March 11 through May 21, 2006
At The Busch-Reisinger Museum (more about the Busch-Reisinger Museum)

Marianne Brandt (1893 — 1983), Untitled (with Anna May Wong) | O.T. (mit Anna May Wong), c. 1929. Assemblage of newspaper clippings (halftone reproductions), glass, celluloid, and metal on off-white cardboard, 67 x 50 cm. Courtesy Galerie Kicken, Berlin.

Marianne Brandt (1893-1983) is celebrated for her iconic metalwork designs for the Bauhaus, including teapots, ashtrays, and bowls. The Busch-Reisinger Museum owns two lamps and a samovar, the latter on view in the permanent collection galleries. Much less well known are her witty and incisive photomontages, created in the mid-1920s and early 1930s, in which she drew on the vast array of visual material made available by the period's burgeoning illustrated press.

This pioneering exhibition of over 30 works from European and American public and private collections for the first time brings together all but a handful of Brandt's visually dynamic and intriguing investigations of technology, gender roles, and entertainment culture. Photomontage is increasingly recognized as a quintessentially modern medium, and this exhibition offers an unprecedented opportunity to discover, enjoy, and evaluate an overlooked body of work by one of Germany's leading artists during the Weimar Republic.

Organized by Elizabeth Otto, assistant professor of art history, State University of New York at Buffalo, for the Bauhaus Archive, Berlin. The presentation of the exhibition at the Harvard University Art Museums is made possible, in part, by the Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum.

Press Release