bavarikon4UDescription
In the context of a colour seminar initiated by Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack (1893-1965) at the Bauhaus, he thought about how he could easily explain the laws of optical colour mixing to other people and developed a spinning top with different colour surfaces. When the spinning top rotates, it creates the impression of colour mixtures that change in their distribution and intensity depending on the speed. Hirschfeld-Mack designed two versions of the spinning top. For teaching purposes, different coloured discs could be attached to the spinning top. In the version as a toy for children, on the other hand, single-coloured, off-centre perforated glossy paper rings in yellow, blue and red could be placed on top of each other on the spinning top. If, for example, a blue ring was placed on top of a yellow ring, the colours on the recessed area of the lower ring mixed to form violet. In this way, children learned how new colour mixtures are created from different colours through play. The spinning top was one of the most successful toy objects from the Bauhaus workshops. However, only a few have survived, as many wore out during play. Due to its functionality, its design and its suitability for industrial production, Walter Gropius (1883-1969) presented the colour spinning top as an exemplary toy in one of the first Bauhaus books in 1925. Die Neue Sammlung was able to acquire three versions of this spinning top, probably directly from the Bauhaus in Dessau, as early as 1926 (inv. no. 380/26 and 381/26).