Wilhelm Wagenfeld (born 15. April 1900 in Bremen/Germany; died 28. May 1990 in Stuttgart/Germany) was among the pioneers of European industrial design and one of the most important glass and porcelain designers of the 20th century. After learning technical drawing at the Bremen silverware producer Koch and Bergfeld, Wilhelm Wagenfeld completed numerous freelance jobs before beginning his studies in the Metalwork workshop at Bauhaus in Weimar in 1923. After successfully completing his training as a silversmith Wagenfeld took up a teaching position in the Metalwork workshop and from 1928-1930 was head of the workshop. After the dissolution of Bauhaus Wagenfeld began a professional journey that was to see him work with such renowned institutions as the Schott Jena, Rosenthal, Braun, and WMF. In addition, Wilhelm Wagenfeld held numerous teaching and advisory posts including a professorship at the Staatliche Kunsthochschule in Berlin. Despite a long and successful career Wilhelm Wagenfeld is perhaps best remembered for one of his earliest creations - the WG 24 table lamp, universally known as the Bauhaus Lamp and a design that is admired and copied in equal measure. With his doctrine of simple, clearly defined, end-use-orientated design Wilhelm Wagenfeld helped open a new age of industrial product design.
Wilhelm Wagenfeld's world famous table lamp WG 24
Wilhelm Wagenfeld with a group of Bauhaus designers
...With the exhibition Wilhelm Wagenfeld A to Z the Wilhelm Wagenfeld Haus, Bremen, attempt just that, in context of an eminently interesting and informative, if at times very difficult to read, designer... Born in Bremen on April 15th 1900, Wilhelm Wagenfeld initially trained as an industrial draughtsman in Bremen and Hanau before joining Bauhaus Weimar in 1923, where in 1924 he qualified as a silversmith...
..."I assure you that you and your work are the model case for what the Bauhaus has been after" wrote Walter Gropius to Wilhelm Wagenfeld in April 1965... Just how Wilhelm Wagenfeld developed that "model case" "after" Bauhaus is explored, at least in terms of one design genre, in that genre for which Wilhelm Wagenfeld is most popularly known as a Bauhaus model, in the exhibition Wilhelm Wagenfeld: Lamps at the Wilhelm Wagenfeld Haus Bremen...
..."Wilhelm Wagenfeld: Lamps" at the Wilhelm Wagenfeld Haus, Bremen, Germany Developed in the metal workshop at Bauhaus Weimar in 1923/4 Wilhelm Wagenfeld's reduced, geometric lamp was christened the "Bauhaus Lamp" by Wilhelm Lotz in 1928... With Wilhelm Wagenfeld: Lamps the Wilhelm Wagenfeld Haus Bremen promise a presentation of not only Wagenfeld's lighting design canon, from that first lamp in Weimar over further inter-War works for manufacturers such as Weimar Bau und Wohnungskunst and onto his post-War designs, including those for Bamberg based Lindner, but also a presentation of lighting designs by other designers through which they aim to explore how Wagenfeld's work informs and influences contemporary lighting designers...
...Transparentes Design the Wilhelm Wagenfeld Haus Bremen abstract that metaphor to explore the link between transparency in design and architecture, and transparency in society... While an exhibition about Glass staged by the Wilhelm Wagenfeld Haus may appear as lazily logical as an exhibition about catholicism staged by the Vatican or a retrospective of Kim Kardashian selfies curated by Kim Kardashian, both Wagenfeld and glass are only incidental to the genesis of the exhibition Welt aus Glas...
...The German silversmith, product designer and Bauhaus alumni Wilhelm Wagenfeld... Reading Wilhelm Wagenfeld's review of "Design for Use, USA " in the May 1951 edition of the magazine Baukunst und Werkform2, we feel more than a little justified in our youthful arrogance...
