The German Institute of Lisbon, in cooperation with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG) presented the retrospective exhibition, including documents, of architect Walter Gropius's (1883-1969) work at Cooperativa Árvore in Porto and at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's main building in Lisbon.
The exhibition was organised by Ise Gropius (1897-1983) for the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin and had already been shown in Italy, Greece and Germany. After the exhibition was put on in Portugal, it was also decided that it would then be shown in Brazil.
In its different forms, the humanist work of Walter Gropius - founder and first director of the Bauhaus School (Dessau), pioneering architect, and master for many generations of artists and architects - prevailed in this exhibition; his work was one of the most remarkable exhibitions in the contemporary world, with an international projection confirmed by the extraordinary scale of his artistic output.
In Portugal, the exhibition was considered to be extremely important not only for architecture, drawing, painting and design students but for the general public. It would introduce Walter Gropius' projects, dating from 1906-1969, to visitors and help them understand what his work represented in the architecture of his day and the following decades.
The FCG produced and set up the exhibition in Porto and Lisbon, and the Exhibitions and Museography Department was appointed to complete the task.
The Walter Gropius exhibition opened at the FCG in January 1975, containing 68 pieces by the architect documented by photographs and plans and accompanied by theoretical notes taken from his work. It also included films about Bauhaus and videos of interviews with Gropius.
A round table to debate the architect's work was also arranged, with the following invited speakers: Alfredo Viana de Lima (1913-1991), António Sena da Silva (1926-2001) and Pedro Vieira de Almeida (1933-2011), along with art historian and teacher Manuel Rio-Carvalho (1928-1994). The debate was moderated by José-Augusto França (1922).
The exhibition catalogue includes an introduction by Ise Gropius and texts by James Marston Fitch (1909-2000), architect and professor at Columbia University, and the architects Viana de Lima (1913-1991) and Frederico George (1915-1994). Together with Sena da Silva, Vieira de Almeida and Rio-Carvalho3, they also worked together on Jornal da Exposição Walter Gropius, a publication accompanying the exhibition.