Artists Index: Lilly Reich

Lilly Reich (b. 1885 Berlin, Germany – 1947 Berlin, Germany.) Lilly Reich led a meteoric career in interior and exhibition design, and was a close collaborator with architect Mies van der Rohe. Reich made her reputation by designing a series of exhibitions that introduced the general public to the modernist ideals commonly associated with the Bauhaus. Her many projects include Die Wohnung, Stuttgart, 1927; Velvet and Silk Cafe, Berlin, 1927, which used hanging panels of golden silk to create the open, flowing spaces that architects were beginning to explore; the International Exposition in Barcelona, 1929; in 1931 Reich was appointed organizer and designer of the prestigious Deutsche Bau-Ausstellung, Berlin. Reich was head of the interior decoration workshop at the Bauhaus in 1932, and following the Second World War taught at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Berlin. She died in Berlin in 1947.