100 Years Ago Today:
A Call For “German Constructivists”

Karl Peter Röhl (German, 1890–1975)
Poster: 1. Konstruktivistische Ausstellung (First Constructivist Exhibition),
Atelier Josef Zachmann, Haus der Frau von Stein, Weimar
(August 22–September 15, 1923), 1923
Letterpress, 36 3/8 x 23 1/4” (92.3 x 59 cm)

“Our era is the era of constructivity,” wrote Lajos Kassák in his introduction to Buch neue Künstler on May 31, 1922—precisely one hundred years ago today.

The book, co-edited by László Moholy-Nagy, was published to coincide with the
I. Internationale Kunstausstellung (First International Art Exhibition) in Düsseldorf, which also prompted El Lissitzky, Hans Richter, and Theo van Doesburg to found the “International Faction of Constructivists.” Five months later, the 1. Russische Kunstausstellung (First Russian Art Exhibition) opened in Berlin. Lauding the Suprematist and Constructivist works on view there, the critic Adolf Behne lamented that “no salon has yet exhibited the German Constructivists.”

Behne, together with his friend the artist and exhibition coordinator Walter Dexel, rectified this lacuna the following summer with the presentation of two exhibitions—Konstruktivisten in Jena (Willy Baumeister, Erich Buchholz, Max Burchartz, Walter Dexel, Oskar Fischer, László Peri, Karl Peter Röhl, Arthur Segal) and the 1. Konstruktivistische Ausstellung in Weimar (Burchartz, Dexel, Röhl)—both timed to coincide with the major, multi-venue Weimar Bauhaus exhibition (August 15–September 30, 1923).

To mark the centennial of the start of this multi-front campaign for “Constructivism” in Germany—the term, as imported from Soviet Russia, would almost immediately be contested—we present here materials related to the 1. Konstruktivistische Ausstellung in Weimar, along with a selection of works by Karl Peter Röhl, a Bauhaus student under the influence of Theo van Doesburg.

[The above is excerpted from a forthcoming essay by Adrian Sudhalter on Behne, Dexel, and “German Constructivism.”]

Karl Peter Röhl (German, 1890–1975)
Invitation: 1. Konstruktivistische Ausstellung (First Constructivist Exhibition), Atelier Josef Zachmann, Haus der Frau von Stein, Weimar
(August 22 September 15, 1923), 1923
Lithograph, 3 1/4 x 5 7/16” (8 x 13.5 cm)

Karl Peter Röhl (German, 1890–1975)
Installation photograph: works by Burchartz, Dexel, Röhl on view in the
1. Konstruktivistische Ausstellung (First Constructivist Exhibition), Atelier Josef Zachmann, Haus der Frau von Stein, Weimar (August 22–September 15, 1923), as reproduced in De Stijl, 7, nos. 79-84 (1927): 104.

Karl Peter Röhl (German, 1890–1975)
Untitled, inscribed “1922”
Gouache on paper, 9 1/2 x 9 1/2” (24 x 24 cm)

Karl Peter Röhl (German, 1890–1975)
Untitled, inscribed “1922”
Gouache on paper, 10 9/16 x 10 1/8” (26.8 x 25.7 cm)

May 31, 2022