Switzerland, Germany
Ernst Egeler on trumpet, Clemens Röseler on trombone, and Xanti Schawinsky on saxophone, captured in 1928. Photo by T. Lux Feininger. © T. Lux Feininger Estate,
courtesy of Galerie Berinson, Berlin
Dates of Birth and Death
March 25, 1904 in Basel - September 11, 1979 in Locarno
Professional Roles and Contributions
Painter and Stage Artist, Educator, Photographer, Graphic Designer, and Spatial Designer
Personal Life and Family
Schawinsky was married from 1936 to 1963 to Irene von Debschitz (1903–1990), the daughter of Wanda von Debschitz-Kunowski and Wilhelm von Debschitz. Their son, Ben, was born in 1939. In 1963, Schawinsky married Gisela Hatzky, and their son, Daniel, was born in 1973.
Xanti (Alexander Victor) Schawinsky was the second child of the merchant Benjamin Schawinsky and Regina, née Bielawska, both of Polish-Jewish descent. From 1910 to 1914, he attended school in Basel, and from 1915 to 1921, he attended a high school in Zurich. Afterward, he was an apprentice at the architectural office of Theodor Merill in Cologne until 1923.
After briefly attending the School of Arts and Crafts in Berlin in 1923, he went to the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1924. At the Bauhaus stage workshop, he developed his first sketches, pantomimes, and visual performances, largely independently from workshop leader Oskar Schlemmer, in a group around Kurt Schmidt.
When the Bauhaus in Weimar closed in 1925, Schawinsky moved to Dessau with the school, which reopened as a municipal institution in the spring of that year. At the new location, he was given a studio in the former art gallery. There, on behalf of the Bauhaus, he prepared the reconstruction of the stage workshop and revitalized the Bauhaus-Kapelle, founded in 1924 by Andor Weininger in Weimar, where he also played the saxophone.
Xanti Schawinsky, photo: T. Lux Feininger, around 1926, © T. Lux Feininger Estate, courtesy Galerie Berinson, Berlin
The Schawinsky Family: Xanti, Regina, Anneli, Benjamin, Henri Schawinsky, Photo: Unknown, around 1920
At the same time, Schawinsky dedicated himself to free painting and experimental photography. From August 1926 to July 1927, he worked as a set designer at the Stadttheater in Zwickau. In 1927, his stage designs created in Zwickau and at the Bauhaus were part of the Bauhaus presentation at the German Theatre Exhibition in Magdeburg.
In the winter semester of 1928/1929, Schawinsky taught stage design at the Bauhaus and, together with Oskar Schlemmer, organized the "Metallische Fest" (Metallic Festival) on February 9, 1929. In the same year, his paintings were exhibited in the "Junge Bauhausmaler" (Young Bauhaus Painters) exhibition, shown in Halle an der Saale, Braunschweig, Erfurt, and Krefeld.