauhaus exhibitiontechnique on BritainAnne Sudrow, Military Intelligence on the Bauhaus: British Interest in German Industrial Designand Design Education after World War IICatalina Mejia Moreno, Photographs of photographs of silosRespondent: Ines Weizman
Session 3: Historiographic legaciesChair: Elizabeth DarlingLouise Campbell, Lost in translation? Peter Behrens, New Ways (1925–6) and the paradigm of thepioneerAlan Powers, ‘Floating midway on the waves’: the Bauhaus as illusion or realityDorothy Price, Britain and the Bauhaus: Other StoriesRespondent: Grant Watson