Xanti Schawinsky: Play Life Illusion. a Retrospective in Texts, Letters and Images

Discover the life and art of Xanti Schawinski.

Xanti Schawinsky: Play Life Illusion refers to the title of a performance that Xanti Schawinsky developed in 1936 with students at Black Mountain College. The Swiss artist who worked at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau emigrated in the 1930s via Italy to the United States. The volume assembles autobiographical texts and letters regarding the life’s work of the multimedia artist and designer.

During his time at the Bauhaus, Schawinsky learned that it is possible to be both an artist and a designer at the same time if your passion for and joy in experimentation are simply big enough. Thus, he repeatedly reinvented himself as a stage and exhibition designer, painter, graphic artist, teacher, and photographer. He made friends, allies, and colleagues who included not only Bauhaus artists like Walter Gropius and Herbert Bayer but also avant-garde artists like Marcel Duchamp. Texts, accompanying explanations, and lively illustrations recreate his life and times.

Daniel Schawinsky is manager of the Xanti Schawinsky Estate. Torsten Blume is a research and artistic associate of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. He works as a curator, scenographer, and choreographer.