Out of the Display Case: Flowers and Cactus

The photographs could not be more different: The eponymous photogram “Blumen und Kaktus” (Flowers and Cactus) (1926/27) by Konrad Püschel from László Moholy-Nagy’s preliminary course is exemplary of the experiments with cameraless photography at the Bauhaus. Although the Bauhäusler* were apparently more enthusiastic about cacti than flowers, two previously little-noticed images of delphiniums were found in the collection in the course of research for the Delphinium Maximum exhibition.
The photograph “Stockrosen (Malven) mit Rittersporn” (Hollyhocks (Mallows) with Delphinium) by Bauhaus artist Elsa Thiemann shows a garden. However, the influence of her studies with Walter Peterhans is barely recognisable.

In the oil painting “o.T. (Rittersporn)” by Franz Ehrlich, whose fascinating biography remains a mystery to this day, four compact flowering candles rise up into the air.

In this lecture, Leoni Fischer, research associate at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, will examine the two undated paintings alongside the photogram by Püschel and attempt to place them in the oeuvre of their creators and the wider context of the Bauhaus.

Language: German