Oskar Schlemmer: “Bauhaus Staircase” (1932), framed reproduction, giclée print on canvas

His project was the "New Man." He depicts him without expressive features, as an "artistic figure," insisting that even in his (and our) highly complex time, he is the ideal aesthetic measure of all things. "I want to create human types, not portraits, and I want the essence of space, not interiors," Oskar Schlemmer succinctly summarized his artistic approach. Space itself is his subject—and so is humanity itself. It would be wrong to see in these carefully composed mannequins anonymized, even "alienated," urbanites. It is no coincidence that they evoke archaic models, which Schlemmer revered as the highest expression of human form.