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The Aram Gallery hosted the book launch of Isokon and the Bauhaus in Britain, by Magnus Englund and Leyla Daybelge, published by Batsford. An accompanying exhibition* on the Isokon building and its furniture was displayed in the gallery.

 

Built in 1934, the Isokon building in Hampstead, London was England’s first modernist apartment building. Clients Jack and Molly Pritchard commissioned architect Wells Coates to design the building and explore the concept of minimal living. During the mid-1930s and 1940s the flats and bar became a hub for creatives, including Bauhaus professors Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Moholy-Nagy. The three produced furniture, architecture and graphic art for Jack Pritchard’s Isokon design company.

 

The book – which features anecdotes by gallery director Zeev Aram – tells the story of the Isokon, and examines the work, artistic networks and legacy of the Bauhaus artists during their time in Britain. It is illustrated with archive photography – much of which is previously unseen – as well as documents from the Pritchard family archive.

 

In the year of the Bauhaus centenary, the launch and display of Isokon and the Bauhaus in Britain was a timely event for The Aram Gallery. The Pritchards’ forward-thinking vision for the Isokon building makes an excellent match for our continued interest in showing experimental or new design.

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*with thanks to the Association of Estonian Designers