Bauhaus

Cathedral

Lyonel Feininger, 1919, woodcut, 12x7 1/2".

Illustrating the initial style of the Bauhaus school, Feininger's woodcut became the cover of the Bauhaus manifesto when established by Gropius. Dynamic intersecting planes show the influence of Cubism on the movement while the subject matter shows the Bauhaus interest in the Gothic period and training within craft guilds.

Black Relationship

Wassily Kandinsky, 1924, Watercolor and Indian ink and pencil on paper

Shape and color play off one another in this composition. Contrast is found within as the round black circle floats above the jagged scramble of shapes and colors causing slight tension. Painting was deeply spiritual for Kandinsky, however music was said to be superior. Kandinsky viewed music as the most transcendent form of non-objective art.

Oskar Schlemmer, 1924, Gouache, ink, and cut-and-pasted gelatin silver prints on black paper

Figurines in Space by Oskar Schlemmer shows three human figures, made of and using rounded forms. Two of these human figures are from photographs by Schlemmer and he uses each to provide a sense of depth within the work. Not only this but each figure is positioned as if they were acting out a play.

Figurines in Space

Walter Gropius, 1926, Dessau, Germany.

Designed by architect Walter Gropius, this building functioned as the meeting place for the Bauhaus school, located in the industrial city of Dessau, Germany. Glass and metal framework allow the constructive elements of the building to show through, backed by neutral wall tones that create the illusion of lightness. Each wing of the building is designed based on the department, meaning the viewer must walk around the structure to get the full effect.

Bauhaus Building Dessau

Bauhaus is a German word meaning "house of building," The Bauhaus was also the most influential modernist art school of the 20th century. The Bauhaus was founded in the year 1919 in Weimar, Germany by architect Walter Gropius. The Bauhaus art school emerged out of the late 19th century desires to reunite the applied arts and manufacturing, and to reform education. Bauhaus was born from the 19th and early 20th centuries arts and crafts movement. Bauhaus was also founded on ideas from the 19th century, ideas of anxieties about the soullessness of manufacturing and it's products, as well as fears of art's loss of purpose. The Bauhaus movement aimed to reunite creativity and manufacturing, adding a sense of design to everyday life. The Bauhaus moved away from academic traditions found in fine art and emphasized craftsmanship and technique. This movement added a sense of utility to fine art, an idea that continues to be present in modern art to this day.

One of the most influential pieces of art from the Bauhaus movement is the Bauhaus building in Dessau, Germany, built by Walter Gropius, home of the actual Bauhaus school and namesake of the movement. The architecture is built with the utility aspect of Bauhaus in mind, with functionality and efficient use of space being one of its hallmarks and being used as a basis for many modern buildings. Another notable work is the Club Chair, made in 1925 by Marcel Brueer, more commonly known as the Wassily Chair. The design of the chair allows for it to be easily mass produced, yet remain sleek, stylish, and easy to use, remaining an example of the qualities of design the Bauhaus is remembered for. Universal Bayer is another example of Bauhaus' marriage of function and design. Made by Herbert Bayer, an Austrian student turned teacher in 1925, Universal Bayer is a poster containing a completely original typeface that can still be found in many word processing programs to this day.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, 1923, Watercolor and ink on paper

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy is a great example of how the Bauhaus Movement could be seen as the early stages of pop-art within advertising. Lazlo was one of the first to combine elements of photography and typography ultimately creating a hybrid, known as typophoto. This quickly became a very common advertising style for posters during the 1920’s and can be seen throughout the Bauhaus Movement continuing into today’s world.

Pneumatic Tires

City

Josef Albers, 1928, Sand-blasted colored glass

Previously trained in stained-glass, Josef Ablers accomplished this grid inspired Sand-blasted flashed-glass piece in 1928. Albers invention of his own sandblasting technique allowed him to achieve a brilliant luminosity, making this piece glow on it’s own. The harsh red and black lines built on one another create a series of rectangular blocks that resemble a skyline. After he relocated to America, Albers decided to adapt this work in 1963 into an even larger one, which was entitled Manhattan.

The Dream of a Girl's Boarding

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, 1925, Photomontage

Here Moholy-Nagy depicts a group of boarding school girls, in the background, watching as male athletes and female contortionists leap through the air. Through this it appears that the orderly and mundane boarding school girls wish to be as free as the leaping athletes and contortionists in front of them, or alternatively they see that of which they cannot obtain. This seems somewhat ironic as the girls are higher than anyone else in this work.

The Wassily Chair

Gunta Stölzl, Slit Tapestry Red-Green, 1927-1928

Bauhaus weaving department director, Gunta Stözl created this cotton, silk, and linen textile in 1927-28. Immediately pulling the viewer in with it’s use of complementary and opposite colors like red and green, she creates an aesthetically pleasing composition that also aids in the flow of patterns. Stölzl also employs the use of light and dark colors to create a certain depth in the piece that continuously leads your eye throughout the textile.

Slit Tapestry Red Green

Universal Bayer

Herbert Bayer, 1925, Print/Poster/Typeface

Containing only a single lowercase alphabet, Bayer’s minimalist typeface is now a staple with the Bauhaus movement. Herbert Bayer of Austria was a student then teacher at the Bauhaus. He belonged to a group of German designers that worked to change the printing methods throughout their country in the 1920’s. This work demonstrates an important step in that process.

Marcel Breuer, 1925, Tubular Steel

Unveiled in 1925, the Club Chair (later nicknamed The Wassily Chair after Wassily Kandinsky) remains an example of the design innovation that came with the Bauhaus movement. With its structure plain and readable, this chair could be easily mass produced. It was also a technical achievement, constructed out of seamless steel tubing. The chair would unfortunately not come into popularity until decades later.

Bibliography

"Bauhaus Movement, Artists and Major Works." The Art Story. The Art Story, n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2015.

This source was used for the curatorial statement, it goes in to detail about the Bauhaus school and the Bauhaus art movement, along with descriptions of the major pieces of art from the movement.

Bauhaus Movement, Artists and Major Works." The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

This site provides information on artistic movements, artists, and completed works that are associated with modern art. It shows a visual timeline of events and breaks down the most influential artists and works of each movement

"Marcel Breuer." Marcel Breuer. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

A large online collection of Bauhaus artists and their work. This site was useful for information regarding artist backgrounds and biographies.

Ware, Katherine. In Focus: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy : Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum. J. Paul Getty Museum, 24 Aug. 1995.

This book details Laszlo Moholy-Nagy's works with their technical information, as well as brief analyses of the works. Before this however, the book describes some of Moholy-Nagy's influences and ideas, such as how he, "looked primarily to the Russian Constructivists and to the Suprematist paintings of Kasimir Malevich," and how he sought new, more modern ways of expression of twentieth-century urban culture.

"Slit Tapestry Red-Green." Slit Tapestry Red-Green. Atlas Magazine, n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2015.

In this Atlas Magazine website they cover multitudes of Bauhaus movement information but on this particular page it is focused on Gunta Stözl’s textile, Slit Tapestry Red-Green. The information starts out with an explanation that the class was divided into teaching and a production workshop which allows for the artist’s to grow. It also goes on to explain that Stözl made many sketches for this piece and allowed the red and green to contrast each other which would add balance to the textile.

Licht, Fred, and Nicholas Fox Weber. "Albers, Sandblasting." Josef Albers: Glass, Color, and Light. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Internet Archive. Web. <http://archive.org/stream/glascoli00albe/glascoli00albe_djvu.txt>.

In this full text version located online titled, “Josef Alber: Glass, Color, and Light” written by Fred Licht and Nicholas Weber goes into depth of some of Albers accomplishments. Parts of the text explain certain parts of his techniques which was what the parts of the book I used for information. In this excerpt the authors explain how Albers came up with his own sandblasting technique that consisted of sandblasting layers of opaque glass that were fused together.

Oskar Schlemmer (German, 1888-1943)." Moma. N.p., N.d. Web. 30 Sept. 15.

<https://www.moma.org/collection_ge/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5219%7CA%3AAR%3AE%3A1&page_number=16&template_id=1&sort_order=1&view_all=1>

This page itself goes into detail of the technical information of the work, Figurines in Space, but the site as a whole goes into depth with German Expressionism. It has information on many of the major artists of the German Expressionist movement as well as styles, techniques, etc.

Anker, Peder. "The Bauhaus of Nature." Modernism 12.2 (2005): 229-51. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.

This article argues that Bauhaus design should be modeled after nature, bringing together Bauhaus designed and ecologists. The London period of Bauhaus is explored as occupation by Nazi Germany forced the school to disband. With three key designers living in a London apartment together, this time period allowed for collaboration in a time when Bauhaus design would have been impossible in its original location. Artists Maholy-Nagy's writings from this period show the connection of Bauhaus to nature as he encourages artists to "look for prototypes in nature."

Bauhaus." Bauhaus. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2015. <http://www.csun.edu/~pjd77408/DrD/Art461/LecturesAll/Lectures/lecture07/bauhaus.html>.

This website proved to be surprisingly informative. Provides a great overview of Bauhaus as a whole.

"Wassily Kandinsky Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works." The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2015. <http://www.theartstory.org/artist-kandinsky-wassily.htm>.

The Art Story website provides an in-depth look at Kandinsky not only as an artist but his personal life as well.

Deane, Darren. "Architectural Education as an Abbreviated Sphere of National Collaboration: Re-examining the Bauhaus." National Identities14.3 (2012): 273-85. Print.

Deane explains the relationship between collaborative institutions and nationalism with his article. Bauhaus plays a role in exhibiting what ideology of the German nation at the time of Bauhaus' rise through architectural and furniture projects that would spread an industrially inspired style. In turn, Bauhaus architecture manifests how Germany's people view space and how they want to create it.

The Bohemian Grove