Oskar Schlemmer

Oskar Schlemmer (born September 4, 1888, Stuttgart, Germany—died April 13, 1943, Baden-Baden, Germany) was a German painter, sculptor, choreographer, and designer known for his abstract yet precise paintings of the human form as well as for his avant-garde ballet productions.

Schlemmer was exposed to design theory at a young age as an apprentice in a marquetry workshop. He took classes at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) in Stuttgart, and a scholarship allowed him to further his studies at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Art (1906–10). He spent a year in Berlin painting and familiarizing himself with new trends in art by artists associated with the Der Sturm Gallery. He then returned to Stuttgart in 1912 and became a master student of abstract artist Adolf Hölzel.

Schlemmer was wounded in action while serving in World War I and returned to Stuttgart in 1916. In 1919 he helped spearhead a movement to modernize the curriculum at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Art—which also involved a staunch effort to have Paul Klee appointed to the faculty there—and, more generally, to bring modern art exhibitions to Stuttgart. He was integral to organizing early exhibitions, which featured his own work as well as that of Klee, Willi Baumeister, and others.

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In 1920 Schlemmer married Helena (“Tut”) Tutein, and that same year Walter Gropius invited him to the Bauhaus school in Weimar to teach. There he made significant contributions to numerous departments (sculpture, mural painting, metal work, and life drawing) but truly left his mark in the stage workshop. For that workshop he created his best-known work, Das triadisches Ballett (1922; “The Triadic Ballet”)—a ballet that he choreographed and for which he designed costumes. He named it “Triadic” to reflect the three acts, three dancers, and three colours (one for each act). The costumes he designed—based on cylinder, sphere, cone, and spiral shapes—were revolutionary. That ballet premiered in Stuttgart in 1922 and was then presented throughout the 1920s in cities such as Weimar, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, and Paris. Schlemmer served as head of the stage workshop at the Bauhaus from 1923 to 1929. His experience with dance influenced his paintings, which began to incorporate more depth and volume, as seen in The Dancer (1923). Schlemmer developed the Bauhaus theatre in Dessau—where the school had relocated in 1925—and was involved in the design process of many theatrical productions.

Throughout the 1920s Schlemmer was commissioned to paint several murals in both private residences, such as the home of architect Adolf Meyer (1924), and public spaces, such as the former Bauhaus in Weimar (1923), which the Nazis destroyed in 1930, and the Folkwang Museum in Essen (1928–30), which the Nazis vandalized, dismantled, and removed in 1933. Schlemmer left the Bauhaus in 1929.

From the Bauhaus, Schlemmer moved to Breslau, where he continued to work in theatre and teach (State Art Academy). He also continued to paint, and in 1932 he created his well-known work Bauhaus Stairway. Without warning the Nazi regime dismissed him from his teaching position in 1933. Schlemmer moved to Switzerland for a brief time with his wife and children and painted portraits and landscapes.

The last decade of Schlemmer’s life was marred by the Nazi dictatorship and defamation of his life’s work. In 1937 five of his works were included in the Nazi-organized “Degenerate Art” exhibition in Munich. He continued to exhibit his work when possible and participated in major exhibitions in London and New York City in 1938. Schlemmer was reunited with Baumeister and other artists in 1940 when he moved to Wuppertal, Germany, where he earned a living by working at a lacquer factory. He died of a heart attack three years later. Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet was revived on a number of occasions in the late 20th century and was performed with the original, restored costumes. Those costumes, however, were the only original elements remaining. The music and choreography associated with Schlemmer’s production were lost. A volume of his diaries and letters edited by his wife was published in 1972; an English translation by Krishna Winston was issued in 1990.

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