Last Dance at the Bauhaus

In 1925 the Nazi regime forced closure of the first (Weimar) Bauhaus, the quintessential art school of modernism. The faculty threw an end-of-the-world party, billed as Letzter Tanz ("last dance"). Herbert Bayer did the invitation, a concrete poem patterned on German funeral announcements. It promised a revue and a lottery for artworks by Feininger, Klee, and Kandinsky.

Bayer's invitation card is in the Getty Research Institute's "Bauhaus Beginnings" (through Oct. 13, 2019). As with many GRI shows, it demonstrates the enduring significance of objects-that-didn't-enter-the-art-market.