Desk in Exile: A Bauhaus Object Traversing Different Modernities

How can a heavy cherry wood desk tell a story of exile and migration? Walter Gropius’ writing desk was designed as part of a collective furniture ensemble for the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition in Weimar.

When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau, the desk moved with it, landing in the director’s office, where it was used as a demonstration of a vision of a modern office culture. The desk took up residence temporarily in the Lawn Road Flats in London before following Gropius to Lincoln, Massachusetts, in 19...