At the Bauhaus Museum, a special reinterpretation and two limited art editions of Thonet's iconic B 9 stool.
The 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus were celebrated last year with many events, and with unprecedented enthusiasm.
La Bauhaus Foundation Dessau opened a new museum which brings together, in addition to the rich collection of original objects made at the famous art school, several contemporary works. These include the B 9 tubular steel stool made by Marcel Breuer in 1926 for Thonet GmbH and reinterpreted by Jay Gard for the Bauhaus Museum in Dessau100 unique pieces in exuberant colours, made available for museum visitors to sit on. For the colour concept of this lively and cheerful work entitled 'Margaretha', the artist was inspired by the colours of a carpet created in 1929 by one of the leading Bauhaus designers, Margaretha (Grete) Reichardtfor a children's room. Gard then produced two art editions (Margaretha 2 and 3) which can be purchased in the museum shop.
During his stay at the current Bauhaus guesthouse in the summer of 2019, Jay Gard studied the furniture designed in the Bauhaus period in depth. "Its ingenious shape and the perfect combination of curved metal and rectangular wooden top make the B 9 by Marcel Breuer for Thonet GmbH more than just a piece of furniture. It is an impressive work of art.", states Jay Gard.
When the Bauhaus Foundation in Dessau asked him if he would like to make a special edition of the B 9 as a stool for visitors to the new museum, the artist did not hesitate for long because he was also fascinated by the history behind Marcel Breuer's B 9 tubular steel stool, a true icon of 20th century modern design. At the time, Gropius and Breuer themselves debated whether the stool was a mass-produced product or an artistic project. In the collections "Margaretha' and 'Margaretha 2"as a synthesis of Breuer's design, Reichardt's colours and Gard's interpretation, echoes, in fact, the ancient dispute over the artistic nature of the work.
For this project, Jay Gard was inspired by a hand-woven children's carpet made by Margaretha Reichardt, called Greteone of the most successful designers of the Bauhaus textile workshop: "I was fascinated, on the one hand, by the materiality and colours of the fabric, which was also on display, and, on the other hand, by the fact that it was a work of art intended for common use"Gard explains his choice of reference object. The artist has sectioning the carpet into individual colours and, thanks to the interplay of shadows and reflections, created additional shades: the result was a colour palette of around 30 shades freely matched by the artist on the 100 stool tops for visitors.
On the sides and underneath the monochrome seat, the designer designed a kind of fan by combining different colours, thus creating all unique pieces. The special micro-pigmented acrylic colours were applied to the wooden surfaces with a roller during Gard's stay in the Bauhaus guesthouse, the former residence of Schlemmer.
The piece of furniture, originally one of the four elements that make up Breuer's coffee table set (B 9 a-d), has the right dimensions to be transformed into a stool: its versatility of use makes it the ideal seat for museum visitors who can place it freely wherever they wish to admire the surrounding works of art in complete relaxation. "Every day the stools are arranged differently. This game allows visitors to perceive the interaction between colours in a concrete way. I am sure that physically experiencing colours in this way releases enormous creativity,' enthuses the artist, who has been working on colour harmonies and relationships for many years.
Art and design come together to create the artistic editions 'Margaretha 2' and 'Margaretha 3' Jay Gard's intensive study of colours for years finds an even different application in the 'Margaretha 2' and 'Margaretha 3' collections. The shades of Reichardt's carpet were taken up and transferred onto thin plywood, which Gard cut out by laser into strips which he then reassembled on the seats of the other 30 stools like a jigsaw puzzle, half to form a circle, the other half an S. This resulted in two limited editions, both made up of unique pieces that can be purchased for € 1,200 each at the sJörg Klambt's museum hops in Berlin, Potsdam and Dessau.
Working on these stools was another novelty for the artist: "The fact that I had to intervene on something pre-existing, for example the dimensions of the seat, allowed me to proceed in a more focused and concrete manner than in free artwork. This limitation actually conceals great creative potential. By staying at the guesthouse, I then had to leave my usual Berlin environment and my studio perfectly set up for my needs. This, too, was a limitation that led me to focus all my attention on Grete Reichardt's colours and the Bauhaus."
