Veronica Bremer

• In tracing the complex circulation of Bauhaus principles and approaches to design in Australia throughout the 1940s and 1950s, this dissertation establishes the various exchanges between the Australian artists Dahl and Geoffrey Collings and Alistair Morrison, the British artist Richard Haughton James, and Walter Gropius, László Moholy-Nagy, and György Kepes in London during the period from 1935 to 1937. Through various case studies, visual analysis, and by drawing on the critique of unidirectional notions of agency and influence, I demonstrate how certain practices of collaboration and experimentation used at the Bauhaus were applied and advocated by the Collingses, Morrison, and James in Australia throughout their wide-ranging artistic practices, which included photography, film, design, and painting. Furthermore, I demonstrate how this group of designers promoted the Bauhaus and its associated collaborative and experimental principles in their lectures, writings, and exhibitions and through their involvement in professional art and design organizations. I argue that this group of designers all subsequently played crucial roles in introducing Australia to the Bauhaus and improving art and design standards in Sydney and Melbourne during the post-war period, enriching Australia’s art and culture for decades.