Mart Stam

1899 (Purmerend, Netherlands) – 1986 (Goldach, Switzerland)

Stam, generally less well-known than deserved, was one of the most significant European artists and designers of the 1920’s and 30’s. He was the first to come up with a tubular steel chair (winning a case against Breuer to establish this). Mies selected him to feature in a famous showcase of modernist architecture. Gropius wanted him to lead the Bauhaus’s architecture department (he declined). He worked briefly with Poelzig. Lissitzky was a close friend, and like Rietveld and to some extent Corbusier, Giedion and van Eesteren, a collaborator and colleague in the pursuit of advanced ideas about architecture and planning.

Marcel Breuer

1902 (Pécs, Hungary) – 1981 (New York)

Breuer was one of the key modernist architects, and a highly influential furniture designer. In Hungary he belonged to a circle with strong links to van Doesburg and de Stijl. Gropius became his mentor, friend and colleague first at the Bauhaus, and later in the U.S. Moholy taught with him, and briefly lived in the same London block. He met Corbusier in Paris, designed an apartment building for Giedion in Zürich, and named a chair after his colleague Kandinsky. He was friends with Calder, taught Johnson and Pei, collaborated with Nervi, and redesigned Piscator’s apartment in modern style (complete with punchbag).

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

1886 (Aachen, Germany) – 1969 (Chicago)

Mies was one of the seminal modernist architects; his buildings possess superb proportion and an influential stripped-down aesthetic (echoed in his pithy aphorisms). His first job was with Paul; he then met Gropius, and probably Corbusier, as fellow-apprentices under Behrens. Lissitzky was a close friend and collaborator on the progressive design-journal ‘G’, along with Richter and Schwitters. Gropius, Kandinsky and Albers were Bauhaus colleagues. Aalto, Siskind and Callahan were friends, van Doesburg warmly so. An afternoon with Wright became four days. In the U.S., Johnson was a great supporter, and Beckmann, Gabo and Pevsner expatriate drinking companions.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe knew…

William Morris

1834 (Walthamstow, England) – 1896 (London)

Many of Morris’s friends were also close collaborators, living deeply intertwined lives. Rossetti, initially a mentor, became a close colleague (as well as naming his pet wombat after Morris, and falling for his wife); Burne-Jones was a fellow-colleague and lifetime friend. Webb, another friend for life, was met when Morris was an architectural apprentice, while Brown was another colleague and business partner. Engels gave Morris advice on forming a socialist movement but doubted his practicality; Shaw shared many ideals, dined regularly with him, but was miffed when Morris, lecturing around the corner, got all the audience.

William Morris knew…

Léon Bakst

1866 (Grodno, Belarus) – 1924 (Paris)

Diaghilev and Dobuzhinsky were fellow-members of The World of Art; Bakst later became an influential founding member of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Chagall, Matyushin and Guro were among his students (Chagall fortunately ignoring his advice not to go to Paris if he wanted to survive). Proust visited the Ballets Russes and admired and wrote about him (it is unclear whether they ever met). Debussy was together with him in Ida Rubinstein’s apartment when she staggered in naked and bleeding (a pet panther was to blame). He advised the besotted Picasso he’d only get the chaste Olga Khokhlova by marrying her.

Léon Bakst knew…

Alexander Rodchenko

Aleksandr Mihailovich Rodchenko;Alexandre Rodtschenko;Alexander Rodtschenko

1891 (St. Petersburg) – 1956 (Moscow)

Rodchenko was a true pioneer in several fields of art and design. He became Tatlin’s energetic protégé in the bubbling cauldron of the Moscow art-scene, and shot films directed by another strong influence, Vertov, who shared his enthusiasm for revolutionary politics and culture. Exter, Popova and the Stenbergs were Constructivist associates; Shostakovich, Meyerhold and (most notably) Mayakovsky collaborators; and Tschichold a correspondent. Léger and van Doesburg were met in Paris, but communication suffered for lack of a common language. He met his lifelong companion and collaborator Stepanova as a student; they lived for a year in Kandinsky’s apartment.

Alexander Rodchenko knew…

László Moholy-Nagy

1895 (Bácsborsod, Hungary) – 1946 (Chicago)

Moholy was linked to Schwitters’ advertising business. Hausmann was a lifelong friend and sharer of cross-disciplinary ideas. Gropius appointed Moholy to the Bauhaus, making him his closest associate; Albers and Breuer were fellow teachers there, while Gropius, Breuer and he later lived in the same block of London flats. Kepes followed him from Berlin to Chicago as assistant, collaborator and colleague, while Eisenstein asked his students to help on a pioneering fly-through shot. Grierson, Read, Hepworth, Nicholson, Moore and Betjeman were among his London circle. Holidaying in France, he took photographs while Giedion wrote about them.

Le Corbusier

Pierre-Édouard Jeanneret

1887 (La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland) – 1965 (Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France)

Behrens employed him (and his friends Mies van der Rohe and Gropius) as a young man. Hoffmann, Moser and Klimt were all met around the same time on a visit to Vienna. Braque, Picasso, Lipchitz, Gris and Léger were among artist friends and acquaintances in Paris after WWI. Ozenfant and he started a post-cubist artistic movement together. He met Meyerhold and Eisenstein on a trip to Moscow, and Baker on a voyage to Rio. Perriand worked in his studio designing furniture. He travelled across Spain with Léger, collaborated on a building with Sert, and on an electronic poem with Varèse.

El Lissitzky

Eliezer Lissitzky;Lazar Markovich Lissitzky;Eleazar Markovich Lisitskii

1890 (Pochinok, Smolensk, Russia) – 1941 (Moscow)

He was a disciple of Chagall’s in Vitebsk, but ultimately sided with his mentor and friend Malevich against him. His friend Schwitters, with van Doesburg, joined him in promoting an International of Art. Ehrenburg lent him a camera to photograph the Eiffel Tower, started a magazine with him, and reported Gabo, Shklovsky, Altman, Mayakovsky, Archipenko and him fighting furiously after a lecture by Puni. He taught with Tatlin and Moholy-Nagy, and met le Corbusier, Léger and Mondrian while on holiday. Taueber-Arp and his old collaborators Arp and Stam collected him when he arrived in Switzerland for TB treatment.