Looking Up, Bauhaus Architecture Poster

The point of view is everything. From the sidewalk, the eye climbs along the cantilevered slabs, crosses the tubular railings, catches on the yellow band running vertically across the facade, and comes out onto the blue sky. This low-angle framing was one of the favorite tools of photographers close to the Bauhaus in the 1920s, who used it to show that the new architecture was no longer read as a flat facade but as a stack of volumes in space.

The whole modernist vocabulary is there: roof terrace, ribbon windows, continuous balconies, white volumes offset from one another. Color is not decoration applied on top, it serves to distinguish the masses. Yellow holds the central vertical, red marks the recesses, midnight blue traces the frame, white catches the light. Take away the colors and the building loses its legibility, which is exactly the opposite of an ornament.

This is a poster that gives a room height. It looks upward, and it draws the eye along with it. For Menivora, this image says something modernist architecture defended with conviction: to build well is to think well, and it shows.

Where to hang it. The vertical format and the low angle call for height. At 50x70 or 70x100 cm in a stairwell, a tall entryway or a living room with a high ceiling, the effect is at its strongest. Hang it a little higher than usual eye level to follow the movement of the image. The blue of the sky goes well with light wood, black metal and white or pale grey walls. A thin black frame is the best choice here: it extends the lines of the building without competing with the colors.