Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies

09/07/2026

Only 3 (free) campus tours left this season! Step back in time to see how the Aspen Meadows campus first took shape. 🔙

Before Herbert Bayer’s iconic earthworks reshaped these grounds, the area was a blank canvas of open ranchland. Compare these historic views to what you’ll experience on our walking tour:

Slide 1 (August 1958): Early residence buildings at the Aspen Meadows and the bare land between the Aspen Institute and the Meadows—15 years before Bayer transformed it into Anderson Park in 1973.

Slide 2 (September 1962): A rare view of the nearly-complete Paepcke Auditorium / Paepcke Memorial Building under construction.

Join us this Wednesday, Sept 9 to walk the grounds and discover how Bayer brought Walter Paepcke’s vision of “mind, body, spirit” to life through pioneering landscape design, environmental stewardship, and Bauhaus design.

Tour Details:
🗓️ Wednesday, Sept 9 at 11 AM
📍 Meets at the Doerr-Hosier Center (870 Meadows Road)
🎟️ Link in bio

📸 Images courtesy of Aspen Historical Society Aspen Historical Society

09/04/2026

| Vol. 1 🏔️
“No problem confronting the world today is more vital than conservation and wise utilization of natural wealth.” — Herbert Bayer, “World Geo-Graphic Atlas,” 1953
Walk through the John Denver Sanctuary right here in Aspen, and you’ll find these words etched permanently into one of its iconic river-boulder monuments.

What is the John Denver Sanctuary?
Nestled along the Roaring Fork River, the Sanctuary is a tranquil public park designed to honor John Denver’s legacy of environmentalism and song through winding paths, wetlands, and engraved stone gardens.

Why Herbert Bayer?
Long before the Sanctuary was built, Herbert Bayer spent decades shaping modern Aspen’s cultural footprint and championing environmental design. His quote was chosen for the park’s Songwarner Garden because it bridges Aspen’s historical ethos of mountain conservation with Denver’s own deep love for the natural world.

Bayer was born in 1900 in Haag am Hausruck—a small village northeast of Salzburg—Bayer developed a lifelong appreciation for nature at an early age. As a boy, he often accompanied his father, a tax officer, on his working routes in the mountains of rural Austria. While his father conducted business, young Herbert spent hours exploring the surrounding forests and hillsides, forming a connection to alpine environments that would follow him all the way to Aspen.

09/02/2026

In his works from 1930 to 1936, Herbert Bayer frequently incorporated isolated human bone shapes into his art. By floating these smooth, curved forms against wide horizons of ocean and sky, Bayer bridged the gap between our physical, everyday bodies and the world of dreams and imagination. Placing heavy, solid bone in vast, open nature transforms a familiar part of the human body into something weightless, visionary, and otherworldly.

Swipe to see other works on view now in our current exhibition, “Double Take.” Stop by the Bayer Center to see these in person!

Slide 1: Herbert Bayer, “Bones with Sea,” 1936, gelatin silver print, collection of Lynda and Stewart Resnick

Slide 2: (Top) Herbert Bayer, “Bones,” 1930, oil on canvas, collection of the Denver Art Museum. (Right) Herbert Bayer, “Remembrance,” 1930, watercolor on paper, collection of the Denver Art Museum

08/26/2026

Now available at the Bayer Center Store: rare, original 1976 copies of the Great Ideas of Western Man hardcover book—complete in their original publisher’s cardboard boxes.

The images in this post feature three iconic plates designed by Herbert Bayer himself, illustrating quotations selected by philosopher Mortimer Adler. The full volume captures the groundbreaking 25-year Container Corporation of America advertising campaign that revolutionized corporate branding by prioritizing art, philosophy, and democratic values over products.

Art-directed by Bayer, this clothbound publication features 195 full-color plates from the historic series. Only 6 total copies are available for $650 each, each preserved in its original shipping box. Stop by the Bayer Center Store to secure yours!

08/24/2026

Calling all Educators! 🍎

We welcome school groups from pre-K through college to explore creativity and curiosity through Bayer and Bauhaus art and design. Our interdisciplinary field trips and hands-on workshops are entirely cost-free and can be tailored directly to your curriculum!

Ready to bring your students? Tap the link in our bio to contact us and schedule your visit today!

Click through to see our tours, field trips, and workshops in action.

08/21/2026

Don't miss the final prelude of the season! 🎼✨

Join us this Sunday, August 23, for our last "Music in the Galleries" performance of the summer!

This week, we are thrilled to feature international prize-winning harpist and Aspen Music Festival and School fellow, Jane Yoo. Recognized with major awards at the USA International Harp Competition, Korean International Harp Competition, Szeged International Harp Competition, and the Lyon & Healy Awards, Jane was named a 2024 Young Artist in Residence by Performance Today. She has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras and at major festivals worldwide, currently serves as associate principal harpist with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, and holds degrees from Seoul National University (BM) and the Yale School of Music (MM). We are honored to have her as an Aspen Music Festival harp fellow!

Stroll through our current exhibition, "Double Take," and let her live solo harp performance offer one final, inspiring backdrop to Herbert Bayer's artwork before the 4 PM Festival Orchestra concert.

📍610 Gillespie Ave

⏰ Sunday, August 23 | 2 – 3 PM

🎟️ Free & open to the public

08/20/2026

In 1979, Herbert Bayer wrote, “The creative process is not performed by the skilled hand alone, or by the intellect alone, but must be a unified process in which 'head, heart, and hand play a simultaneous role.”

Pictured here is the cover he designed for his 1967 retrospective monograph, "Herbert Bayer: Visual Communication, Architecture, Painting," which is a perfect visual expression of that unified philosophy. His fascination with the head, heart, and hand dates back to his early Bauhaus training and the integration of fine craftsmanship with modern industrial production.

Visit our current exhibition, "Double Take", to learn more about how these ideas evolved in Bayer's work through seven decades of artistry.

08/19/2026

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08/19/2026