Amerika 1928 - Photos of a Study Trip by Walter Gropius

until monday february 02 2009
Bauhaus
Archive Museum of Design
T : +49 (0)30 - 25 40 02 0
Klingelhöferstraße 14
D - 10785 Berlin
Germany

bauhaus@bauhaus.de
www.bauhaus.de

Upon resigning as director of the Dessau Bauhaus in early 1928, Walter Gropius decided to fulfil a long-held dream.
Organized in cooperation with the Bergische Universität Wuppertal, the exhibition is being shown in conjunction with the International Month of Photography.

Fred F. French Building, 1926-27, Fiew from West, Architect: Sloan & Robertson and Douglas Ives, © VG Bild-Kunst

Together with his wife Ise, he travelled across the United States. His primary aim was to study modern building methods, particularly the steel structures of New York's skyscrapers.
The trip was financed by Adolf Sommerfeld, a building contractor and long-time Bauhaus patron who, together with Gropius, was planning large-scale construction projects in Berlin using the most advanced technology. After seven intensive weeks of travel, Gropius returned with many photographs in his luggage. They included a documentary series showing how a skyscraper was erected, from the excavation of its foundations to completion, and masterly architectural photographs taken by Charles Sheeler, one of America's most prominent photographers. Pictures by Gropius were also among the images. They showed buildings from diagonal perspectives, a popular compositional method at the time, and personal impressions of a visit among Hopi and Navajo tribes in Arizona.