Oskar Schlemmer's Research Practice at the Dessau Bauhaus

Abstract

In Germany in the 1920s, Oskar Schlemmer engaged in three years of practical research at the Dessau Bauhaus School of Art, on the nature of ‘non-naturalisitic’ or ‘abstract’ stage space, that is, space exploited theatrically for its dynamism, scale, texture and sonic properties. It is argued here that Schlemmer attempts to recreate on stage the metaphysically resonant spaces which he depicts in his paintings. By engaging with an embodied art form, performance, Schlemmer defies the commonly held assumption that the Bauhaus Stage is locked into the ‘machine age’ mentality and rigid Modernist essentialism. On the contrary Schlemmer's work is revelatory of stage space in direct, simple and phenomenologically intense ways and has much to teach us about the nature of theatrical power in postmodern visual and object theatre, and is better interpreted in the light of postmodern, rather than Modernist, sensibilities.