Oskar Schlemmer was born on September 4, 1888 in Stugart, Germany. Schlemmer studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule and Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart. He became pupil of Adolf Holzel. in 1915, He had an exhibition at the gallery called The Storm. The most famous work of him is "Triadisches Ballet" was premiered in 1916.
in 1920, Schlemmer was hired by Bauhaus as a head of department of fresco painting and later in 1923 he was in charge as Master of Form at the Bauhaus theater workshop. In 1929, he leaved Bauhaus and taught at the Art Academy in Breslau. Because of the Nazism he moved to Eichberg near Swiss border and then to Sehringen. Schlemmer died at the age of 55 in Baden-Baden, Germany.
Since the first time I knew Bauhaus, I have been always impress with the theater costumes designed by Schlemmer. I am fascinated with the geometric form of the costumes. The unexpected and the stiffness of the movement make the dancing more interesting. I saw the clip in the Bauhaus DVD and also at MOMA while they had Bauhaus exhibition. The black background creates a great contras and a sense of emptiness. I wish I could see more of his theater work.
Even I knew Bauhaus in many years but I wasn’t aware that the Bauhaus designed it by Oscar Schlemmer. I do like his calligraphy (see below) the different combination of the letters give a theatrical feeling to the typography. Too bad that he died quite young, I believed he would have produced more amazing work.
Courtsy: MoMA