To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus, the cutting-edge comprehensive arts school founded in Weimar, Germany, the exhibition "Response to Bauhaus" will be held at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto from August 4th to October 8th.

Cover of "The Bauhaus Manifesto" by Lionel Feininger 1919 Osaka New Museum of Art Construction Preparation Room
The Bauhaus, a cutting-edge comprehensive arts school founded in Weimar, Germany in 1919, will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2019. This exhibition is the only one of its kind in Japan as part of "Bauhaus Imaginista," a major international project for the "Bauhaus 100" commemorative project being held in Germany to mark the school's 100th anniversary. The cover of the "Bauhaus Manifesto," published upon the founding of the Bauhaus, a comprehensive educational institution for the visual arts, features a Gothic cathedral with spires representing the three artistic genres of architecture, painting, and sculpture. The school's founder, Walter Gropius, wrote the manifesto, which aimed to comprehensively teach creative activities ranging from painting and sculpture to design and architecture, while emphasizing the practice of handicrafts. Lionel Feininger, a Bauhaus faculty member, contributed a woodblock print of the cathedral as a symbol of this philosophy. The Bauhaus educational philosophy expressed in the manifesto, along with its unique curriculum, had a profound influence not only within Germany but also as far away as India and Japan. "Kōsei Education Seminar in Wakayama City" (From the March 1933 issue of Architectural Crafts, I See All)
This exhibition explores the global reception and development of the "Bauhaus Manifesto," focusing particularly on Japan and India. The Bauhaus educational philosophy and curriculum were not only developed within the school itself, but also in the countries where they were accepted. How did they connect with local society and culture, and what developments did they achieve? This history is traced through over 100 related documents and records from Germany, Japan, India, and other countries, as well as works by students from that time. Many materials will be on display in Japan for the first time, including sketches by Bauhaus students, scrapbooks containing photographs of Yamawaki Iwao and Michiko during their time studying at the Bauhaus, and documents and works demonstrating the relationship between India and the Bauhaus. In addition, a full-scale reproduction of the model for "Kharkov Theatre in Ukraine," the legendary international competition work by Renshichiro Kawakita, a pioneer of "kōsei education" in Japan, which won fourth place, beating out Gropius, was also exhibited at the "Life Composition Exhibition" organized by Renshichiro Kawakita. Two cutting-edge artists, Luca Fly and the Otolys Group, have been commissioned to create works that explore Japan, India, and the Bauhaus. Their works will provide us with a perspective not only on the history of the reception and development of the Bauhaus, but also on its current relevance.

Anonymous, Study of Balance (Moholy-Nagy Preparatory Course), 1924-25 (reproduction: 1995), Misawa Bauhaus Collection
As a related event, a lecture and discussion titled "Bauhaus and Japan" will be held from 2 pm on August 12th. The lecturers will be Kobe University professor Umemiya Hiromitsu and curator Helena Čapková. The moderator will be Motohashi Jin, research fellow at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. Additionally, a lecture titled "Thinking, Learning, and Creating Architecture and Design from Shantiniketan" will be held on September 22nd at 5:00 PM, featuring Kengo Sato of In-Field Studio and Kanransha. Both lectures will be held in the museum's first-floor auditorium. Admission is free and limited to the first 100 people. Numbered tickets will be distributed at the first-floor reception desk on August 12th at 11:00 AM and on September 22nd at 4:00 PM.

The Bauhaus was active for just over 10 years, from its opening in 1919, shortly after Japan's defeat in World War I, to its forced closure by the Nazi regime in 1933. However, the "Bauhaus Manifesto," written against the backdrop of the social situation of defeat, aimed not only to revolutionize art and design education but also to revolutionize society itself. Therefore, the Bauhaus educational philosophy and the educational programs that realized it quickly spread throughout the world through various media, developing in unique ways in response to the circumstances of each region.

Using the "Bauhaus Manifesto" as a starting point, this exhibition will not only provide an opportunity to reconsider the significance of the Bauhaus, but will also provide an opportunity to think about the various issues surrounding us today, such as the importance of ideals and practice in art education and their connection to society, and the relationship and exchange between globalization and local contexts.