A spotlight on the last Bauhaus master

AMONG THE MOST STRIKING OBJECTS on view at the Guggenheim Museum’s 2016 retrospective of the work of the Hungarian–born designer, artist, and Bauhaus theorist László Moholy-Nagy was an acrylic chess set. Simple, spare, the game pieces reduced to their essential forms—the set was the epitome of modernist purity. Many visitors were surprised, however, to learn that the chessmen were not the work of Moholy-Nagy himself but of one of his students: Richard Filipowski.

Richard Filipowski: Art & Design Beyond the Bauhaus Edited by Marisa Bartolucci and foreword by Hattula Moholy- Nagy • Monacelli Press, $60

He may still not yet be a household name, but more and more of Filipowski’s work in painting, sculpture, jewelry, and furniture is coming out of private collections and into public exhibitions. It should not take long for this mid-century artist and designer to take his place in the American modernist canon, and a new book will only hasten the process. Richard Filipowski: Art & Design Beyond the Bauhaus (due out in February 2018), a handsome volume edited by Marisa Bartolucci, tells Filipowski’s story through scholarly essays and hundreds of photographs of his work.