The Bauhaus School: Weimar 1919
Probably the most influential design and architectural movement since the Renaissance, the Bauhaus School has impacted virtually every area of functional living in the 20th century. If you live in nearly any city of the world, you have seen buildings with the architectural stamp of the "Bauhaus" movement. College campuses, hospitals, office buildings, apartments and shopping malls built in the last 70 years were, almost without exception, built to the design ideals of the Bauhaus, more familiarly known as the International Style.
Lyonel Feiniger's dynamic Expressionistic woodcut Cathedral, appeared as the frontispiece of the Bauhaus Manifesto in April 1919. The cathedral represents the Total Work of Art, the glorious product of communal effort.
Although its roots lay in the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th and early 20th century, the Bauhaus directly descended from the pre-WWI Deutsches Werkbund movement in Germany. Seeking to elevate the production of everyday objects from utilitarian to art, thereby giving the industrial worker greater pride in his craft, the Werkbund gathered architects, artists, factory owners and art patrons together in 1907 to provide impetus and financial support to experimental design, architecture, textile and furniture production, and fine art. It failed however, when in 1914, a large exhibition was held to herald the new movement, and instead, only restatements of old solutions were displayed. Something radically new was needed, and Walter Gropius saw the answer.
Following Germany's defeat in WWI and humiliation at Versailles, the economy collapsed and it seemed evident that a new order of thinking would be necessary in order to bring Germany, and the rest of Europe, back to stability. While some looked to Marxism, others to fascism, all seemed to turn against the bourgeois ideals of capitalism. The "worker" became the new Hero. Fulfilling his "needs" became the Mission of the intellectuals and planners of the new order.
Walter Gropius (1883-1969) had been a leader of the Werkbund. An architect, Gropius had taught at the school of industrial art 'Grossherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstbewerbe' founded by Henry van de Velden in 1906. In 1919 he was invited to head a new school in Weimar, a merger of the Weimar Art Academy, and the Weimar Arts and Crafts School. This new school became known as the Bauhaus, ("architectural building" or "building for building" in German!).
The school set itself three goals, or missions: 1) to encourage the individual artisans and craftsmen to work cooperatively and combine all of their skills; 2) to elevate the status of crafts, chairs, lamps, teapots, etc., to the same level enjoyed by fine arts, painting, sculpting, etc.; 3) to eventually gain independence from government support by selling designs to industry. These goals strongly echo the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement of William Morris, Gustave Stickley, and Elbert Hubbard.
Nonetheless, the Bauhaus did not reject the Machine Age as had Morris, but embraced it. The machinery of War now became the machinery of the workers' liberation - arising out of the social upheaval of revolution and economic turmoil, new ideas and methods of manufacturing were tumbling forth during the 1920s. Overabundance in interior design, clothing and architecture was seen as "bougeois" and self indulgent. The economic shift from that Edwardian-era abundance to post-War poverty demanded a formal ascetiscism. The first building occupied by the Bauhaus in Weimar was, in itself, a departure from most of Weimar's eclectic but typically Germanic urban style.
Unadorned and fitted with large windows, it provided studios with wonderful light and multi-use classrooms. Here, a new style of teaching evolved. Beginning with a required Preliminary Course in design, color theory, composition and drawing, students were presented with a basic art education. Having passed that course successfully, the students then chose the professional course they wished to pursue in formal workshops: architecture, textile design, typography, interior design, etc. The Bauhaus method of preliminary courses was adopted by art and design schools all over the world. The Bauhaus workshops were the birthplaces of new industrial designs.
First, handicrafts were the subject of experiment with marvelous results. The results also showed in the field of textile art. Thousands of experiments with textiles were performed. Many of them were adopted by the factories for production, and they were also eagerly copied. Photography was taken more seriously as an art form. Innovation ran rampant through the Bauhaus resulting in a multitude of advances affecting the most basic aspects of life.
If you've ever sat on a chair with a tubular steel frame, used an adjustable reading lamp, or lived in a house partly or entirely constructed from prefabricated elements, you have benefited from a revolution in design largely brought about by the Bauhaus.
In spite of its strong focus on cooperation with the industrial needs of manufacturers, politically the Bauhaus faculty was not popular in Weimar. The city withdrew its financial and political support of the school in 1924, and in 1925 the school moved to Dessau, where Gropius designed new classroom buildings and residences for the faculty.
This faculty had drawn its talent from all over Europe, and included Josef Albers, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Johannes Itten, Wassilly Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feiniger, and Hannes Meyer. Their art, sculpture, and architecture embraced Expressionism as the form of communistic utopian solution to socio-economic upheaval, with Art as a quasi-religion. However, there were strong philosophical differences among these creative geniuses. In spite of his success as its founder, Gropius left the Bauhaus leadership in 1928. He appointed the Swiss architect Hannes Meyer to succeed him.
Meyer, a dedicated Marxist, nevertheless brought additional esteem to the Bauhaus by developing the architecture and design training departments. His political views were increasingly unpopular within the school and in Dessau, and he was forced to resign in 1930. The leadership was then given to German architect, L. Mies Van der Rohe. In order to cut costs and remain viable, Van der Rohe was compelled to reduce the educational program from a "university" approach to that of a vocational/architectural school. Mies Van der Rohe was a world-renowned Modern architect, and he worked very hard to transform the school into a non-political, viable institution. He was not to succeed, unfortunately.
Throughout the 1920s, the Nationalist Socialist (Nazi) movement had been gaining strength, and among its targets of hate were artists, intellectuals, and communists. Their opposition to the Bauhaus and all it represented was loud and sinister. In 1931, the Nazis gained control of the Dessau city parliament, and it saw the Bauhaus as a haven for Jews, Bolsheviks and cosmopolitan "intellectual" viewpoints. The school was forced to close in September, 1932. Much of the building designed by Gropius was destroyed by the Nazis. Although an attempt to reopen was made, by April 1933, the Bauhaus was no more.
In 1937, in the wake of the Nazis' rise to power, the stars of the Bauhaus migrated to the United States, where they were welcomed with open arms. Gropius was made head of the school of architecture at Harvard. Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus, which evolved into the Chicago Institute of Design, and Mies van der Rohe, who had become the head of the Bauhaus in 1930, was installed as dean of architecture at the Armour Institute in Chicago.
Lyonel Feiniger's dynamic Expressionistic woodcut Cathedral, appeared as the frontispiece of the Bauhaus Manifesto in April 1919. The cathedral represents the Total Work of Art, the glorious product of communal effort.
Although its roots lay in the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th and early 20th century, the Bauhaus directly descended from the pre-WWI Deutsches Werkbund movement in Germany. Seeking to elevate the production of everyday objects from utilitarian to art, thereby giving the industrial worker greater pride in his craft, the Werkbund gathered architects, artists, factory owners and art patrons together in 1907 to provide impetus and financial support to experimental design, architecture, textile and furniture production, and fine art. It failed however, when in 1914, a large exhibition was held to herald the new movement, and instead, only restatements of old solutions were displayed. Something radically new was needed, and Walter Gropius saw the answer.
Following Germany's defeat in WWI and humiliation at Versailles, the economy collapsed and it seemed evident that a new order of thinking would be necessary in order to bring Germany, and the rest of Europe, back to stability. While some looked to Marxism, others to fascism, all seemed to turn against the bourgeois ideals of capitalism. The "worker" became the new Hero. Fulfilling his "needs" became the Mission of the intellectuals and planners of the new order.
Walter Gropius (1883-1969) had been a leader of the Werkbund. An architect, Gropius had taught at the school of industrial art 'Grossherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstbewerbe' founded by Henry van de Velden in 1906. In 1919 he was invited to head a new school in Weimar, a merger of the Weimar Art Academy, and the Weimar Arts and Crafts School. This new school became known as the Bauhaus, ("architectural building" or "building for building" in German!).
The school set itself three goals, or missions: 1) to encourage the individual artisans and craftsmen to work cooperatively and combine all of their skills; 2) to elevate the status of crafts, chairs, lamps, teapots, etc., to the same level enjoyed by fine arts, painting, sculpting, etc.; 3) to eventually gain independence from government support by selling designs to industry. These goals strongly echo the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement of William Morris, Gustave Stickley, and Elbert Hubbard.
Nonetheless, the Bauhaus did not reject the Machine Age as had Morris, but embraced it. The machinery of War now became the machinery of the workers' liberation - arising out of the social upheaval of revolution and economic turmoil, new ideas and methods of manufacturing were tumbling forth during the 1920s. Overabundance in interior design, clothing and architecture was seen as "bougeois" and self indulgent. The economic shift from that Edwardian-era abundance to post-War poverty demanded a formal ascetiscism. The first building occupied by the Bauhaus in Weimar was, in itself, a departure from most of Weimar's eclectic but typically Germanic urban style.
Unadorned and fitted with large windows, it provided studios with wonderful light and multi-use classrooms. Here, a new style of teaching evolved. Beginning with a required Preliminary Course in design, color theory, composition and drawing, students were presented with a basic art education. Having passed that course successfully, the students then chose the professional course they wished to pursue in formal workshops: architecture, textile design, typography, interior design, etc. The Bauhaus method of preliminary courses was adopted by art and design schools all over the world. The Bauhaus workshops were the birthplaces of new industrial designs.
First, handicrafts were the subject of experiment with marvelous results. The results also showed in the field of textile art. Thousands of experiments with textiles were performed. Many of them were adopted by the factories for production, and they were also eagerly copied. Photography was taken more seriously as an art form. Innovation ran rampant through the Bauhaus resulting in a multitude of advances affecting the most basic aspects of life.
If you've ever sat on a chair with a tubular steel frame, used an adjustable reading lamp, or lived in a house partly or entirely constructed from prefabricated elements, you have benefited from a revolution in design largely brought about by the Bauhaus.
In spite of its strong focus on cooperation with the industrial needs of manufacturers, politically the Bauhaus faculty was not popular in Weimar. The city withdrew its financial and political support of the school in 1924, and in 1925 the school moved to Dessau, where Gropius designed new classroom buildings and residences for the faculty.
This faculty had drawn its talent from all over Europe, and included Josef Albers, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Johannes Itten, Wassilly Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feiniger, and Hannes Meyer. Their art, sculpture, and architecture embraced Expressionism as the form of communistic utopian solution to socio-economic upheaval, with Art as a quasi-religion. However, there were strong philosophical differences among these creative geniuses. In spite of his success as its founder, Gropius left the Bauhaus leadership in 1928. He appointed the Swiss architect Hannes Meyer to succeed him.
Meyer, a dedicated Marxist, nevertheless brought additional esteem to the Bauhaus by developing the architecture and design training departments. His political views were increasingly unpopular within the school and in Dessau, and he was forced to resign in 1930. The leadership was then given to German architect, L. Mies Van der Rohe. In order to cut costs and remain viable, Van der Rohe was compelled to reduce the educational program from a "university" approach to that of a vocational/architectural school. Mies Van der Rohe was a world-renowned Modern architect, and he worked very hard to transform the school into a non-political, viable institution. He was not to succeed, unfortunately.
Throughout the 1920s, the Nationalist Socialist (Nazi) movement had been gaining strength, and among its targets of hate were artists, intellectuals, and communists. Their opposition to the Bauhaus and all it represented was loud and sinister. In 1931, the Nazis gained control of the Dessau city parliament, and it saw the Bauhaus as a haven for Jews, Bolsheviks and cosmopolitan "intellectual" viewpoints. The school was forced to close in September, 1932. Much of the building designed by Gropius was destroyed by the Nazis. Although an attempt to reopen was made, by April 1933, the Bauhaus was no more.
In 1937, in the wake of the Nazis' rise to power, the stars of the Bauhaus migrated to the United States, where they were welcomed with open arms. Gropius was made head of the school of architecture at Harvard. Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus, which evolved into the Chicago Institute of Design, and Mies van der Rohe, who had become the head of the Bauhaus in 1930, was installed as dean of architecture at the Armour Institute in Chicago.