poster: kandinsky 60th birthday - design herbert bayer

herbert bayer designed the poster for the kandinsky exhibition in dessau in 1926. the combination of writing with photography and red bars, the arrangement slightly tilted: typical graphic elements of the 1920s are skilfully staged here. the photo used was taken by portrait photographer hugo erfurth.

bayer began taking photographs in 1925 at the same time, he began to incorporate photographs into the graphic design. initially, the photos are treated like a geometric surface - as in this poster or the bauhaus' "catalogue of patterns". later, bayer perfected this into a combination of typography, signs (such as dots or arrows), drawing, photography and photomontage.

the poster was probably printed in 1926 on salmon-coloured paper. an original copy belonging to herbert bayer, with heavily faded colours, can be found in the bauhaus-archive in berlin.

in 1968 herbert bayer had a reprint of the poster made for the major bauhaus exhibition. the font was retyped, printed on bright yellow paper.

since the paper colour of the original 1926 print can no longer be determined with certainty, we have added the old typography with the yellow background of the 1968 reprint for the poster.