The Bauhaus of Germany

The Bauhaus of Germany
By
Angeline Grimsley
Lawrence Grijalva
Jared Smith
Historical Context
The German Bauhaus school of art is one that has undergone a
lifelong evolution of change. The school has had three major
architect directors beginning with Walter Gropius (1919 – 1928),
Hannes Meyer (1928-1930), and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1930
– 1933). With more than one director throughout its duration, the
school has undergone major changes in the areas of focus and
technique.
Originally, the school was founded by Walter Gropius in
the city of Weimar in 1919. His intention was to form a school that
was a combination of more than one kind of art form. The school
began as an institution that provided its student’s the arts of
architecture, crafts, and academy arts. As the school developed,
so too did the ideals of Gropius and his intentions for the school.
Gropius formulated a new basis from which his
architecture was to abide by. In Gropius’ view, architecture was to
be functional, cheap, and suited to the requirements of mass
production. It was in this way that products could be both
aesthetically pleasing and affordable. This ideal lasted until 1925
when the school moved to Dessau, a city that was more industrial
and progressive.
This changed the school in its teachings and even its
name as it was then formerly known as the Bauhaus University of
Weimar. The architecture taught at the school adopted the new
principle of Die Wonhnung or “The Dwelling.” Eventually,
leadership passed from Gropius to Meyer and then finally to Rohe.
The school itself was eventually closed due to the rise of the Nazi
regime in 1933. The Nazis viewed the school as a meeting place
for communists due to the number of Russian artists enrolled.
Weissenhof Siedlung in Stuttgart (1927)
Cultural Influences
The Bauhaus School created a culture that varied from
the earlier methods of education in industrial art. Its
culture is founded in the idealistic basis of the school:
1. An artist must be conscious of his social responsibility to
the community.
2. On the other hand, the community has to accept the artist
and support him.
The foundational principle of the Bauhaus school was
based on socialistic ideals. These ideals were drawn
from the political philosophy of Karl Marx, and his
flagship work, The Communist Manifesto (1848), along
with the rising anti-capitalistic sentiment growing not only
in Germany but also in Britain and United States.
Published in the United States in 1906, The Jungle
influenced artist from the Bauhaus school by decrying
the inhumane and socially indifferent practices of big
business.
Walter Gropius was an architect, and the Bauhaus
school’s main contributions were to contemporary
architecture. This selected artistic manifestation was to
correct what Gropius believed was a lacking
contemporary artistic expression. Capitalism necessity
had dominated architectural design, and Gropius
believed that there could be artistic expression in
architecture.
In addition, Gropius viewed a rift between craftsman and
artists that the Bauhaus school wanted to bridge with its
architectural artistic expression. Gropius’ mantra
became to behead the intellectual aristocracy from which
the non-architect artists excluded craftsman, as
explained in Gropius’ Manifesto.
Walter Gropius
Gropius Manifesto
“The ultimate aim of all creative activity is a building!
The decoration of buildings was once the noblest
function of fine arts, and fine arts were indispensable to
great architecture. Today they exist in complacent
isolation, and can only be rescued by the conscious cooperation and collaboration of all craftsmen. Architects,
painters, and sculptors must once again come to know
and comprehend the composite character of a building,
both as an entity and in terms of its various parts. Then
their work will be filled with that true architectonic spirit
which, as "salon art", it has lost.”
Subject and Style
Subject and Style
The Bauhaus school’s students and faculty were primarily craftsmen. The students’ elective workshops
were along the lines of metalwork, wood sculpture, glass painting, weaving, pottery, furniture, cabinetmaking, etc. Gropius’ vision of unifying contemporary artistic expression with architecture and design
equated a craftsman and an artist. Gropius explained this goal in his Manifesto (1919):
Architects, painters, sculptors, we must all return to crafts! For there is no such thing as "professional
art". There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted
craftsman.[i]
As a result of the Bauhaus return to crafts, the artistic expression became craftsmanship. The typical
works produced by the school were teapots, chairs, chests, cabinets, wall paintings and other household
items of the like.
Functionality was preached by the leaders of the school, and much of the art explored functionality of the
piece. However, the art was by no means simple, giving place for individual expression within the
functional bounds of the work. Other subjects explored effects of colors and shapes. Eugen Batz, a
Bauhaus student, painted Special Effect of Colours and Forms (1930), which demonstrates the school’s
return to simplicity and functional form. The forms that appear are a circle, a triangle and a square
overlapping. These forms are the basis for the structural forms of architecture, and the Bauhaus school
mastered the use of those forms.
The architecture was simple, functional and expressive. For example, the Bauhaus museum itself
demonstrates this functional, yet expressive style. The museum, designed by Bauhaus founder and
director, Walter Gropius, used simple forms of squares, rectangles, parallelism, and arcs to build the
museum that would house his school’s design work. The rectangular shapes with windows high on the
roof allowed natural light to enter the salons, but created a castle-like expression when looking at the
exterior. Also, the socialistic influence can be seen in that the pillars are all equal, copies of each other,
lined up standing at attention. This structure is quintessentially Bauhaus.
Materials and
Processes
Materials and Processes
Bauhaus art combined the teaching of pure arts with the study of crafts.
Many processes and materials were used to create the wonderful
pieces of art that now lie in the Bauhaus Germany Museum. Some of
the many processes that they completed during the Bauhaus were
weaving, sculpture, printing, carpentry, woodcarving, metalwork,
glassmaking and stage design, which all had their own workshop.
The Bauhaus was a enthusiastic utopianism, based upon
principles of simplified forms and simple functionalism, and a belief that
the machine economy could distribute elegantly designed items, using
techniques and materials such as steel, concrete, chrome, glass, etc.
All students took a preliminary course before moving on to specialist
workshop, such as graphic design or stage design.
Individual House, 1922, by Molnár Farkas
In Individual House, Farkas Molnar paints the
simplicity of the form of a house. His piece consists of
a simple house surrounded by a road and some
landscape. This painting combines the Bauhaus style
of simplicity in architecture with the muted, simple style
of painting employed by Grobius, the Bauhaus
School’s principal teacher and founder.
Molnar shows that a house’s form needs only to be
according to the function of it. His Individual House is
composed of large rectangular rooms, with little said to
the aesthetic variety often used in home architecture.
Windows are present in the rooms, obviously to let in
light. But neither does the Individual House strip down
style to nothing and bask in plainness. Molnar’s uses
color and architectural liberty to express the Bauhaus
belief that form follows function, evidenced by the five
different composites of the home. Molnar believes that
a house should not be plain, but that the design is
according to the human needs of the inhabitants.
In addition to the architectural subject in the painting,
Molnar’s painting is simple in composition. The colors
are all muted, reinforcing the Bauhaus ideal. Only a
few colors are necessary to tell the story, and the
focus of the painting is the house. This painting
meshes the Bauhaus functional painting style with the
architectural ideals taught in the school.
Licht Raum (Light Space) Modulator, 1930,
by lászló Moholy-Nagy
In 1930, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy came up with the idea
of the Light Space Modulator and in 1937 brought it
to America. Bauhaus Museum, which is know for
owning most German art that was created in 19191939, holds one out of the two. This Kinetic
Sculpture defined color, light, geometric forms and
movement in a new way. The cubic box with circular
plates in front combined with gleaming glass, metal
surfaces and sliding ball created Photograms in
motion. Which was a huge advancement in the
1930’s. Laszio once stated that the Light Space
Modulator was, “apparatus for the demonstration of
the effects of light and movement.”
The backside of the modulator held green,
red, yellow, blue and white electrical bulbs, which
display a new sense of color. This was made in
order to create light displays, for example, theater
and dance. It was done by the tiny bulbs that were
placed in the back, which displayed cut out materials
that created shadows that could be seen in a closed
box area that was dark. This project was never
realized to have as much potential as it did. It
became one of the great arts among others that
were placed in Bauhaus Museum of Germany.
Tea Extract Pot, 1924, by Marianne Brandt
Although Walter Gropius emphasized his principle behind Brauhaus art, architecture leading art, it didn’t cater
only to elaborate building plans. Smaller manifestations like the Tea-extract pot by Marianne Brandt shows the
Ikea-like qualities that the art form is known for. The half moon shape bowl section sits on cross section of
brass bars, which were probably meant to protect any surface from the hot contents of the pot.
The handle echoes the bowl in its shape and breaks up the uniformity in color and material by its dark color.
The reason for the dark color is the fact that it is made of ebony. There was obviously more to the pot in design
as an ebony handle would not conduct the heated contents of the pot. The modern-like appearance of the
handle is evident as Marianne Brandt omitted a hole in the handle, which is a contemporary staple of traditional
teapots. Smaller innovations are evident in the stand as well.
The teapot rests on a cross section of bars to separate the hot contents from any surface that the teapot is
set on. On the whole, the teapot itself is primarily made of brass, which is one of the better heat conducting
metals. Although brass is a metallic alloy, it has less irregular atoms that heat energy can bounce off of.
The teapot is concordant with the Brauhaus rule and exemplifies this as appearing as an object that one
would most likely find in an Ikea store. It strays from the more contemporary versions by means of its simple
shapes and use of different materials for actual purposes. Standing next to the more traditional teapots, it can
certainly be picked out of a crowd.
Works Cited
http://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/
http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/weekly/aa022101a.htm
http://www.arthistoryguide.com/Bauhaus.aspx
http://katsclass.com/10817/topic05.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus
http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/weekly/aa022101a.htm
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/sinclair.htm
http://www.bauhaus.de/english/bauhaus1919/manifest1919.htm
http://www.bauhaus.de/english/bauhaus1919/manifest1919.htm
…plus numerous texts and articles can be found at your public and
educational libraries.