Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack Collection

The Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack Collection was presented to the University in by Hirschfeld-Mack’s widow, Olive Hirschfeld. A founding member of the Weimar Bauhaus, and recognised as both an artist and an art teacher, Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack introduced Bauhaus methods into Australian art education while producing a substantial body of his own work over three decades. There are over 600 works by Hirschfeld-Mack in the collection, including almost 300 drawings, over 200 prints, 91 watercolours and 69 paintings.

Further material, including correspondence, teaching aids, drawings, photographs and slides, is housed at the University of Melbourne Archives.  Hirschfeld-Mack's 'Colour-Chord' series of  experimental musical instruments were also donated to the Grainger Museum Collection in 1980.

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1893, Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack entered the Weimar Bauhaus art school in 1920 and, upon its closure in 1925, taught at institutions in Germany, Wales and England before his deportation to Australia during the Second World War. He arrived in Victoria aboard the Dunera in 1940 and, after a lengthy period of internment at Hay, Orange and Tatura, Hirschfeld-Mack was appointed to the position of Painting Master at Geelong Grammar School.