⌊Lotte at the Bauhaus⌋

by Nancy Vogel

Dealing with copyright and image rights of artistic works in film

There are projects that make you jump with joy as soon as you receive the request. Projects that make (design) dreams come true. LOTTE AT BAUHAUS, which I was allowed to design as a set designer, is about a young woman who studies at the Bauhaus. Unlike most of the other protagonists in the film, the main character is fictional, but Lotte is based on the artist Alma Siederhoff-Buscher. During her studies she meets teachers such as Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten and Oskar Schlemmer, fellow student and friend Friedl Dicker, as well as Anni and Josef Albers. She designs wooden toys such as the ship building game, which later becomes a best seller, and a children's room for the Haus Am Horn [first Bauhaus model house | Editor's note] together with Erich Brendel.

Modell des Bauhausspiels mit
Originalverpackung gestaltet
von Alma Sieder Buschhoff

↑ Model of the Bauhaus game with original packaging designed by Alma Sieder Buschhoff

Verpackung des Spiels gestaltet für den Film

↑ Packaging of the game designed for the movie

Wohnhaus Anna und Josef Albers
mit Kunst von Josef Albers

↑ Photo of the Meisterhäuser apartment with the designs we created on the wall © Photo Nancy Vogel

The Bauhaus – Birthplace of the Avant-Garde

The Bauhaus: One of the most influential schools of art, design and architecture. Despite its short existence of just fourteen years, many still consider it the birthplace of the avant-garde and classical modernism, whose visionary ideas still hold true today, even after a hundred years.
The aim of combining art with everyday life and avoiding excessive ornamentation in architecture, product design and painting became its guiding principle. This also includes the unconditional will to combine fine art and functional design and to create practical objects with the soul of works of art. Form follows function – one of the basic ideas of the Bauhaus! The combination of artistic and design pedagogy is also a merit of the Bauhaus: practical crafts, architecture, interior design, textile and wood design should be equated with the “high arts” such as sculpture and painting. The Bauhaus designs continue to shape many forms of design to this day.

The Bauhaus as a legal challenge

The list of names of the film's protagonists reads like a who's who of the Bauhaus. Being able to use all of their works as an inspiration and template for a film is a dream for anyone interested in art and especially for us set decorators. However, at the same time it presented us with the challenging task of having to clear the rights for almost everything that was to be used in the film.
Even though it is now easy to do research on the Internet and there is a lot of material to be found there, we could not and did not want to just use it because practically every image of a Bauhaus product is protected by copyright as an independent artistic achievement. In some cases, the rights for this lie with heirs scattered all over the world. If the author is incorrectly or unnamed or used beyond the license, expensive warnings may result. Such unnecessary measures can be prevented if you follow a few principles when using third-party works.

copyright for paintings

The question of copyright for paintings is relatively easy to answer. According to the law, the usage rights of a work of art lie with the authors or artists. These can be transferred to their heirs up to 70 years after death. Afterwards the copyright expires. Specifically, this means that copyright claims can only be asserted if the work of art in question comes from artists who have not been deceased for more than 70 years. The assignment of rights to heirs should therefore not be neglected.

VG Bild-Kunst in Bonn regulates the usage rights of all artists up to 70 years after their death. With regard to the lack of image rights, we could not take any risks for our project. A position was created specifically in the Art Department to research all objects. Whether drawings, sculptures, toys, theater costumes or furniture: who holds the relevant rights and which ones are available. Based on this research, the production was able to carry out the legal clarification with VG Bild-Kunst.

Just paint it? that doesn't work!

In addition, it is not permitted to simply "copy" an image or to edit it artistically in order to avoid copyright. Edits or other modifications to a copyrighted work may only be made and published with the consent of the authors or rights holders. This requires a so-called right of reproduction. However, the exact way in which the author's name and the source information that must be distinguished from it are to be designed depends on the contractual requirements of the contracting parties. The law is clear in this regard: the risk of infringement is borne by the users of protected works themselves. Before using them, it must therefore be ensured whether and to what extent third-party (photo) material may be used!

Motivfoto Atelier Oskar
Schlemmer
© Foto Nancy Vogel

↑ Motif picture of Oskar Schlemmer's studio designed by us © Photo Nancy Vogel

Free interpretations and reproductions

For LOTTE AM BAUHAUS we were able to access comprehensive images about the history of its workshops, the teaching materials and life at the Bauhaus via the image center of the Bauhaus Dessau and Weimar Foundation, which supported us greatly.
The rights for Alma Siederhoff-Buscher, for example, are in the public domain [intellectual creations for which there is no longer any copyright | Editor's note], including the drawings for the shipbuilding game already mentioned. We had the sketches for the game and the furniture made specially. The game itself came from the manufacturer, who still makes it true to the original today, but it was a bit too small for our purposes. That's why we had it recreated on a slightly larger scale.
For the furnishing of the apartments in the Masters' Houses in Dessau, we were given the right to recreate Josef Albers' paintings as faithfully as possible for the film. The window painting in the cafeteria is a design by our production designer Lars Lange - a free interpretation based on the original design by Josef Albers, for which we did not need any rights. Insofar as a work shown represents a free interpretation "in the style of" and the audience is left to mentally associate it with the work of a particular artist, this is permitted. However, it is not permissible to assign this free interpretation to a specific work. It cannot therefore simply be claimed that this is an original painting by Paul Klee or a tapestry by Gunta Stölzl.
We also chose this path in the studios and workshops. For example, based on the original design, we commissioned artists to freely interpret works by the Bauhaus students. Since we needed a wealth of material for extras and the background, we claimed work that was proven never to have existed at the Bauhaus. However, the viewer sees these works in the film as products of the Bauhaus workshops because they are shown in their surroundings. We had all of the paper sculptures, mobiles and drawings in the studios made by art students. We also designed furniture for the exhibition opening scene at Haus am Horn that was inspired by Bauhaus design and could have come from its students.
Alma Siederhoff-Buscher's children's room and Marcel Breuer's display cabinet, on the other hand, were faithfully reconstructed with permission and even remained as exhibits in the Bauhaus Weimar.

Set Entwürfe Lars Lange für Kantine Bauhaus Weimar

↑ Set designs Lars Lange for Bauhaus canteen in Weimar

Interesting, feel free to do that!

Basically, the bureaucratic institutions involved in clarifying rights are very helpful. However, the great time pressure that often exists in film productions is a problem here. With patience and kindness, however, you can usually get the information you need. In many cases, we were really surprised at how accommodating and supportive the authors and owners were, who usually agreed to use or depict something without much hesitation with the words: "Interesting, you can do that."