Oskar Schlemmer Archive

In 1977, on the premises of the Württembergischer Kunstverein, (Württemberg Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts), the Staatsgalerie presented a retrospective of the oeuvre of Oskar Schlemmer, comprehensively covering all areas of his work - as a painter, draftsman, graphic artist, sculptor, muralist, stage designer, choreographer and teacher. The exhibition was subsequently shown at the Kunstverein Hamburg (Hamburg Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts).

The two-volume standard work - Oskar Schlemmer, Monographie und Oeuvrekatalog der Gemälde, Aquarelle, Pastelle und Plastiken, Munich (Prestel-Verlag) - written by Karin von Maur, was published in 1979.

During the intervening years, the archive has been involved to a decisive degree in solo and group exhibitions showing the works of Schlemmer both in Germany and abroad. The archive possesses all of the respective exhibition catalogues.

The holdings of the Oskar Schlemmer Archive are divided into the following categories:

• Letters from the artist to various recipients, 1912 to 1943
• Writings, articles and other texts by the artist, 1912 to 1943
• The artist’s diaries, 1928 to 1943
• Calendars and notebooks, 1933 to 1943
• Letters from Schlemmer to Otto Meyer-Amden, 1912 to 1932
• Letters from Otto-Meyer-Amden to Schlemmer, 1912 to 1932
• Exhibition lists, catalogues, brochures, invitations, magazines and publications with texts by or about Schlemmer and the Bauhaus
• Academic theses on Schlemmer and the Bauhaus
• Photographic documentation of the works of Schlemmer
• Biographical photos
• Press material
• File of the correspondence conducted by Tut Schlemmer and Dieter Keller since 1945 on the subject of the Schlemmer estate

The substantial inventory of texts, choreographies, documents, photos and publications related to Oskar Schlemmer’s works for ballet and the stage, initially placed at the disposal of the Staatsgalerie archive in the form of a loan, was returned to the artist’s daughter Jaina Schlemmer in 1983, as she oversees the artist’s stage estate herself. Copies of a proportion of this material are available in the archive for study purposes. [ KvM ]