Bristol Hannover Council
The Lord Mayor visits the Bauhaus Exhibition
We were delighted to be able to arrange for the Lord Mayor, Cllr Jos Clark, to visit the Bauhaus Exhibition, which was earlier reported after the Evening with Crofton Gane in October. The Lord Mayor was most interested in this important aspect of Bristol’s artistic history. After an introduction to the present day gallery by Julia Donnelly, the Centre Manager, we were given a fascinating history by Chris Yeo first of the building on Park Row, which used to be the confectionery shop for the Princes Theatre, which was sadly destroyed by bombing in the Second World War. Ken Stradling, a lifetime enthusiast for the Modernism movement, bought the building in the 1970s and it opened as a gallery to show off Bauhaus furniture and artefacts in 2013. Crofton Gane was a partner in the enterprise, as we know, along with Marcel Breuer, but the latter decided to move to America with Walter Gropius in search of a more open-minded approach to modernism than he found in Britain. Ken Stradling took over from Breuer as the main promoter of modernism in Bristol – and we were honoured to meet him, when he came into the exhibition during the showing! He is now 98 years old and was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list for his services to modernist art.
The Lord Mayor with Julia Donnelly
Ken Stradling
