In 1923 Walter Gropius invited him to join the staff of the Staatliche Bauhaus at Weimar – a pioneer art and architecture school which laid a special emphasis on design and workshop technology. Here he succeeded Paul Klee as head of the metal workshop and taught the Foundation course, the true backbone of the institution. He was also interested in ballet and stage design and in the fields of layout and typography. In a study of the Bauhaus movement, it has been said that «it was above all Moholy-Nagy’s personal interpretation of constructivist attitudes that contributed to the emergence of a recognizable Bauhaus industrial design style». In 1928 political unrest and the resignation of Walter Gropius forced his own resignation and he returned to Berlin to make a successful living as a stage designer and to develop the diverse range of his other interests. In particular, he pursued his painting by experimenting with the use of new and unusual materials. He also consolidated his reputation as a typographical and layout designer. In 1934 rampant fascism persuaded him to leave Germany to settle in Amsterdam where a large printing company offered him facilities to experiment with color photography. The following year he moved to London under the sponsorship of Herbert Read. He lived among other refugees who had settled in Hampstead. Here he worked as a poster and layout designer for such clients as Imperial Airways and London Transport. He exhibited in numerous exhibitions, undertook book designs, and contributed photographs to several specialist publications. In 1937 there came an unexpected invitation to lead a new Bauhaus in Chicago, a project sponsored and funded by the Association of Arts and Industries. The venture collapsed in acrimony after a year because the money dried up. Moholy-Nagy, however, succeeded in salvaging the concept from the wreckage for in 1939 he founded his own School of Design in Chicago, reorganized as the Institute of Design in 1944, in a disused bakery at 247 East Ontario Street, Chicago. Many of his former students rejoined him and the school was staffed by former colleagues, who initially worked without pay.
As an artist he himself could sympathize with the craftsman whose skills were becoming outdated by the machine, but he felt that all factory workers could only gain in economic terms if all such wasteful processes were phased out. The man was as versatile as any Renaissance figure. He was determined, self-opinionated, deep thinking, articulate, a resolute optimist, and a born teacher. (1)
In December of 1945, Moholy was diagnosed with leukemia. He underwent X-ray treatments, which enabled him to carry on his superhuman schedule, including his cooperation with Parker, for another year.
In November 1946, László Moholy-Nagy died. Kenneth Parker dedicated him an emotional obituary published in «Parkergrams» of December 1946.