"Chicago Bauhaus"

Jews, Communists, and art and design professors were all persona non grata in 1933 Germany, when the Nazis pressured the “radical” Bauhaus into closing. The school’s distinguished faculty—some of whom belonged to all the above categories—went into exile. Many came to America, transforming our visual arts and built environment. They included Mies van der Rohe and László Moholy-Nagy, who eventually made their way to Chicago.

Moholy-Nagy attempted to re-create the Bauhaus here. His School of Design was renamed the Institute of Design in 1944 and is now part of IIT. This show is an enjoyable sampling of work by Chicago Bauhaus students and instructors.In addition to one of Moholy-Nagy’s signature photograms, the exhibition features experimental pieces like Bernard Siegel’s 1948 Solargram Portrait of Arthur Siegel. The black-and-white print superimposes geometric shapes and spirals over the figure of a man. A textile pattern designed by Angelo Testa reflects the Bauhaus’ emphasis on applied art, while Richard Filipowski’s painting on metal uses paint and negative space to delineate guitarlike forms.Moholy-Nagy died in 1946, but the Modernism he promoted still shapes our lives. The show’s most poignant piece is an architectural rendering by Robert B. Tague in which light streams from an austere, glass-fronted building: an embodiment of faith in the future.—Lauren Weinberg