Herbert Bayer
Muscles

Muscles

© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Muscles
Muscles
ArtistAmerican, born Austria, 1900–1985
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Muscles
Date1934
Made inUnited States
MediumGelatin silver print with applied color and collage
DimensionsImage: 10 1/2 × 11 1/2 in. (26.7 × 29.2 cm)
Sheet: 10 1/2 × 11 1/2 in. (26.7 × 29.2 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Louisa Stude Sarofim
Object number86.496
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
DescriptionHerbert
Bayer was a prominent member of the Bauhaus, Germany’s avant-garde school of
modern design, before leaving in 1928 to become art director for the German
edition of Vogue magazine. In 1934,
Bayer traveled to Greece, where he developed a strong affinity for classical
Greek art. Muscles, created that same
year, portrays idealized, classical male bodies that epitomize the utopian
aesthetic championed by the Nazis.

Provenance[Kicken-Pauseback Gallery, Cologne, Germany]; purchased by MFAH, 1986.
Exhibition HistoryExhibited Photographic Masterworks: Recent Acquisitions from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Glassell School January 23 - March 4, 1990

"Utopia/ Dystopia: Construction and Destruction in Photography and Collage," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 11 March - 10 June, 2012.

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
lower right on the image in pencil: herbert bayer 34

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Spoon Sale
Herbert Bayer
1936
Gelatin silver print
2002.633
Stable Wall
Herbert Bayer
1936
Gelatin silver print
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On the Beach
Herbert Bayer
1928
Gelatin silver print
2002.631
cropped recto of sheet
Herbert Bayer
c. 1928
Gelatin silver print
88.106.11
Fotoplastic
Herbert Bayer
1937, printed before mid-1950s
Gelatin silver print
91.378.3
Fotoplastic
Herbert Bayer
1936, printed before mid-1950s
Gelatin silver print
91.378.4
Fotoplastic
Herbert Bayer
1935, printed before mid-1950s
Gelatin silver print
91.378.2
Mensch und Architektur
Herbert Bayer
1926–1930
Gelatin silver print
83.149
Xanti Schavinsky in a Handstand Position
Herbert Bayer
1928
Gelatin silver print
91.379
Fotoplastic
Herbert Bayer
1936, printed before mid-1950s
Gelatin silver print
91.378.1
Les Chiens, La Gymnastique develop les muscles
Albert Bergeret
c. 1904
Collotype
2023.725
Muscles
William Wegman
1970
Single-channel digital video, transferred from Sony CV 1/2-inch video tape, black-and-white, sound
2019.402.3