Ise Gropius: Architect of Modern Memory
Thursday, 1 October 2026 | 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Biographical portrait of Ise Gropius tracing her life from Bauhaus Dessau to the Lawn Road Flats in London and onward into exile in the US.
German art historian Anja Guttenberger gives a biographical portrait of Ise Gropius, tracing her life from Bauhaus Dessau to the Lawn Road Flats in London and onward into exile in the US, while exploring her role in the making of modern memory.
Best known as the wife of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, Ise Gropius was far more than a figure at his side. This lecture follows the unfolding of her life across Dessau, Berlin, London, and the United States: from the Bauhaus years and the upheavals of exile to her later role in shaping how modernism would be remembered.
The London years give this story a particular resonance at the Isokon Gallery. In the cosmopolitan world of the Isokon circle, amid exile, uncertainty, and new artistic alliances, Ise Gropius’s life entered a decisive new chapter. The talk offers a biographical perspective on Ise as a writer, companion, observer, mediator, and guardian of memory. Through letters, photographs, diaries, and archival traces, it reveals a woman whose life was deeply entwined with the emotional, cultural, and political history of the twentieth century.
Anja Guttenberger is an art historian, author, and researcher whose work focuses on the Bauhaus, women’s histories, and the cultural afterlives of architecture and design. In her independent podcast bauhaus faces she traces the lives and work of Bauhaus masters, students, and affiliates alike.