Herbert Bayer, Graphic Designer

Herbert Bayer was one of the most extraordinary artists associated with the Bauhaus school. A true multimedia artist, he united graphic design, art, and architecture in a unique style that came to represent the bold aesthetic approach of the movement. A teacher with the school until 1928, Bayer went on to become a highly successful graphic designer in Germany, and later one of the most prominent figures in the 20th-century art scene of the United States. This broad biographical account, which presents previously unseen archival photographs and episodes from the life of Bayer and other influential Bauhaus artists such as Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Moholy-Nagy, follows Bayer through the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany and finally to his exile in the United States. Shining a light on Bayer's time in Berlin during the Weimar Republic, and his route out of the Nazi state, Rössler provides rich new insights into how Bauhaus artists navigated a protracted period of social upheaval and dictatorship, where commercial success was fraught with a deep hostility towards the regime and the temptations of emigration. Revealing the tensions of an avant-garde artist struggling to practice during a period of repression, Herbert Bayer, Graphic Designer speaks to both the memory of those who left Nazi Germany, but also the perseverance of artists and intellectuals throughout history who have worked under authoritarian regimes. Drawing on never before interpreted documents, letters and archival material, Rössler tells Bayer's compelling story - documenting the life of a unique artist and offering a valuable contribution to research in émigré experiences.

Patrick Rössler is Professor of Empirical Communication Research and Methods at the University of Erfurt, Germany. He is author of The Bauhaus and Public Relations (2014), and with Elizabeth Otto, he co-edited Bauhaus Bodies: Gender, Sexuality, and Body Culture in Modernism's Legendary Art School (2019). He was recipient of the Justus Bier Prize for German curators of 20th and 21st-century art for the exhibition "Bauhaus and National Socialism" (Weimar 2024).

List of Illustrations A Short Bayer Timeline Introduction: Herbert Bayer's Lost Decade Part One: Formative Experiences - How an Apprentice from Linz Became a Junior Master at the Bauhaus 1. Youth: Family, Friends, and Companions 2. Irene Hecht and Herbert Bayer: A Fateful Relationship 3. Intimate Friendships: Bayer's Work and Life at the Bauhaus 4. Sturm und Drang: Life in Berlin 5. Ise Gropius and the Summer of 1932 Part Two: A Commercial Artist in Nazi Germany 6. Working for Dorland Advertising Agency in Berlin 7. Designs for Propaganda 8. Good Life in Berlin 9. Loyal Bauhaus Circles Part Three: The Path to Emigration 10. The Last Person Left Behind in Berlin 11. Trial Run: The London Gallery Exhibition 12. Dress Rehearsal: Summer Excursion to the United States 13. A Well-Considered Departure Part Four: A New Life: Bayer in the Land of Opportunity 14. Bayer's New Start in the US: The Bauhaus at MoMA 15. Difficult Beginnings: Bayer's First Eight Years in the US Epilogue: Bayer in Berlin, or: A Life in an Echo Chamber Notes Bibliography Index