Chess Set Box (Primary Title)
Josef Hartwig, German, 1880 - 1955 (Artist)
This chess set, designed by Josef Hartwig and housed in its original box, is an icon of the Bauhaus, a school and workshop founded in Germany in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius. Students at the Bauhaus were trained by both an artist and a master craftsman as a first step in realizing Gropius’s dream to integrate art, craftsmanship, and economics to produce functional design. Sculptor Hartwig was the master craftsman of the Bauhaus Sculpture Workshop from 1921 until 1925. Prior to joining the Bauhaus, he studied at the Art Academy in Munich and was a construction supervisor in Berlin. Although the set was initially well received, its production run was short; it is rare to find a complete set today. A version of this chess set is also in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Bauhaus
interior of lid stamped: "HARTWIG"
Kathleen Boone Samuels Memorial Fund
"The Wide Reach of the Bauhaus", Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV, October 10, 2020 - January 10, 2021
©artist or artist’s estate
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