The Austrian-born Herbert Bayer is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential graphic artists of his time, but his extensive achievements span a spectrum of disciplines. The artistic polymath made his mark as a photographer and master of photomontage, a typography creator, magazine art director, advertising guru, architect and more.
As a student in the early 1920s at the Bauhaus — the revolutionary German art and design school in Weimar that sought to integrate art and design into daily life — Bayer studied under Russian-born Wassily Kandisnsky, who became his mentor, and was greatly influenced by Kandinsky’s book Concerning the Spiritual in Art, heartily embracing its premise that the arts can and should serve society.
Bayer left the Bauhaus in 1923 to tour Italy with a friend, then rejoined two years later, hired to teach advertising, design and typography at the school’s new home, in Dessau. There, he designed catalogues, featuring photography and machine-based printing, that promoted Bauhaus-made “goods for the home,” including handmade furniture, wallpaper and housewares. And he created a new “universal” alphabet: a streamlined sans serif restricted to lower-case letters that became the Bauhaus’s signature font.
Bayer quit teaching at the Bauhaus along with founder Walter Gropius and fellow teachers Marcel Breuer and László Maholy-Nagy when the school’s finances grew strained. He became the art director of German Vogue, moving on, when the magazine closed during the Depression, to the ad agency Dorland International, where he created the advertisements for clothing, textiles, toothpaste and nose drops on view. He also did magazine covers and outdoor billboards and masterminded the design of several important international exhibitions, including the German section of the 1930 Exposition de la Société des artistes décorateurs in Paris.
By 1938, Bayer had become dismayed by the political situation in Germany, and at the invitation of Gropius — who was then chair of the architecture department at Harvard, having fled the Nazi regime in 1934 — he left for the United States. Gropius had been asked to curate an exhibition on the Bauhaus for the Museum of Modern Art, but he didn’t have time and so asked Bayer to help. Bayer ultimately did it all, including gathering material in Germany, creating the exhibition plan and overseeing the catalogue. The show traveled throughout the U.S., and Bayer’s stateside career took off.
In the early 1940s, Bayer served as chief art director at Wanamaker’s and worked in advertising and package design at J. Walter Thompson. In 1945, he began a long stint working full-time at the Container Corporation of America (CCA). He created CCA’s long-running series “Great Ideas of Western Man,” which aimed to enlighten the public through inspiring quotes. Additionally, Bayer designed sculptures, wall murals, furniture, earth art and buildings for the Aspen Institute between 1946 and 1975.
Bayer’s work demonstrates how one man, and one school, changed the evolution of contemporary graphics in America over a 40-year period.
Find original Herbert Bayer prints and paintings on 1stDibs.
Two Warped Corners, Geometric Abstract Screenprint by Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
Two Warped Corners Herbert Bayer, Austrian (1900–1985) Date: 1973 Screenprint, signed and numbered in pencil Edition of 5/50 Image Size: 29.75 x 29.75 inches Size: 32 in. x 32 in. (8...
Screen
$1,429
Original poster made for the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Bauhaus
By Herbert Bayer
Located in PARIS, FR
A beautiful poster made for the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Bauhaus at the National Museum of Modern Art, by Herbert Bayer 🇺🇸 (1900-1985), a designer, painter, architec...
Paper, Lithograph
Free Arrangements of Equal Parts Geometric Abstract Screenprint by Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
Free Arrangements of Equal Parts by Herbert Bayer, Austrian (1900–1985) Date: circa 1968 Screenprint, signed and numbered in pencil Edition of 12/75 Size: 29.75 x 29.5 in. (75.57 x 7...
Screen
$2,000
Triangulated Squares, Geometric Abstract Bauhaus Screenprint by Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Herbert Bayer, Austrian (1900 - 1985) Title: Triangulated Squares Year: 1969 Medium: Screenprint, signed in pencil Size: 32 in. x 33 in. (81.28 cm x 83.82 cm) Printed at Kel...
Screen
New Nucleus, Geometric Abstract Screenprint by Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
New Nucleus Herbert Bayer, Austrian (1900–1985) Date: 1973 Screenprint, signed and numbered in pencil Edition of 7/50 Image Size: 29.75 x 29.75 inches Size: 32 in. x 32 in. (81.28 cm...
Screen
12. Untitled, Framed Geometric Bauhaus Offset Lithograph by Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
A print from the CCA folio of Herbert Bayer published in 1965. Nicely framed. 12. Untitled Herbert Bayer, Austrian (1900–1985) Date: 1965 Offset Lithograph Image Size: 10.5 x 13.5 i...
Offset
Tender Picture E, Bauhaus Offset Lithograph by Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
A print from the CCA folio of Herbert Bayer published in 1965. Nicely framed. Tender Picture E Herbert Bayer, Austrian (1900–1985) Date: 1928 (1965) Offset Lithograph Image Size: 9 ...
Offset
$5,500
Convolution – Original 1948 Abstract Lithograph by Bauhaus Artist Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Denver, CO
"Convolution" is a striking 1948 lithograph on paper by renowned Austrian-American artist Herbert Bayer (1900-1985). This abstract kinetic artwork showcases Bayer’s mastery of form, ...
Lithograph
Price Upon Request
Monument, Surrealist Photograph by Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
Herbert Bayer, Austrian (1900 - 1985) - Monument, Year: 1932 (Printed 1969), Medium: Gelatin Silver Print, signed, dated and numbered in pencil, Edition: 6/40, Image Size: 13.75 ...
Silver Gelatin
$2,500
H 22 in W 30 in
Bold Abstract Circles Color Lithograph Alexander Calder Unfinished Revolution
By Alexander Calder
Located in Surfside, FL
1975 Color Lithograph by Alexander Calder from Our Unfinished Revolution portfolio One of 250 copies, with the printed signature and date on offset paper. This is not pencil signed ...
Lithograph, Offset
Untitled #1
By Ian Tyson
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Untitled #1" 1970 is an original silkscreen on Wove paper by noted British artist Ian Tyson, born 1933. It is hand signed, dated and numbered 60/75 in pencil by the art...
Screen
$75
H 35.5 in W 27.75 in D 0.1 in
Bauhaus Exhibition Poster, Offset Print, Geometric Design, 1995
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Schmidt's 1923 poster for the Bauhaus Exhibition is celebrated for its innovative use of geometric forms and typographic elements, reflecting the school's avant-garde approach to des...
Offset
$900
H 26 in W 20.25 in
Judy Chicago poster (Hand signed and inscribed) feminist art
By Judy Chicago
Located in New York, NY
Accidents, Injuries and other Calamities poster Judy Chicago (Hand signed and inscribed), 1988 Offset lithograph on thin board (signed and inscribed by Judy Chicago) 26 × 20 1/4 inch...
Pencil, Offset, Lithograph
$1,350
H 39 in W 27 in D 0.25 in
"Night Views" Silkscreen Print by The Skyscape Artist, 25/100
Located in Soquel, CA
"Night Views" Silkscreen Print by The Skyscape Artist, 25/100. By Tetsuro Sawada ( Japanese, 1933-1998) This raven black geometric abstraction focuses on hard-edged horizontal lines, color, and light, giving the impression of dusk through the "bokashi," or shading, technique, which is most difficult in the silkscreen medium, a good example of Sawada's theme of the infinite beyond, the silent emptiness of the universe. Signature in the bottom right corner reads, "T. Sawada '87," titled in the bottom center, "Night Views," and numbered, "25/100," in the bottom left corner. Presented in a new white mat. Paper size: 34"H x 22"W, Mat size: 39"H x 27"W Born in Hokkaido, Tetsuro Sawada (1933-1998, Japanese) graduated from Musashimo Art University where he majored in Western painting. In 1960, he began painting abstract oils...
Paper, Screen
Mitered Squares: Lime
By Josef Albers
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Josef Albers (1888-1976) is affiliated with, or an active participant within numerous movements that have defined visual culture in the 20th century. In the "Mitered Squares" works,...
Screen
$465
H 22 in W 29 in D 0.1 in
Dancing Ducks in Magenta, Forest Green, Brown, Slate Gray
By George Chemeche
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: George Chemeche – Iraqi/American (1934-2022) Title: Dancing Ducks in Magenta, Forest Green, Brown, Slate Gray Year: circa 1980 Medium: Screen Print Image size: 19 x 27 inches. Sheet size: 22 x 29 inches. Signature: Signed lower right Edition: 260 This one: 109/260 Condition: Very good Unframed This exceptional geometric abstract serigraph is by the noted Iraqi/American artist George Chemeche (1934-2022 ). He is a master of serigraph printing, but this print has more than technical excellence. It is a wonderful, rhythmic abstract composition. I believe Chemeche might have been a proponent of and/or influenced by the Pattern and Decoration Movement which was happening in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. The print has never been framed and is in very good condition. I will ship the print rolled in a heavyweight tube. George Chemeche was born in 1934 and studied at the Avni Art School in Tel Aviv and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. The style with which he is intimately associated, pattern painting, The most serviceable definition is that pattern is the systematic repetition of a motif or motifs used to cover a surface uniformly. The spaces between motifs are either other motifs or are an integral part of the repeat. Usually, patterning intentionally acknowledges the decorative function of art, reconciling both the decorative and the meaningful. George Chemeche’s work hangs in the lobby of the Hotel Chelsea where many have admired it for years. Please search online for more biographical information by this fine artist. Selected Biography 1934 Born in Basra, Iraq 1947 Fled Iraq with his family 1947-49 Lives and attends school in Tehran 1949 Immigrates to Israel 1956-59 Studies art in Avni Art School, Tel-Aviv 1959 Gets American-Israeli Culture Foundation grant to study art in Paris 1959-1962 Studies at Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Paris 1961- Gets two years grant from Lady Francis Fergusson, Scotland 1962 Gets one year grant from Alex de Rothschild, Paris First man show at Gallery Transposition, Paris 1965-72 Exhibits his work in numerous art galleries in Israel including one man show at Haifa Museum 1972 Travels to New York, checks in the Hotel Chelsea 1977-- First one-man show in USA at Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, followed by other shows around the country and Europe. 1995 Travels to Iceland to publish the Aya Series book. Text by Donald Kuspit; Art Resourses & Technologies, New York, NY 2002 Publishes, Ibejis: “The Cult of Yoruba Twins” 5 Continents Edition, Milan, Italy 2003 Curates a show at Museum of African Art, NYC Ibejis: The Doubly Blessed Twins 2005 Reads his poems at the Bowery Poetry Club, New York 2010 Lectures about Ibeji art and cult at Iowa University 2011 Lectures about Ibeji Art and cult at Neuberger Museum 2011 Publishes, The Horse Rider in African Art” ACC, UK INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS 1978 Goldman Art Gallery, Haifa, Israel 1977 Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York 1977 Alexandra Monett Gallery, Brussels 1977 Givon Art GaJIery, Tel Aviv 1974 South Houston Gallery, New York 1974 Ray Landis Gallery, East Brunswick, New Jersey 1973 Gala Gallery, Key Biscayne, Florida 1973 Art Asia Gallery...
Paper, Screen
$765
H 24 in W 37.5 in D 0.03 in
Mixed Media Abstract Geometric: 2-Sided Collotype
By Patricia A. Pearce
Located in Soquel, CA
Delicate and layered collotype on both sides of heavy bond paper by Patricia A. Pearce (American, b. 1948). The background of this piece is a collotype. Gold leaf, treated in a varie...
Gold Leaf
'Masken (Masks)' — German Expressionism, Bauhaus
By Lyonel Feininger
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Lyonel Feininger, 'Masken (Masks)' also 'Carnival Masks', woodcut, 1920, proofs only. Prasse W193. Signed and titled in pencil. Annotated '1973', the artist’s inventory number. A fin...
Woodcut
$1,500
H 24.5 in W 16.63 in
Casino Knokke Poster (Signed) /// Frank Stella Contemporary Abstract Sculpture
By Frank Stella
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: (after) Frank Stella (American, 1936-2024) Title: "Casino Knokke" Series: Casino Knokke Posters *Signed by Stella in black marker lower center Year: 1991 Medium: Original Off...
Permanent Marker, Lithograph, Offset
$1,900
H 27.75 in W 32.75 in
'Untitled' original 1960s signed serigraph silver abstract vintage train pop art
Located in Milwaukee, WI
In this untitled serigraph, Vincent DiMattio combines the aesthetics of the space age with Pop Art sensibilities and techniques. In the postwar era of the 1950s and 1960s, the United States was in the midst of a period of economic growth for the middle class, and so the trappings and imagery of middle class life became the subjects of a number of artists. While figures like Andy Warhol focused on images of celebrities and soup cans, here DiMattio looks to robots and rockets. At the far left, a figure appears with a round green head and a small clamping arm. To the right, a form like a tank with phallic protrusions, one with a head like the form of a space ship. These signs all alight with the space age toys...
Foil
$612Sale Price|20% Off
H 36 in W 24 in D 0.03 in
White Lace and Ribbons Collotype
By Patricia A. Pearce
Located in Soquel, CA
Delicate and layered collotype on heavy bond paper by Patricia A. Pearce (American, b. 1948). The background of this piece is a collotype, whereas the lace, strings, and shadows are ...
Paper, Ink, Pencil, Lithograph, Acrylic
Exfoliation, Minimalist Offset Lithograph by Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
Herbert Bayer, Austrian (1900 - 1985) - Exfoliation, Year: 1965, Medium: Offset Lithograph, Edition:, Image Size: 11 x 13 inches, Size: 16.5 x 22 in. (41.91 x 55.88 cm), Frame Si...
Lithograph, Offset
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H 27.5 in W 22.5 in
Building a House, Abstract Geometric Screenprint by Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
Herbert Bayer, Austrian (1900 - 1985) - Building a House, Year: 1969, Medium: Screenprint on T. H. Saunders paper, signed, numbered and dated in pencil, Edition: 63/70, Image Size...
Screen
Things to Come tray
By Herbert Bayer
Located in New York, NY
Herbert Bayer Things to Come tray, 2018 Porcelain dish with metallic gold edge and silkscreened image Limited edition of an unknown quantity, originally distributed by the Museum of Modern Art, before it sold out. Measurements: Box: 5.5 x 5.5 inches Tray: 5 x 5 inches Provenance: Originally distributed by the Museum of Modern Art, before it sold out Manufacturer: Galison Publishing LLC and The Museum of Modern Art Herbert Bayer biography: Artistic polymath Herbert Bayer was one of the Bauhaus’s most influential students, teachers, and proponents, advocating the integration of all arts throughout his career. Bayer began his studies as an architect in 1919 in Darmstadt. From 1921 to 1923 he attended the Bauhaus in Weimar, studying mural painting with Vasily Kandinsky and typography, creating the Universal alphabet, a typeface consisting of only lowercase letters that would become the signature font of the Bauhaus. Bayer returned to the Bauhaus from 1925 to 1928 (moving in 1926 to Dessau, its second location), working as a teacher of advertising, design, and typography, integrating photographs into graphic compositions. He began making his own photographs in 1928, after leaving the Bauhaus; however, in his years as a teacher the school was a fertile ground for the New Vision photography passionately promoted by his close colleague László Moholy-Nagy, Moholy-Nagy’s students, and his Bauhaus publication Malerei, Photographie, Film (Painting, photography, film). Most of Bayer’s photographs come from the decade 1928–38, when he was based in Berlin working as a commercial artist. They represent his broad approach to art, including graphic views of architecture and carefully crafted montages. In 1938 Bayer emigrated to the United States with an invitation from Alfred H. Barr, Jr., founding director of The Museum of Modern Art, to apply his theories of display to the installation of the exhibition Bauhaus: 1919–28 (1938) at MoMA. Bayer developed this role through close collaboration with Edward Steichen, head of the young Department of Photography, designing the show Road to Victory (1942), which would set the course for Steichen’s influential approach to photography exhibition. Bayer remained in America working as a graphic designer for the remainder of his career. -Courtesy of MOMA More about Herbert Bayer: Herbert Bayer (1900-1985) was born in Austria, where he entered into an apprenticeship under the architect and designer, Georg Smidthammer, with whom Bayer learned drawing, painting, and architectural drafting, inspired by nature and without formal knowledge of art history. In 1920, Bayer discovered the theoretical writings of the artist Vassily Kandinsky, as well as Walter Gropius’ 1919 Bauhaus manifesto, in which Gropius declared the necessity for a return to crafts, in which were found true creativity and inspiration. Bayer traveled to Weimar to meet Gropius in October of 1921 and was immediately accepted into the Bauhaus. There, he was deeply influenced by the instruction of Kandinsky, Johannes Itten and Paul Klee. In 1928 Bayer moved to Berlin together with several members of the Bauhaus staff including Gropius, Moholy-Nagy and Marcel Breuer. He found work as a freelance graphic designer, particularly with German Vogue, under its art director Agha. When the latter returned to Paris, Bayer joined the staff full time, and also worked increasingly with Dorland, the magazine's principle advertising agency. It was in the period from 1928 to his emigration to America in 1938 that he developed his unique vision as an artist, combining a strongly modernist aesthetic sense with a rare ability to convey meaning clearly and directly. This seamless combination of art, craft and design mark Bayer as true prophet of Bauhaus theories. Bayer followed Gropius to America in 1938, and set his breadth of skills to work later that year in designing the landmark Bauhaus 1918-1928 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Bayer flourished in New York as a designer and architect, but it was his meeting with the industrialist Walter Paepcke in 1946 that allowed him to harness his concepts of 'total design' to the postwar boom. Paepcke was developing Aspen as a cultural and intellectual destination, and found in Bayer the perfect collaborator. Bayer was designer, educator and indeed architect for Paepcke's Aspen Institute...
Metal
Sold
H 23.43 in W 16.54 in
Herbert Bayer, 50 Jahre Bauhaus - Original Exhibition Poster from 1968
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Hamburg, DE
Original exhibition poster by Herbert Bayer for the exhibition "50 Jahre Bauhaus" from 5 May - 28 July 1968 at Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart, Germany. Herbert Bayer (19...
Offset
Composite Structure, Bauhaus Print by Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
A print from the CCA folio of Herbert Bayer published in 1965. Nicely framed. Composite Structure Herbert Bayer, Austrian (1900–1985) Date: 1951 (1965) Offset Lithograph Frame Size:...
Offset
Cosmorama #9, Bauhaus Print by Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
A print from the CCA folio of Herbert Bayer published in 1965. Nicely framed. Cosmorama #9 Herbert Bayer, Austrian (1900–1985) Date: 1957 (1965) Offset Lithograph Frame Size: 16.5 x...
Offset
Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in San Francisco, CA
A rare lithograph by Bauhaus graphic designer Herbert Bayer c.1965 Title: "Winter Afternoon". This is from his 1965 portfolio of lithograph prints. The lithograph retains all of i...
Lithograph
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H 22 in W 16.5 in D 0.1 in
Herbert Bayer "Structure and Moon on Green" Lithograph c.1965
By Herbert Bayer
Located in San Francisco, CA
Superb mid-century 1965 offset lithograph by Herbert Bayer (Austrian, 1900 - 1985) Title: "Structure and Moon on Green". Approximate dimensions 16.5 inches wide x 22 inches high. ...
Lithograph
Four Scales, Bauhaus Silkscreen by Herbert Bayer
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Herbert Bayer, Austrian (1900 - 1985) Title: Four Scales Year: 1968 Medium: Screenprint, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 28/70 Size: 35 x 35 inches Sheet: 37 x 36 inch...
Screen
Grid, Bauhaus Silkscreen by Herbert Bayer 1967
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Herbert Bayer, Austrian (1900 - 1985) Title: Grid Year: 1967 Medium: Silkscreen, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 93/100 Size: 20 x 20 inches
Screen
"From Light to Dark, " Screenprint, 1968
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
This screenprint was created by Austrian artist Herbert Bayer. Bayer, an architect, sculptor, and graphic artist, was greatly influenced by the Bauhaus movement. His experience range...
Screen
Abstract Screenprint, 1969
By Herbert Bayer
Located in Long Island City, NY
This screenprint was created by Austrian artist Herbert Bayer. Bayer, an architect, sculptor, and graphic artist, was greatly influenced by the Bauhaus movement. His experience range...
Screen