Monday, July 1, 2024 Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean is excited to present the first retrospective of Swiss-American artist Alexander ‘Xanti’ Schawinsky (1904-1979) outside Switzerland. This exhibition showcases over 100 works, including paintings, photographs, set designs, drawings, and graphic designs, reflecting the artist’s multidisciplinary approach across various media. Many of these pieces will be on public display for the first time since Schawinsky’s death in 1979.
This exhibition aims to revive interest in Schawinsky’s work, which has been largely inaccessible until recently. Born in Basel, Schawinsky was a pivotal figure at the Bauhaus, where he studied under Oskar Schlemmer, Walter Gropius, Paul Klee, and László Moholy-Nagy. He created numerous stage and costume designs, collages, and photographs, and pioneered the ‘Spectodrama’, a novel theatre form combining color, shape, movement, light, sound, words, pantomime, music, graphic art, and improvisation.
Following Hitler’s rise in 1933, Schawinsky, being Jewish, emigrated to Italy and later to the USA in 1936. There, he taught at Black Mountain College and became a key figure in trans-Atlantic artistic exchange. His diverse work, marked by continuous experimentation, engaged with and influenced many 20th-century artistic movements, particularly through his innovative approach to performance art, which continues to inspire contemporary artists.
Mudam’s exhibition aim.
