As part of Frieze London’s Live program, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac presents Oskar Schlemmer’s Bauhaus Dances / Bauhaustänze. Schlemmer (1888-1943) was a German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer. He was Master of Form at the Bauhaus theatre workshop. Famous works are his Treppenszene (Stairway Scene), 1932, and Triadisches Ballett (Triadic Ballet), an avant-garde artistic dance that premiered in 1922.
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“Oskar Schlemmer’s Bauhaus Dances | Bauhaustänze have had a profound influence on performance art and contemporary dance. These experimental dances were originally informal manifestations of instructional courses with students under Schlemmer’s direction at the Stage Workshop at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau from 1923 to 1929.
In Bauhaus Dances | Bauhaustänze, dancers mathematically explore space, form and materials, accompanied by music composed by Schlemmer. Maintaining continuous dialogue with his painting and sculptural work, these dances explore and perform Schlemmer’s purest concepts of abstraction, structured around the human form of the dancer, at the centre and measure of all things.” (Performance description)
Oskar Schlemmer: Bauhaus Dances / Bauhaustänze, 1925-1929. Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Frieze London Live, London (UK), October 2, 2019.
Complete video (18:16 min.):
Oskar Schlemmer (Born in 1888, Stuttgart; Died in 1943, Baden-Baden) is internationally acclaimed for his dance creations The Triadic Ballet, (1916 – 1932), The Figural Cabinet (1922-1929), Bauhaus Dances (1925-1929); paintings Bauhaus Staircase, (1932), exhibited at MoMA, New York and Five Figures in a Room, Roman, (1925) at Kunstmuseum Basel; his sculpture Abstract Figure (1921-1923) at The Art Institute Chicago; theoretical drawings on the human measurements and condition in relation to space; stage sets and costumes, for Les Noces, Le Rossignol, Renard by Igor Stravinsky; his teaching at the Bauhaus; and his diaries and writings on art.
Dance, costumes and music by Oskar Schlemmer
Art director: C. Raman Schlemmer
Dancers: Olivia Grassot, Oscar Jinghu Li, Kennedy Junior Muntanga,
Musician: Vincenzo Pasquariello
Costume Consultant : Ilaria Martello
Co-production of Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac and Bühnen Archiv Oskar Schlemmer
