bonanza!: Oskar Schlemmer

1888 - 1943

Most people probably have never heard of this man, unless you're a German theater enthusiast or have an extensive knowledge about costume design. It is the latter which brought me to my discovery of him (although the extent of my costume design knowledge isn't as broad as I'd like it to one day be!) by way of research for a scenography assessment. Oskar Schlemmer was a German theater designer and key player in the Bauhas movement in the 1920's. The Bauhaus School (literally translating to "building house") is famous for it's influence in modern design - particularly architecture and interior design - as it focused on combining art and industry; it especially concentrated on the machine aesthetic, industrialization, and the simplification of visuals in design. It was quite experimental and futuristic, which the images below will illustrate. Schlemmer's work with the Bauhaus embodies and represents their ideas perfectly, especially with his creation called The Triadic Ballet which he is best known for. In this ballet, the costumes wear the dancers, the line of the clothes dictate the movement as they reconstruct the silhouette and form of a human body, and the design of each environment dictates the pattern of the dance. It is bizarre and interesting and brilliant to watch, and it wholly evokes the Bauhaus and Schlemmer's theories of design. He is a great and inspiring figure for me as he proves just how important the presence of a costume can be and how much it can fill a space. Hopefully by exploring the images below, you'll be able to understand the weight and the essence of his ideas and be inspired by their abstract nature.
*all photos from this post were found on the websites below or Google images

Bauhaus: