THE DANCING ARTIST - Centre Pompidou Metz · THE DANCING ARTIST 2. 1. ... At Gurlitt, Schlemmer sees the last exhibition of Die Brücke ... takes over his lessons. First experience

OSKAR SCHLEMMERTHE DANCING ARTIST

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1. EXHIBITION OVERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03

2. TIMELINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04

3. EXHIBITION LAYOUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07

4. ARTISTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

5. PARTNERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

6. PRESS VISUALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

CONTENTS

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OSKAR SCHLEMMER THE DANCING ARTISTFrom 13th October 2016 to 16th January 2017

GALERIE 2

1.EXHIBITION OVERVIEW

The Centre Pompidou-Metz is pleased to announce an exhibition dedicated to a major figure of the 20th century, the German artist and choreographer Oskar Schlemmer (1888-1943), who revolutionized dance and performance art especially within the Bauhaus.

Through his focus on bodies in motion and in relationship to space, Oskar Schlemmer laid down early and essential milestones in the history of performing arts. The present exhibition demonstrates his desire to turn performing arts into a modern art form in its own right, as embodied by his manifesto artwork, The Triadic Ballet, as well as his performances, dances and costume parties, and even his staging of works by great composers like Igor Stravinsky or Arnold Schönberg.

Schlemmer’s ambition was no less than to renew the art conceptions of his time through the combination of avant-garde thinking and humanist ideas from the Renaissance. His thoughts and theories started to give rise to entirely new art forms between 1921 and 1929, when hired as a Master of form at the Bauhaus and in charge of the seminar on “Men”.

Based on major and sensational artworks mostly coming from the Bühnen Archiv Oskar Schlemmer’s collection, the exhibition highlights Schlemmer’s artistic rigor and constant openness to novelty. Through the work of Oskar Schlemmer, we are invited to discover another side of the Bauhaus. Beyond the famous school of applied arts, the Bauhaus was also a leading place experiments in the field of performance arts and choreography in the inter-wars years, and continues to impact today’s creation.

At the center of the exhibition, the fascinating sculpture-costumes invented by Oskar Schlemmer are displayed on a large stage around which gravitates a selection of drawings. Among them are his Tanz Figurinen’s exceptional sketchbook, which captures Schlemmer’s thinking for about fifteen years, as well as photography and movie archives representative of this area. The exhibition also showcases a large selection of artworks by Giorgio de Chirico, Constantin Brancusi, Alexandra Exter and other artists met at the Bauhaus – like Vassily Kandinsky, László Mohoy-Nagy and Paul Klee- in the aim of emphasizing the reciprocal influences between Schlemmer’s work and the artists of his generation.

Along with an extensive program of events, the exhibition will be the opportunity to revive the effervescence of the Bauhaus as the ultimate place of experiments. This project makes all the more sense at the Centre Pompidou-Metz -heir of these pioneering experiments in breaking down barriers between art forms- that the Musicircus. Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou collection exhibition exploring the relationship between music and visual arts in the 20th century, is still on in the Grande Nef.

Curators: C. Raman SchlemmerEmma Lavigne, Director of Centre Pompidou-Metz


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2.TIMELINE

(Extracts from Oskar Schlemmer’s biography by C.Raman Schlemmer, grandson of the artist, published in Oskar Schlemmer, under the dir. of Corine Diserens - RMN- Musées de Marseille, 1999).

Oskar Schlemmer is born in Stuttgart, on September 4th.

He attends Stuttgart School of Applied Arts. He makes his first nude drawings and paintings such as Stillleben mit Kasperpuppe (Still life with puppet).

He receives a scholarship and enters the Fine Art Academy of Stuttgart. He meets Willy Baumeister and the three years older Swiss painter Otto Meyer-Amden, who became a life-long friend and with who he kept an intense correspondence along the years. Impression, Sunrise by Monet is revealed during the first impressionist exhibition at Nadar’s former photography studio. The painting gives the movement its name. Max Lievermann makes a much-noticed participation to the Salon de Paris.

Schlemmer leaves the Academy to work in Berlin. In 1911, he paints many landscapes, still lives, homes and self-portraits in which he tries to simplify forms and use strict compositions based on cubist principles. He meets Herwarth Walden, who started publishing the Der Sturm review in 1910 and exhibits Oskar Kokoschka and the Blue Rider in spring 1912, as well as futurist artists later on. At Gurlitt, Schlemmer sees the last exhibition of Die Brücke (The Bridge), which splits up the same year. In spring 1912, he reads the recently published Concerning the spiritual in Art by Vassily Kandinsky and buys the Blue Rider Almanach in July. Back to Stuttgart, he becomes one of Adolf Hölzel’s master students in spring 1912 and takes over his lessons. First experience of dance and first notes on dancing in his diary.

In May, the Kunstgebäude, a new building hosting two artistic institutions, is inaugurated in Stuttgart, along with an exhibition featuring works by Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Manet, Monet, and Renoir as well as a selection of contemporary artworks, among which some of Hölzel and his master student, Oskar Schlemmer. The Der Stadt gallery in Stuttgart buys Landschaft mit weissem Haus (Landscape

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with white house), the only work by Schlemmer accepted by the jury. Schlemmer is disappointed that his Berlin paintings are not exhibited. On May 6th, he creates the Neuer Kunstsalon am Neckar tor (1913-1914) with his brother Willy, an art salon where they show modern painting as an alternative to the official Stuttgart exhibitions censured by juries: the salon features artists like Gabrielle Münther, Otto Meyer-Amden, Willi Baumeister, George Braque, Juan Gris, Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, August Macke, and Franz Marc among others.

Hölzel commissions his pupils Schlemmer, Baumeister and Hermann Stenner three mural paintings for the hallway of the main building of the Werkbund exhibition in Cologne. On this occasion, Schlemmer is noticed by architects Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer. He takes part in several exhibitions in Europe. In September 1914, he enlists as a volunteer on the Western front. Injured in October, he is treated in several military hospitals.

Once recovered, Schlemmer is transferred to the Eastern front where he is injured again. After another stay at the hospital, Schlemmer recovers in his original garrison and meets Johannes Itten, another student of Hölzel. He takes his distance with pictorial traditions and, during this year, abstraction takes over his paintings, as shown in Komposition auf Rosa. Verhältnis dreier Figuren (Composition on pink ground. Relationship of three figures).

Military service. In March, he is transferred in Mulhouse in a measurement service that settles in Colmar later on. Around the end of the war, he comes back to Stuttgart and works on the dances to be shown during the charity party of the regiment. Das Triadiche Ballet (The Triadic Ballet) is partially performed for the first time.

Exhibition in Stuttgart with Baumeister. Released from military service, he comes back to Stuttgart as an assistant professor at the Fine Art Academy, were a workshop is made available to him.

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1919

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(Schlemmer dances under the pseudonym of Walter Schoppe). Gropius commissions him the interior and curtain design of the municipal theater of Iena he is rebuilding with Meyer. Schlemmer works on the project with his students, but after Theo van Doesburg’s criticism of the design, Gropius has it covered up before the inauguration. His second daughter Ute Jaïna is born.

For the first exhibition of the Bauhaus, Schlemmer suggests painting the entrance workshop and to exhibit sculptures. During the Bauhaus week, The Triadic Ballet is performed in Weimar.

Schlemmer creates his Galeriebilder (Gallery paintings) as well as mural paintings for Meyer’s house in Weimar. He exhibits in Stuttgart and Berlin, and directs at Erwin Piscator’s Berliner Volksbühne as well as the National Theater of Weimar.

His son Tilman is born. In April, part of the Bauhaus moves to Dessau. At first, Gropius does not intend to prolong Schlemmer’s contract. Finally, he offers him a part-time position as a Master and tasks him to create an experimental theater in a theatrical space about to be arranged in the future school buildings. He is proposed to move in one of the Master Houses. He arrives in September and works at the Typentheater. Schlemmer, Lászlò Moholy-Nagy and Farkas Molnar contribute to Die Bühne im Bauhaus (The Theater of the Bauhaus), the fourth volume of the first series of books published by the Bauhaus in 1925. Schlemmer also designs its cover.

For the carnival, Schlemmer is in charge of organizing the first Bauhaus party: the famous and mythical White Party. In July, The Triadic Ballet is performed during the music days of Donaueschingen, and Hindemith offers to compose a piece for mechanic organ for the ballet. Parts of The Triadic Ballet are also performed during the Brückenrevue (the Great Bridge Review) in Frankfurt and at the Metropol Theater of Berlin. Over the summer, Schlemmer’s family moves in one of the Master’s Houses before the inauguration of the new Bauhaus building in December. On this occasion, exclusive demonstrations of the Bauhaus Dances are performed at the new theater: Raumtanz (Space dance), Gestentanz (Gesture dance), Formentanz (Form dance), Kulissentanz (Flats dance).

Schlemmer gives a lecture-demonstration on set design to the Circle of Friends of the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus takes part in the exhibition held at the German Theater of Magdeburg. In June, Schlemmer meets Laban at the Dance Congress. Over the summer, he meets Hermann Scherchen at Monte Verità and considers collaborating with him on The Wedding by Stravinsky. During winter, he comes up with the idea of organizing the Schlagwörterfest festival at the Bauhaus. This year, Schlemmer does not paint.

Schlemmer is elected at the students’ committee of the Academy. His attempted reforms meet the opposition of the school teachers. Additionally, his proposal to appoint Paul Klee as Hölzel’s successor is declined. In May, he receives the manifesto of the Bauhaus recently created by Gropius in Weimar, after merging two former Fine Art Academies that were closed during the war. Schlemmer focuses on his dance projects and creates a couple of paintings as well as his first sculptures.

Schlemmer leaves the Academy in April in order to focus on The Triadic Ballet. He meets musician Paul Hindemith. In September, he marries Helena Tutein, nicknamed Tut. In January 1920, Walden showcases new artworks by Baumeister, Dexel and Schlemmer at the Der Sturm gallery. Schlemmer’s nineteen paintings and fifteen drawings are the focal point of the exhibition. His work and its installation are highly praised and the exhibition travels to the Galerie Arnold in Dresde as well as to the Folkwang Museum in Hagen. In December, Oskar Schlemmer is hired as a Master of form at the Bauhaus and becomes a fellow teacher of Walter Gropius, Lyonel Feininger, Johannes Itten and Paul Klee.

At the Bauhaus, Schlemmer is asked to direct the wall painting department and teaches human figure drawing. His first daughter Karin is born.

Kandinsky is hired at the Bauhaus as a teacher. Schlemmer is asked to design the Bauhaus’ new seal (see below). As a Master of form, he directs the wood and stone sculpture workshops. On March 13th, The Figural Cabinet is performed at the Bauhaus for the first time. On September 30th, The Triadic Ballet is performed in Stuttgart for the first time

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Oskar Schlemmer, Bauhaus Signet / Signet du Bauhaus, 1923© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.or


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Carnival party at the Bauhaus known as the “Beard-Nose-Heart” party. Gropius decides to leave the Bauhaus, and with him Lászlò Moholy-Nagy, Marcel Breuer and Herbert Bayer. For his going away party, Schlemmer creates a nine-year chronicle of the Bauhaus he presents with his students. In June, the Theater of the Bauhaus meets great success at the Dance Congress of Essen. Hannes Meyer, the new director, begins reforming the Bauhaus’ educational programs. Schlemmer starts to direct the mandatory third semester seminar on “Men”. He goes through a very intense period of pictorial activity and is commissioned to paint murals for the Fountain Room of the Folkwang Museum in Essen.

In February, the most memorable party of the Bauhaus is organized: the Metal Party. The Theater of the Bauhaus meets great success in Berlin and travels to Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Basel. However, it receives criticism from within the school. Schlemmer leaves the Bauhaus in October to start teaching at the Breslau Academy of Art. “Space and Man” is the theme of his going away party.Schlemmer works on his Essen murals as well as the staging of an opera and ballet by Stravinsky for the municipal theater of Breslau.

Gropius shows three figures of The Triadic Ballet in Paris. Schlemmer travels to Berlin from Paris to design the set of The Hand of Fate by Schönberg at the Kroll Oper. In October, he receives the alarming notice that his paintings from 1923 in the Weimar workshops were destroyed.

Interior design of Doctor Rabe’s house in Zwenkau. A decree announces the imminent closure of the Breslau Academy.

Schlemmer gives a lecture at the Kunstbibliothek (Art Library) of Berlin on set design and his theory of theater. In June, he is appointed at the Vereinigte Staatschulen für Kunst (the United State School of Free and Applied Art) of Berlin and gives an inaugural lecture on Perspective. On July 4th, The Triadic Ballet is performed in Paris on Fernand Léger’s initiative. It receives an award during the International Dance Congress. At Breslau, Schlemmer creates some of his main paintings such as Treppenszene (Stairway Scene), Szene am Geländer (Banister Scene), and Bauhaustreppe (Bauhaus Stairway). Schlemmer moves to Berlin-Siemensstadt with his family.

His long-time best friend and intellectual challenger, Meyer Amden, dies on January 15th. The SA cancels Schlemmer’s exhibition planned at the Kunstverein of Stuttgart. He writes a protest letter to Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda and president of the Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of culture). He is discharged on April 30th and officially dismissed from the education system in August. Schlemmer leaves Berlin and his family.

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Schlemmer organizes an exhibition in tribute to Meyer-Amden and publishes a monographic book of his work. Ludwig Kirchner invites him in Davos. He rents a small house for his family in Eichberg.

Schlemmer goes back to painting only in 1935-1936. He works on a new version of The Triadic Ballet for Das Komische Ballet. He starts a few theatrical projects in Zurich but lacks budget and does not follow through. Schlemmer learns he is featured in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition held in Munich, with nine artworks from collections of German museums.

In 1938 and the following years, Schlemmer earns his living in a painting firm of Stuttgart for which he does interior design work and building camouflage after the beginning of the war. The great exhibition on the Bauhaus held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the German Art exhibition held in London confirms the significance of Schlemmer’s work.

Schlemmer starts to experiment new varnishes for the Kurt Herberts factory in Wuppertal, a safe haven for artists persecuted by the regime. Schlemmer complains about his illness and state of depression in his diary.

Schlemmer paints the Fensterbilder (Window Pictures) in Wuppertal. He dies on April 13th, 1943, in Baden-Baden.

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“It is strange how people which opinion I value more overtly tell me that theater is what suits me best. Of course, I have thought about it during the Bauhaus festival with the mask party, a play of mechanical figures for which I had to direct the whole thing by dressing up as a crazy teacher: since then, this idea about me has not stopped growing.”

Oskar Schlemmer, Letter to Otto Meyer-Amden, March 13th, 1922

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1. 1. FIGURE IN SPACE

From the Forum entrance, visitors are immerged in Oskar Schlemmer’s world with the display of two of his major metal sculptures, a medium he started to explore at the Bauhaus of Weimar in the 1920’s.

The first one, entitled Die Gliedergruppe, reveals his humanist thought process centered on the place of men in space, and embodies the artistic concerns that characterized his work, from three-dimensionality to scenic space. Suspended in the large vault of the Forum, the metallic wire sculpture echoes the spatial limitations that Schlemmer experimented in the Bauhaus Dances: “Oftentimes, we were the first ones to be surprised by what we created. Like marking the center of the stage with stretched ropes, and from this center (visualizing) the “tensions” that induced completely new orientations of space and motion” he explains about Space Dance in his diary of September 1931. The wall sculpture entitled Homo mit Rückenfigur auf der Hand was commissioned by Doctor Rabe for his house designed by architect Adolf Rading. For the first time, Schlemmer was able to give life to his concept of sculpture floating in space in the framework of an architectural project. In a letter to Willi Baumeister of 1931, he describes the work as followed: “The metallic wire sculpture (Drahtplastik), better called “metallic composition” or figural composition with metallic wires, consists of three figures: one big figure carrying a smaller one in its hand, and on the right-hand wall, over more than five meters height, the metallic profile of a face. The figures are placed about eight centimeters away from the wall so that, depending on light variations, they cast interesting moving shadows like a sundial.”

3.EXHIBITION LAYOUT

“In reality, the metallic figures I made are phantasmagorical. But the pictures do not capture it.”

Letter to Willi Baumeister, Breslau, July 22nd, 1931, from The Letters and Diaries of Oskar Schlemmer.

Oskar Schlemmer, Drahtfigur Homo mit Rückenfigur auf der Hand , 1930-1931/1977 © 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.org


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2. THE TRIADIC BALLET

After World War I, Oskar Schlemmer was confronted to the necessity of reevaluating the place of men in a new world overruled by technique. This period, characterized by the blooming of avant-garde ideas on theatre, was also marked by the elaboration of The Triadic Ballet. As a result of ten years of research, Schlemmer imagined a dance truly freed from all pre-established rules, around polychromatic costumes put in motion. For the premiere of the ballet in 1922 in Stuttgart, Schlemmer himself danced wearing the costume of the Abstract, which embodies the “triumph of pure abstract form.”

This piece, which condenses Schlemmer’s vision and ambitions for a modern theater, is fraught with tensions between classical references and innovations while attempting to reach a balance of opposites. The choreography consists of three sequences each associated with a distinct color: a yellow burlesque universe, a festive pink environment and a mystical black ending. Within each sequence, one, two or three dancers perform in eighteen different costumes. This complete work of art is based on various triple relations that Schlemmer describes in his diary: “Form, color, and space. The three dimensions of space: height, depth and width. The fundamental forms: sphere, cube and pyramid. The primary colors: red, blue and yellow. The trinity of dance, costume and music, etc.”

Through the change of musical background, the atmosphere of the piece progressively shifts from cheerful at first, to solemn and ceremonious, and mystical at the end, in Schlemmer’s own terms. After several musical trials, Schlemmer found the most suitable music for his ballet in 1926, while working on its performance in Donaueschingen with Paul Hindemith, one of the masters of contemporary mechanic and acoustic music, who offered to compose a piece for mechanic organ.

The ballet, staged for the very first time in 1916, was premiered in Stuttgart only in 1922. In the following years, The Triadic Ballet was performed at the national theaters of Weimar, Dresden, Donaueschingen, and Frankfurt. In 1932, at the initiative of Fernand Léger, Schlemmer presented the ballet at the choreography contest of the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, and won the bronze medal.

Oskar Schlemmer, Das Triadische Ballett, Zwei Figurinen, Gelbe Reihe II , 1919© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.org

Oskar Schlemmer, Das Triadische Ballett, Plakat Leibniz-Akademie , Hannovre, 1924

© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.org

“The Triadic Ballet, amusingly cheerful without being grotesque, flirting with conventions without giving way to their baseness, aspiring to body dematerialization without falling into occultism, has to lead the way toward a German ballet with enough style and specificities to compete with its siblings, undoubtedly remarkable, yet stranger to the essence of dancing like Russian or Swedish ballets.”

Oskar Schlemmer, Diary, September 1922.

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FOCUS : THE TANZ FIGURINEN SKETCHBOOK

This twenty-four pages long sketchbook consists of a collection of sketches, drawings and notes that Oskar Schlemmer made and took probably in between 1912/1916 and 1922. True summary of the artist’s researches on costumes, masks, and the place of dancers’ body and motion, this sketchbook provides essential clues on Schlemmer’s work process. This testimony on the wealth and deep coherence of his artistic evolution gives us a precious insight on the origin of his work, and more precisely, helps us understand the creative process of The Triadic Ballet.

Oskar Schlemmer, Skizzenbuch Tanz Figurinen, 1914-1922 Blatt 22a / Planche 22a

(Das Triadische Ballett, Tänzer, türkisch II, und Kostümstudien and Das Triadische Ballett, Tänzer, türkisch I, Kostümstudie Kugelrock und Tänzer, türkisch II , 1919

© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.org


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3. PEDAGOGY AND THEORY AT THE BAUHAUS

Oskar Schlemmer’s teaching at the Bauhaus echoed the diversity and multidisciplinary aspect of his art practice: in 1921, Walter Gropius hired him to direct the wall painting workshop, and afterwards the wood and stone sculpture workshop. He later directed the theatre workshop and the theater of the Bauhaus. For Schlemmer, theatrical art was a synthesis of color, form and space orchestrated by the artist conceived as an all together plastic artist, architect, sculptor, painter and choreographer.

From the opening of the Bauhaus in 1919, the interdisciplinary art of theater was fully integrated in the school rich educational program, which mission was to remove partitions between art forms. Lothar Schreyer was the first teacher to give theater classes in an art school. However the researches he started at the Bauhaus followed in the footsteps of expressionist theater, for which feelings remained the main thread of a work. This conception was far away from the Bauhaus principle of a fusion between art and technique, culminating in the advent of pure forms. This irreconcilable disagreement led to Schreyer’s resignation in 1923. Oskar Schlemmer was appointed after him; and the many innovations he brought in the field of performance marked a decisive turning point in the history of theatrical arts.

The following year, Schlemmer published his manifesto entitled Man and Art Figure in the Theater of the Bauhaus, in which he develops his fundamental views on theater through the symbolic and then practical study of every elements of stage production. Bodies are at the heart of Schlemmer’s artistic reflection as well as his teaching at the Bauhaus seen as a field of choreographic experimentation.

His numerous seminars, and specifically the one on “Man” he gave between 1928 and 1929, reflected the debates that took place in the Bauhaus about the synthesis of the arts –a symbiosis of dance, music, architecture and painting-, the importance of material and technical mastery, and the place of men in space. This intense period of creation was supported by rigorous researches that led Schlemmer to take distance with a fixed conception of anatomy in order to reinvent an undetermined body extended by various props within the choreographic experimentations of the Bauhaus Dances.

“The history of theater is the history of the transformation of human form: it is the history of men as they represent physical and spiritual events, combining simplicity and reflection, nature and artifice. This act of transfiguration is made possible through forms and colors, the means of painters and sculptors. This act of transfiguration happens in the formal and delimited structure of space and architecture, as the work of the architect. It is how plastic artists define their role in scenic arts, as the ones who synthetize these elements. Our time is defined by abstraction… but it is also defined by mechanization, an inexorable process that takes hold of every aspect of life and art.”

Oskar Schlemmer, Man and Art Figure, 1924

Oskar Schlemmer, Die Zeichen im Menschen, 1924/1986© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.org

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FOCUS : THE FIGURAL CABINETL

After its non-official premiere in 1922 at one of the Bauhaus parties, it was only almost a year later that The Figural Cabinet was officially performed on stage, on August 17th, 1923, during the first exhibition of the Bauhaus entitled Art and Technique- A New Unity.

Conceived by Schlemmer as “halfway between a killing game and metaphysicum abstractum”, The Figural Cabinet stages invisible dancers moving abstract figures on stage such as The-Body-like-a-Violin, the Turk, or Miss-Rosy-Red, in order to give the impression that they are mechanically moving on their own. A second version of The Figural Cabinet was projected on screen and showed the technical experiments commonly conducted at the Bauhaus. This work reveals the influence of Heinrich Von Kleist’s On the Theater of Marionette on Schlemmer: a desire for a contemporary theater in which men –due to their flawed emotivity- are replaced by puppets.

Oskar Schlemmer, Das figurale Kabinett, II. Fassung, 1926-1927© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.org


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4. THE BAUHAUS DANCES

Through combining theoretical and practical education and experimenting with props as body extension through extracorporeal structures, Schlemmer invented unique choreographic forms in his theater workshop at the Bauhaus of Dessau, such as the Metal Dance, the Stick Dance, or the Glass Dance.

Dancers wore masks and costumes that constrained their gestures in an abstract way, therefore calling into question spatial law and scenic composition. The obvious extravagance of the Bauhaus Dances, even their ironic and satirical aspect, strongly contrasted with the formal rigor of the exercises in which they were rooted.

“Victory for the aesthetics! I went from one-dimensional surface geometry to semi-sculpture (three-dimension), and thus, to the fully sculptural art of human body. There is also the geometry of the floor on which one dances; even if only as an element and projection of solid’s spatial geometry. I am working on a similar geometry of fingers and piano notes in order to find an identity (or a unity of motion and body forms)…”

Oskar Schlemmer, Letter to Otto Meyer, 1920

Lux Feininger, Stäbetanz (Manda von Kreibig), 1929© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.org

Oskar Schlemmer, Danse de l’espace, 1927, avec Oskar Schlemmer© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer,

www.schlemmer.org

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FOCUS : THE HOOP DANCE

The Hoop Dance (Reifentanz) restaged for this exhibition, shows the extent of the scenic devices Schlemmer imagined for his very complex choreographies.

On a black background, a ground of hoops covers the floor, the frond and the back of the stage, hence delimiting a graphic space at the center of which a black-costumed dancer manipulates various hoops of different sizes. In the superimposition of rounded shapes, two large anthropomorphic figures stand in the middle of the stage. When put in motion by a second dancer, the figures turn into abstract kinetic sculptures swinging their constantly moving shadows across the stage of this virtual theater.

Oskar Schlemmer, Bauhaustänze, Reifenvorhang, 1926/1964 © 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.org


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5. THE BAUHAUS PARTIES

Walter Gropius succeeded in creating a true bond between teachers and students, as much through to the founding principles of the school than the famous Bauhaus parties, which encouraged friendship between masters and pupils. These joyful moments reinforcing the school identity quickly became famous, and ended up attracting the entire society of Weimar and Dessau. Some parties celebrated the passing of seasons, whereas monthly bawls punctuated the rest of the year with themes as diverse as Lantern, the Solstice Party or the Kite Festival.

Tut Schlemmer wrote in her Memories that, up until the closure of the Bauhaus, parties kept playing a central role. These spontaneous moments of fusion between art forms, artistic extravagance and exuberant improvisation allowed for the experimentation of innovative scenic ideas, which sometime led to real creations like The Figural Cabinet.

Schlemmer was the organizer of plenty of these parties, during which he would put his ideas into practice with the complicity of his students and fellow teachers. It was during his last parties that Schlemmer unleashed his full creativity. During the White Party of 1926, all participants were asked to wear white striped, spotted or check outfits. On the occasion of the Metallic Festival of 1929, the school got covered with metallic colors, as was the invitation card and the slide that welcomed the guests at the entrance and carried them in the main party room of the Bauhaus where the school band was playing.

“Another party a the Bauhaus sparking both hatred and passion (…) The first parties in Weimar, when impressionism was producing its most exuberant and fantastic flowers, the “White Party” at Dessau (before the new buildings), where, next to the white as a primary color, only the red, blue an yellow were tolerated (and yet, they had to be striped, dappled or spotted), and now the “Metal Party”: such are the steps, punctuated by parties and festivities, that intersperse the hard path of this institution. Tell me how you party and I will tell who you are. Or even: each generation, each social category has the party it deserves. When youngsters throw a party, there are always some conclusions to draw on the nature of these young people.”

Oskar Schlemmer, Diary, February 1929

“But bourgeois were annoyed by us, we shocked them- I think we haunted the petty-bourgeois memories for a while- we took an outrageous pleasure in this freedom and we proclaimed our new ideas with frenzy.”

Tut Schlemmer, Memories

Oskar Schlemmer (au centre) avec étudiants, Bauhaus Dessau, 1928 © 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.org

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6. FROM PICTORIAL TO SCENIC SPACE

Schlemmer interpreted the duality between his pictorial and theatrical production - even though they formed a harmonious whole in which each discipline was complementary- based on the mythological opposition between Apollo, who embodies theory and rigor, and Dionysus, who symbolizes practice, in reference to the bacchanalia. Thus, Schlemmer considered drawing and painting as the most rigorous aspect of his work, whereas scenic experimentations were rather an expression of pleasure. This duality also appeared in the distinction between the conception of choreographies and their staging inspired by drawings and paintings on one hand, and their scenic execution and theoretical application on another hand.

Schlemmer’s theatrical theories brought him to transpose his research in space, going from the two-dimensional nature of canvases to the spatial depth of the theater stage. Beyond the Bauhaus Dances – concrete application of his theatrical theories-, Schlemmer also collaborated with some of the greatest composers of his time for whom he created sets and costumes. This puts Schlemmer’s work in perspective with the theatrical production of other artists of the Bauhaus, like Kurt Schmidt with the Mechanical Ballet, and Vassily Kandinsky, with Pictures at an Exhibition.

“Until today, the role of plastic artists, in regard to theater, poets and actors, was to be a their service. Bodies are more important than clothing and home. The more the artist becomes independent and elevates himself to creative freedom, the more he does at the expense of poets and actors. This leads to the ground on which this freedom is made possible. It is possible where the verb stays silent (or dead), where costume is not assigned beforehand and where the stage does not require the illusion of nature. It is possible where the stage is like a blank page. Men become abstract bodies, following the rules of their bodies and the environment (space). It is mime dancing.”

Oskar Schlemmer, Diary, May/June 1940

Oskar Schlemmer, Figur und Raumlineatur, 1924 © 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.org


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FOCUS : MUSICAL ECHOES

“Let met first tell you why I am still here: my work with the conductor has built up to the point of adapting together a musical piece by Stravinsky: The Wedding. It means that we want to try to illustrate the musical act with continuous colorful projections, and see if it is possible to reach new effects all the while avoiding the difficulties of a mime show played by people. This “adaptation” is as challenging as it is fascinating, because, not to mention the technical problems involved in light projections, I have to find a style, a Russian style that I am not familiar with. However I am thrilled about this project.”

Oskar Schlemmer, Letter to Otto Meyer-Amden, 1927

At the beginning of 1913, Oskar Schlemmer, who was himself a musician and wanted to collaborate with contemporary composers, contacted Arnold Schönberg after attending a representation of his Pierrot in the Moonlight, and asked him if he would compose the music of his first ballet. Even though this collaboration never went through, it shows Schlemmer’s awareness for the issues of modern music and the rupture of atonality brought by the Vienna master.

In the 1920’s, Oskar Schlemmer was very productive in the field of theatrical arts. He exchanged ideas with many musicians, choreographers, and dancers of his time. In 1921, he collaborated with Paul Hindemith on the Murderer, Hope of a Women (1919) opera, from the play of the same name by Oskar Kokochka written in 1909; and then on The Nusch-Nuschi (1920), the adaptation by Franz Blei of a Burmese puppet show. He then contributed to the staging of three works by Igor Stravinsky: The Wedding, The Fox, and The Nightingale, staged by Schlemmer in 1929 at the Municipal Theater of Breslau. He designed the sets and costumes of The Nightingale from fundamental geometrical shapes and high-contrast colors. For the second version that was staged the following year, the patterns evolved toward a more Chinese-style ornamental world.

Oskar Schlemmer, Le Rossignol, Bühnenbild mit Mond, 1. Akt, 1929 © 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.org

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4.ARTISTS

Oskar SCHLEMMER

and

Constantin BRANCUSI

Giorgio DE CHIRICO

Alexandra EXTER

Walter GROPIUS

Vassily KANDINSKY

Paul KLEE

Vsevolod MEYERHOLD

Lászlò MOHOLY-NAGY

Kurt SCHMIDT

Lothar SCHREYER

Andor WEININGER


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Centre Pompidou-Metz is the first offshoot of a major French cultural institution, Centre Pompidou, in partnership with regional authorities. An independent body, Centre Pompidou-Metz benefits from the experience, expertise and

international reputation of Centre Pompidou. It shares with its older sibling values of innovation and generosity, and the same determination to engage a wide public through multi-disciplinary programming.

Centre Pompidou-Metz produces temporary exhibitions which draw on loans from the holdings of Centre Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne. With more than 100,000 works, it is the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in

Europe and the second largest in the world.

Centre Pompidou-Metz also develops partnerships with museums around the world. A programme of dance, music, films, lectures and children's workshops further explore themes raised in the exhibitions.

Financial support is provided by Wendel, its founding sponsor.

In a media partnership with

5.PARTNERS

Mécène fondateurMécène fondateur

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Wendel, Founder Patron of Centre Pompidou-Metz

Wendel has been commited since 2010 alongside Centre Pompidou-Metz. Since the opening of the Centre in 2010, Wendel wanted to support a flagship institution whose cultural influence reaches the most people. Thanks to its commitment for many years in favor of Culture, Wendel received the title of Grand Patron of Culture in 2012.

Wendel is one of the leading quoted investment companies in Europe, acting as an investor and professional shareholder, promoting the long-term development of companies which are global leaders in their sectors: Bureau Veritas, Saint-Gobain, IHS, Materis Paints, Stahl, Mecatherm or CSP Technologies.

Founded in 1704 in Lorraine, Wendel Group was committed during 270 years to the development of various activities, especially of the steel industry, before beginning a longterm investor in the late 1970s.

The Group is supported by its reference family shareholder, made up of more than one thousand Wendel family shareholders, who are united in the family company Wendel-Participations, which owns 35% of Wendel.

Press Relations:

Christine Anglade-Pirzadeh : + 33 (0) 1 42 85 63 24 [email protected]

Caroline Decaux + 33 (0) 1 42 85 91 27 [email protected]

www.wendelgroup.com


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6.PRESS VISUALS

Oskar Schlemmer, Le Ballet triadique, Séquence noire, Boule d’or, figure, 1922 (1967/85)

© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman

Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.org

Oskar Schlemmer, Le Ballet triadique, Séquence noire, L’Abstrait, 1920-22/1985

© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman


Oskar Schlemmer, Les signes dans l’Homme, 1924/1986© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer,

www.schlemmer.org

Lux Feininger, Danse des bâtons (Danseuse : Manda

von Kreibig), 1929© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo

Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.

schlemmer.org

Oskar Schlemmer avec étudiants, Bauhaus Dessau, 1928 © 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.

schlemmer.org

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Oskar Schlemmer, Figure et réseau de lignes dans l’espace, 1924

© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.

schlemmer.org

Oskar Schlemmer. Le Ballet triadique, Séquence noire, Spirale, 1922

© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C.

Raman Schlemmer, www.schlemmer.org

Oskar Schlemmer, Le Ballet triadique, Séquence Jaune, Grand masque pour la figure mains boules, 1922

© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer,

www.schlemmer.org

Oskar Schlemmer, Le Ballet triadique, Séquence noire, Boule d’or, 1924



Oskar Schlemmer, Coureur aux échasses, 1927© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman


Oskar Schlemmer, Utopia I/II, 1921© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C.


Oskar Schlemmer tenant un masque et un élément de coordonnée, 1931



Oskar Schlemmer, Danse de l’espace, 1927, avec Oskar Schlemmer

© 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.

schlemmer.org

Oskar Schlemmer, Danses des cerceaux, 1927 © 2016 Oskar Schlemmer, Photo Archive C. Raman Schlemmer, www.

schlemmer.org

Oskar Schlemmer, Le cabinet figural, Profil en jaune, 1922



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The Dancing Artist

Documents

THE DANCING ARTIST - Centre Pompidou Metz · THE DANCING ARTIST 2. 1. ... At Gurlitt, Schlemmer sees the last exhibition of Die Brücke ... takes over his lessons. First experience