Bauhaus Building, Dessau, view from the vestibule window looking toward the workshop wing
- Artist: Lucia Moholy
- Date: 1926
- Medium: Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
- Dimensions: image: 160 x 113 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the “Bauhaus Building, Dessau, view from the vestibule window looking toward the workshop wing” photographed by Lucia Moholy in 1926. The black‑and‑white gelatin silver print captures a tight frame of a window inside the school’s vestibule, looking out at the iconic Bauhaus façade. Notice the stark contrast: the dark interior against the bright glass panels that repeat a criss‑cross pattern of windows.
Lucia moved to Dessau with her husband László Moholy‑Nagy when he began teaching at the Bauhaus. She became the school’s unofficial photographer, documenting its modernist architecture from 1924 to 1928. Her images embody the New Objectivity style—clean, precise, and unembellished—yet they also convey the building’s bold, forward‑looking spirit. Although her work was often credited to her husband or to architect Walter Gropius, it was Lucia who captured these decisive moments. She later left Dessau, leaving a lasting visual record of one of the 20th century’s most influential design schools.
See it in person
Bauhaus Building, Dessau, view from the vestibule window looking toward the workshop wing is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
