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Herbert & Joella Bayer
Joining Forces in the Service of Art

to
  • Herbert Bayer, Foursome, 1971
  • Herbert Bayer, Herbert and Joella Bayer in the studio at Red Mountain, Aspen, 1970er-Jahre
  • Herbert Bayer, Suspended Secrets, 1979
  • Herbert Bayer, Self portrait, 1932
  • Herbert Bayer, Leaning Gate, 1970
  • Herbert Bayer, Lonely Metropolitan
  • Exhibition view, Herbert & Joella Bayer, 2022
  • Exhibition view, Herbert & Joella Bayer, 2022

In this show, the Lentos puts its Bayer Archive centre stage. This archive is one of the most comprehensive collections in Europe featuring works by this truly universal, Upper Austrian born artist.


For the first time the exhibition also showcases his collaboration with his wife, Joella. In her capacities as manager and donor, she made a significant contribution to Herbert’s success.


Herbert Bayer (1900 – 1985) is considered the epitome of the modern universal type of artist. His career took him from Linz to Germany and the United States, where he continued his Bauhaus inspired work for international corporations, museums, and the tourism industry. As an architect, designer, painter, sculptor and landscape designer, he shaped the townscape of such places as Aspen, where the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies opened this year.


Joella (1907 – 2004), daughter of the famous writer, artist and feminist Mina Loy (1882 – 1966), not only took charge of her husband’s estate after his death, but she was also his muse and artistic mentor during his lifetime and a source of inspiration for Dalí and Man Ray. She had a remarkable talent for bringing together different personalities from the worlds of business and art.


The exhibition puts a unique focus on Bayer’s success as a commercial designer in Germany and the United States. Photos from private US Archives and by Bayer’s first wife, Irene Bayer Hecht (1898 – 1991), and Ise Gropius (1897 – 1983) of Bauhaus as well as Mina Loy supplement the Lentos’s holdings. These are comprised of more than 200 works generously donated to the Lentos between 1986 and 2004 by Herbert and Joella Bayer. Some are more recent acquisitions.

Curator: Elisabeth Nowak-Thaller

Exhibition Design: Nicole Six & Paul Petritsch

Interactive Exhibition part

Let’s redesign the exhibition space! Inspired by Bauhaus ideas, a large part of the show invites visitors to use and design it themselves. Elements of this interactive area of the exhibition can be used, moved and changed. In this way, the exhibition space is created anew again and again.

Date Title Time
Sat 01.04Lentos Ate­lier

Kinder und Jugendliche zwischen 6 und 12 Jahren haben im Lentos Atelier die Möglichkeit, Kunstwerke zu entdecken, kreativ zu arbeiten und verschiedene Techniken auszuprobieren. 

10:00 am–12:00 pm
Sat 01.04Atelier für Alle

Das Atelier für Alle zwischen 0 und 99. Familien, alte Kinder, junge Erwachsene, kindische Großeltern und weise Freund*innen sind eingeladen quer durch die Generationen gemeinsam künstlerisch-kreativ aktiv zu werden

2:00 pm–4:00 pm
Sat 01.04Express Tour: Jean Egger“

This tour offers an insight into the Lentos. It looks at the museum‘s history and collection of art and includes highlights of the present special exhibition. Language: English, Ticket: 3€ plus admission, duration: 45 minutes

4:00 pm–4:45 pm
Fri 14.04Workshop for Adults: Expressive Painting on Jean Egger

Figurative and landscape-expressive painting are tried out together in relation to Jean Egger. With artist Klaus Scheuringer.

3:00 pm–5:00 pm
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Video

*Please understand that we offer our video production in German language only.

#SneekPeek: Herbert & Joella Bayer

Catalogue for the exhibition Ahoy Herbert! Bayer und die Moderne” (08.05. – 02.08.09) published by Verlag Bibliothek der Provinz. With texts by Elisabeth Nowak-Thaller and Bernhard Widder. hardcover, colour illustrations

516 pages, german

€48Visit shop

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