Details
The image
A composition built from rectangles and bars, with lettering set as one of the planes rather than placed on top. The palette is limited to a few strong notes and the whole sheet is organised on a strict grid. There is no illustration: the poster is an arrangement, not a picture.
Where it comes from
By the early 1930s the Bauhaus was under political pressure in Germany and its ideas were travelling: exhibitions abroad became a way of presenting the school’s method to a wider public. Swiss graphic design was already receptive to that method and the posters made for such shows treated typography, grid and colour as a single system rather than as separate decisions.
On the wall
It suits a study, a stairwell or a hallway where a grid can be read as a whole. Because the composition is ordered and the palette restrained, it holds its own beside bookshelves and dark furniture. In a modern interior it works as the piece that gives the wall its structure rather than its colour.
In company
Pairs well with architectural photography and other Bauhaus material and it tolerates strong wall colours. In a group it sets the rules, hang it first and place softer pieces around it. A narrow black frame keeps the fine type intact. The Bauhaus collection repeats the same construction in different colours.
