This year is the centenary of the founding of the Bauhaus, the pioneering art and design college established at Weimar in Germany at the end of the First World War. Over the following 14 years, and in the face of much opposition, the Bauhaus was at the center of debates on modern design, architecture, and education, until finally closed down by the Nazis in 1933. But what did the Bauhaus achieve? Was it so revolutionary? And why has it become such a symbol of modernity?

This conversation between Paul Stirton, curator of Jan Tschichold and the New Typography: Graphic Design Between the World Wars and Barry Bergdoll, Meyer Schapiro Professor of art history in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University will critically examine the achievements of the Bauhaus, and explore its legacy in twentieth and twenty-first century architecture and design.

Barry Bergdoll is Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History at Columbia University and Philip Johnson Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art. He was chief curator of the exhibition Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops of Modernity at MoMA in 2009.

Paul Stirton is Associate Professor of Modern European Design at Bard Graduate Center and curator of the current exhibition Jan Tschichold and the New Typography: Graphic Design Between the Wars.

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Leading support for Public Programs at Bard Graduate Center comes from Gregory Soros and other generous donors.