Bauhaus

the bauhaus

mercredi, 16 novembre 2011

The Bauhaus has become the opening chapter to the narrative of twentieth-
century design. It is the most widely known, discussed, published, imitated,
collected, exhibited, and cathected aspect of modern graphic, industrial, and
architectural design.

The name Bauhaus stems from the German words for "to build" and "house."
Ironically, despite its name and the fact its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus
did not have an architecture department for the ﬁrst several years of its existence.


A bit of History


political context

the foundation of bauhaus occurred at a time of crisis and turmoil in europe as a
whole and particularly in germany.
its establishment resulted from a conﬂuence of a diverse set of political, social,
educational and artistic development in the ﬁrst two decades of the twentieth
century.


political context

the conservative modernisation of the german empire during the 1870s had
maintained power in the hands of the aristocracy. it also necessitated militarism and
imperialism to maintain stability. by 1912 the rise of the leftist SPD had galvanized
political positions with notions of international solidarity and socialism set against
imperialist nationalism. world war I ensued from 1914–18.


world war
on 28th June, 1914, archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of austria-
Hungary, was assassinated by the serb nationalist gavrilo princip.
on 6th July the German government gave its support for Austro-Hungarian reprisals
against Serbia. When Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia and France
began to mobilize its troops.
This resulted in Germany declaring war on Russia (1st August) and France (3rd
August). When the German Army entered Belgium on 4th August, Britain declared
war on Germany.
Italy decided not to come to the aid of Germany and Austria-Hungary when war was
declared in August, 1914. However, Turkey had signed a defensive alliance with
Germany in July 1914 and two months later it joined the war against Britain, France
and Russia.


german revolution
in 1917 in the midst of the carnage of the First world war, workers and soldier Soviets
seized power in russia.
inspired by the russian workers and soldier soviets, similar german communist
factions—most notably the spartacist league—were formed, who sought a similar
revolution for germany.

the war provoked the german revolution, with the SPD securing the abdication of the
kaiser and the formation of a revolutionary government. on 1 january 1919, the
spartacist league attempted to take control of berlin, an action that was brutally
suppressed by the combined forces of the SPD, the remnants of the german army, and
paramilitary groups (Freikorps).


weimar republic
elections were held on the January 19, and the weimar republic was established.
communist revolution was still a tangible prospect for many; indeed, a soviet republic
was declared in munich, before its suppression by the paramilitary Freikorps and
regular army. sporadic ﬁghting continued to ﬂare up around the country.

the national assembly meets in weimar because berlin is too violent. it seemed like a
new start for germany after the revolution, this new republic was a democracy, chosen
by the people.


Weimar Republic

Weimar


weimar republic & bauhaus
a society which, even in its best years, was politically so insecure provided only the
shallowest ground for the roots of any creative cultural life. there is, indeed, little
evidence that the weimar republic constituted a distinctive cultural period.

the cultural diversity or eclecticism of the weimar period was nowhere better
symbolized than in the Bauhaus. this was a combination of artistic vision and artistic
reality, the work, above all, of walter gropius.

by 1919 his manifesto calling for amalgamation of the arts and crafts and
obliteration of the class distinction between their practitioners, as well as his
technical ideas, fell on more fertile soil, and gropius opened an academy of ﬁne arts
in Weimar with ﬁnancial support from the provincial government.



Adolf Georg Walter Gropius
* 18.03.1883 Berlin
+ 05.07.1969 Boston


in 1907, artists and industrialists founded the deutscher werkbund in munich, aimed
at improving germany's economy by "enhancing craft work".
the werkbund was a union of artists, architects, and designers in germany who took
into consideration the current processes of industrial production. special emphasis
was placed on cooperation with industry during the design process. the members of
this movement advocated and brought about the mass production of a wide range of
products. the evidence of their work can still be seen in products today

the young architect walter gropius soon became one of the leading ﬁgures in the
werkbund.


the bauhaus
in weimar


bauhaus in weimar (1919 -1925)
the obverse of rationalistic ideas, calculated to take advantage of the facts and
needs of mass society, was a visionary romanticism in which building (bau) was to
be the supreme unifying principle governing all the arts; and in gropius' academy
(bauhaus) students learned not only architecture but the use of all kinds of materials
for decorative or functional purposes in a building. as a matter of fact, there was no
course in ''architecture'' for some years.
the most brilliant instruction was given in the general preliminary course (basic
course), which gropius entrusted to johannes itten. but itten was a mystic who did
not hold the elements of subjectivity and functionalism in the balance that gropius
desired, and after a few years he was replaced by a more technologically oriented
teacher.



1919 1920 1923 1925
The Bauhaus is established The Basic Course is Under pressure from Gropius, Having lost support of the
in the city of Weimar. established, with the painter Itten resigns. Laszlo Moholy- Weimar government, the
Architect Walter Gropius is Johannes Itten as its master. Nagy becomes director of the Bauhaus moves to Dessau, an
the school's director. All incoming students take this Basic Course, which is also industrial city near Berlin.
course, which deals with the taught by Wassily Kandinsky,
principles of design and the Paul Klee, and Josef Albers.
nature of materials. Itten's De Stijl and Constructivism
inﬂuence is seen in the begin to inﬂuence Bauhaus
expressionism which typography.
dominates Bauhaus
typography.


bauhaus in weimar

kandinsky, gropius, klee, mies van
der rohe, itten, stoelz, feininger,
breuer, albers, muche, schlemmer.....


bauhaus in weimar

johannes itten 1888 – 1967

he was inﬂuenced by meditation
exercises and the Far-Eastern mysticism


bauhaus in weimar

johannes itten


bauhaus in weimar

wassily kandinsky

born in moscow in 1866
kandinsky continued painting almost
until his death in June, 1944.


bauhaus in weimar
wassily kandinsky


bauhaus in weimar
paul klee, 1879 - 1940

a swiss-born painter and graphic artist whose
personal, often gently humorous works are
replete with allusions to dreams, music, and
poetry,, is difﬁcult to classify..


bauhaus in weimar
paul klee


bauhaus in weimar
moholi-nagy, lászló
(1895, Bácsborsod - 1946, Chicago)

painter, photograph and art critic,
in 1937 he moved to the USA where he founded
the new bauhaus in chicago.


bauhaus in weimar
moholi-nagy, lászló


bauhaus in weimar
basic course

the most brilliant instruction was given in the general preliminary course, which
gropius entrusted to johannes itten.

the understanding of the bauhaus as a point of origin is an effect of its perception
within the history of art and design, as well as a reﬂection of its own ideals:
johannes itten, who taught in the early years of the school, used unconventional
teaching methods, hoping to "unlearn" students and return them to a state of
innocence, a point of origin from which true learning could begin.


bauhaus in weimar
basic course

this interest in the clean slate, the ﬁrst moment, is evident in wassily kandinsky's
point and line to plane: "we must at the outset distinguish basic elements from other
elements, viz.-elements without which a work... cannot even come into existence."'
From its inception, the bauhaus was premised on the notion of a return to origins in
hope of discovering a lost unity.


bauhaus in weimar
basic course

ﬁgure from wassily kandinsky's point and
line to plane, originally published in 1926.
Kandinsky, for instance, isolates the
"elements" of pictorial construction (point,
line, plane), identifying them as the
constituent parts of a pictorial speech.
similar to the ABC of anschauung,
Kandinsky's Point and Line to Plane
identiﬁes a grammar of lines yet he
ascribes to them abstract, emotive power,
rather than a strictly descriptive function.


bauhaus in weimar
basic course

bauhaus curriculum, 1923, this diagram shows the prerequisite to specialized study.
the position of building at the center parallels walter gropius's founding manifesto.

bauhaus in weimar
basic course

for gropius, the unity would be recovered through training that would develop within
students a generalized competence in crafts, forming an indispensable basis for all
artistic production.
the basic course was a general introduction to composition, color, materials, and
three-dimensional form that familiarized students with techniques, concepts, and
formal relationships considered fundamental to all visual expression, whether it be
sculpture, metal work, painting, or lettering.


bauhaus in weimar
basic course

the basic course developed an abstract visual language that would provide a
theoretical and practical basis for any artistic endeavor. since it was seen as the
basis for all further development, the course aimed to strip away particularities in
favor of discovering fundamental truths operating in the visual world..
while the concept of a basic course is one of the greatest legacies of the bauhaus, it
was a notion that had many precedents in progressive educational reforms of the
nineteenth-century, particularly in the kindergarten, as developed by its founder,
friedrich froebel (1782-1852) .


bauhaus in weimar
workshop

the basic idea of the Bauhaus teaching concept was the unity of artistic and practical
tuition. every student had to complete a compulsory preliminary course, after which
he or she had to enter a workshop of his or her choice. this was headed both by an
artist and a master craftsman. here, the mediation of the basics of the craft, together
with design parameters, were directly combined with practical experience. this could
involve the development of prototypes, then to be serialised, either directly in the
bauhaus workshops, or else - most particularly during the dessau period - for
industrial production under licence.
-metal - weaving - pottery - furniture -typography - wall painting


bauhaus in weimar
design theory

the bauhaus was not a monolithic institution; like any school, it was a changing and
often divisive coalition of students, faculty, and administrators, interacting with the
often hostile community outside.
thus the bauhaus contained within itself contradictory ideas; walter gropius is to the
general public the grand old man of a movement that has long since become
international, in the art schools it was itten's ideas that were the more inﬂuential.
but itten, for all subjectivism, breathing exercises, and oriental philosophy, had been
affected as much as gropius by social realities.
we do not try to account for the complicated history of the bauhaus, which has been
chronicled richly elsewhere; our focus is rather on the bauhaus and design theory.


bauhaus in weimar
design theory

thinking about design in a theoretically self-conscious way is one of the major
contributions of the bauhaus, and yet the school's focus on vision as an autonomous
realm of expression helped engender the hostility towards verbal language which is
common to post-WWII design education.
in 1923 kandinsky proposed a universal correspondence between the three
elementary shapes and the three primary colors:


bauhaus in weimar
design theory

the dynamic triangle is inherently yellow, the static square is intrinsically red, and
the serene circle is naturally blue. Today, this equation , has lost its claim to
universality and works instead as a ﬂoating sign capable of assuming numerous
meanings.


bauhaus in weimar
design theory

itten, klee, and kandinsky aimed at uncovering the origins of "visual language"; they
sought this origin in basic geometries, pure colors, and abstraction. their practice
and pedagogy have the character of both science and fantasy. on the one hand, they
constitute an analysis of forms, colors, and materials directed towards a science of
art; on the other hand they are theoretical constructions about primordial laws of
visual form that supposedly operate outside of history and culture.


bauhaus in weimar
design theory

despite its diversity, the production of the bauhaus is united by an awareness of its
departure from history, of its ambition towards a point of origin.
with the assimilation of its forms and methods into modern design training, the
bauhaus itself became a point of origin. while Kandinsky, klee, and itten articulated
a visual language through the concept of a childhood of art, the Bauhaus has become
the childhood of design.


bauhaus in weimar
design theory

geometric form, gridded space, and a rationalist use of typography have been
foregrounded as the prime lessons of the bauhaus legacy.
the linguistic potential of bauhaus theory-evident in frequent analogies between
writing and drawing-was ignored: the project of a "visual language" was taken up in
isolation from, rather than in tandem with, verbal language.
graphic design's synthesis of words and images makes it an important site for re-
opening early modernism's attempt to make form discursive: to re-open it to the
social and cultural dimension of visual language.


bauhaus in weimar
design theory

paul klee's pedagogical sketchbook (1925) and wassily kandinsky's point and line to
plane (1926), both published by the bauhaus, are primers for the grammar of visual
writing.
gyorgy kepes's language of vision (1944) and laszlo moholy-nagy's vision in motion
(1947) use gestalt psychology to lend the "language of vision" a scientiﬁc rationale;
both books were written at the school of design in chicago, founded as the "new
bauhaus" in 1937.'
gestalt psychology has since become a dominant theoretical source for basic design
teaching. numerous textbooks have appeared since world war II which describe the
"language" of design


bauhaus in weimar
design theory

a key difference between verbal language and
the modernist ideal of a visual "language" is the
arbitrariness of the verbal sign, which has no
natural, inherent relationship to the concept it
represents. The sound of the word "horse ' for
example, does not innately resemble the
concept of a horse.
ferdinand de saussure called this arbitrariness
the fundamental feature of the verbal sign.
saussure proposed the study of a new branch of
linguistics: semiology, a general theory of signs.


bauhaus in weimar
design theory / graph

a graph plots data in a gridded space, whose axes represent variables such as time,
temperature, or quantity. many graphs depict change over time with a linear mark, as
in a sine curve or a "fever" chart.
the graph belongs to the category of signs called the index, which has a causal
relationship to its referent. for example, a photograph, a footprint, or a shadow is an
index, because it results from physical contact with an object. an arrow is an index,
because its meaning in any given instance depends on its proximity to an object.
indexical signs appear throughout the textbooks of klee, kandinsky, and moholy-
nagy; they serve as potential characters in a universal script that would have a direct
link to the physical or spiritual world.


bauhaus in weimar
design theory / graph

ﬁrst case
the line is active and the plane is
passive.

second case
there is an equality between the line
and the plane it demarcates.

third case
the plane is active, while the line the
border between the two planes is
passive.


bauhaus in weimar
design theory / translation

the term translation appears in kandinsky's bauhaus textbook point and line to
plane, where it refers to the act of drawing correspondences between graphic, linear
marks and a range of non-graphic experiences, such as color, music, spiritual
intuition, and visual perception. the series represents kandinsky's attempt to prove a
universal correlation between color and geometry; it has become one of the most
famous icons of the Bauhaus.


bauhaus in weimar

kandinsky conceived of these colors and shapes as a series of oppositions: yellow
and blue represent the extremes of hotlcold, light/dark, and active/passive, while red
is the intermediary between them. the triangle, square, and circle are graphic
equivalents of the same polarities. while few designers today would accept the
universal validity of this equation, the model of visual "language" as a grammar of
perceptual oppositions remains the basis of numerous textbooks of basic design


bauhaus in weimar

the term translation is also used in geometry, where it refers to the uniform
movement of a ﬁgure in a single direction. In discussions of language, translation
refers to the act of exchanging symbols from one system with symbols from another.
what correspondences-and differences-might one draw between kandinsky's
"language" of vision and verbal language?
how might one translate the visual sign into the realm of the linguistic?


bauhaus in weimar

according to the theory of the verbal sign proposed by the linguist ferdinand de
saussure at the turn of the twentieth century, language consists of two distinct yet
inseparable planes: sounds and concepts, or signifiers and signifieds. The link
between signifier and signified is not an inherent quality of the sign, but is rather a
function of the overall system.

a sign is thus not an autonomous, self-contained vessel of meaning, but only has
value in relation to other signs.

kandinsky's equation is analogous in some ways to a system of linguistic signs.


bauhaus in weimar
design theory / grid

a grid organizes space according to an x and y axis.
the grid, a structural form pervading bauhaus art and design, articulates space
according to a pattern of oppositions: vertical and horizontal, top and bottom,
orthogonal and diagonal, and left and Another opposition engaged by the grid is the
opposition of continuity and discontinuity.

as described by saussure, language is also a kind of grid: language articulates the
"uncharted nebula" of pre-linguistic thought into distinct elements, breaking down the
inﬁnitely gradated continuum of experience into repeatable signs.
language is a grid, and a grid is a language.


bauhaus in weimar

kandinsky called a four-square grid "the
prototype of linear expression;“ it is an
elementary diagram of two-dimensional
space.

similarly, the dutch de stijl movement,
headed by theo van doesburg,identiﬁed the
grid as the fundamental origin of art.


bauhaus in weimar


bauhaus in weimar

this figure demonstrates another perceptual
principle:
at the intersections of a grid, the negative
space becomes active, beginning to solidify
into rectangular figures. In addition to its
formal ambiguity, kepes's figure is
conceptually ambiguous: it is at once figure
and frame, theory and practice, science and
art, perceptual diagram and mondrian grid.


the bauhaus
in dessau


bauhaus in dessau (1935 - 1933)

the bauhaus masters on the roof of the bauhaus building in dessau. From the left:
josef albers, hinnerk scheper, georg muche, lászló moholy-nagy, herbert bayer, joost
schmidt, walter gropius, marcel breuer, vassily kandinsky, paul klee, lyonel feininger,
gunta stölzl and oskar schlemmer.


bauhaus in dessau
building

"the Bauhaus building provides an
important landmark of architectural
history, even though it was
dependent on earlier projects of the
architect...as well as on the basic
outlines and concepts of Frank lloyd
wright.


bauhaus in dessau
building

"It consists of three connected wings
or bridges...school and workshop are
connected through a two-story bridge,
which spans the approach road from
dessau.


bauhaus in dessau
building

the administration was located on the
lower level of the bridge, and on the
upper level was the private ofﬁce of
the two architects, walter gropius and
adolf meyer, which could be compared
to the ship captain's 'command bridge'
due to its location.


bauhaus in dessau
building

the dormitories and the school
building are connected through a wing
where the assembly hall and the
dining room are located, with a stage
between.


bauhaus in dessau
building

"the basic structure of the bauhaus
consists of a clear and carefully
thought-out system of connecting
wings, which correspond to the
internal operating system of the
school.


bauhaus in dessau


bauhaus in dessau (1935 - 1933)

1925 1930 1932 1933 1937
Having lost support of the Architect Mies van der The Dessau Bauhaus is The Berlin Bauhaus closes. A group of Chicago
Weimar government, the Rohe becomes director dissolved by the local During the 30s, numerous industrialists found a
Bauhaus moves to Dessau, of the Bauhaus. Klee government. Mies transfers Bauhaus students and design school, and hire
an industrial city near leaves the school in the school to Berlin, where faculty emigrate to the Moholy-Nagy as director.
Berlin. 1931; Albers and it operates brieﬂy on a U.S., including Gropius, Called the New Bauhaus,
Herbert Bayer and Joost Kandinsky stay until the much smaller scale. Mies, Bayer, MoholyNagy, the school later is
Schmidt, formerly students, end. and Albers. They pursue renamed the School of
join the faculty. A course in inﬂuential careers as Design and then the
"Typography and educators and Institute of Design.
Advertising Art" is practitioners. Gyorgy Kepesteaches
instituted, taught by Bayer photography and graphic
as part of the Printing design, drawing on
Workshop. Gestalt psychology.


bauhaus in dessau
ludwig mies van der rohe

1886 aachen -
1969 chicago
architekt


bauhaus in dessau
ludwig mies van der rohe


bauhaus in dessau
marcel breuer

was born on 21 may 1902 in the
provincial city of Pecs, hungary.
he retired in 1976 and died on the 1st of
july 1981 after a long illness.


bauhaus in dessau
marcel breuer


bauhaus in dessau
marcel breuer

unesco - paris


bauhaus in dessau
herbert bayer

was born in Haag, austria. between 1921
and 1923, he attended the bauhaus
where he ﬁrst studied typography and
later joined wassily kandinsky's mural
workshop. bayer taught graphic design
and typography at the school from 1925
to 1928.


bauhaus in dessau
herbert bayer


bauhaus in dessau
Herbert Bayer


bauhaus - the end
in 1928 gropius resigns from the bauhaus in april to go to berlin to work as an
architect. moholy-nagy, bayer, and breuer also quit the school.
at the suggestion of gropius, hannes meyer is appointed director. meyer advocates
a more scientiﬁc approach in the work and the classes. he considers creativity to be
an objective process, which derives from rationally tangible perception.
in 1930 student political involvement increases; accused for his communist
tendencies, the director, hannes meyer, is dismissed by the city of dessau. Following
a recommendation by gropius, the architect ludwig mies van der rohe is appointed
director in april; he assumes his post in autumn.


bauhaus - the end
in april 1931, klee leaves the bauhaus for an appointment to the academy in
düsseldorf, gunta stölzl quits in october.
in november 1931, the elections for the municipal council of dessau take place; the
NSDAP is the strongest party. the ﬁrst point of their election campaign concerns
cutting ﬁnancial support to the Bauhaus and the demolition of its buildings.
mies van der Rohe decides to continue the school as a private institute in berlin. this
is enabled by the income from license royalties.


bauhaus - the end
on April 11 1933, at the start of the summer semester, the bauhaus building
undergoes a police search and is placed under seal. 32 students are temporarily
arrested. the future of the school, which is in a disastrous ﬁnancial situation,is
uncertain.
on July 20, the ﬁnal dissolution of the Bauhaus is decided upon at a staff conference.
a letter from the secret state police, dated July 21 concerning the re-opening of the
school states several conditions; kandinsky and hilberseimer are requested to
relinquish their position to staff "standing on the soil of national socialist ideology"
and the new curriculum should satisfy the "claim of the new state to its inner
structure".


bauhaus - the end
the most prominent bauhaus teachers emigrate over the course of the following
years, amongst them Josef Albers (1933/USA), Vassily Kandinsky (1933/France), paul
kee (1933/switzerland), Walter Gropius (1934/Great Britain, 1937/USA), László
Moholy-Nagy (1934/Netherlands, 1935/Great Britain, 1937/USA), Marcel Breuer
(1935/Great Britain, 1937/USA), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1937/USA), Herbert
Bayer (1938/USA), Walter Peterhans (1938/USA).


bauhaus - succession
new bauhaus - iit

the New bauhaus, founded in 1937 in chicago, was the immediate successor to the
bauhaus dissolved in 1933 under national socialist pressure.
the former bauhaus master lászló moholy-nagy was founding director of the new
bauhaus.
chicago bauhaus and beyond, also know as CBB, derives its name from the New
bauhaus school of design, located in chicago, descendent of the inﬂuential german
bauhaus design school and precursor of the illinois institute of technology's institute
of design.
the new bauhaus, and later IIT, played crucial roles in developing and promoting
modern design.


new bauhaus - iit

bauhaus ideology had a strong impact throughout america, but it was only at the
new bauhaus that the complete curriculum as developed under walter gropius in
weimar and dessau was adopted and further developed
the methods which came from the german bauhaus and which were then transferred
to chicago and further developed there have been adopted in manifold modiﬁed form
by other American schools. the Bauhaus is mainly responsible for the gradual
reduction of the until then unchallenged predominance in the united states of the
beaux-arts tradition.


ulm hochschule für gestaltung

hochschule für gestaltung in ulm 1953 to 1968 (design school ulm) - represent later
developments.
after world war II, the bauhaus program was revived at the highly inﬂuential school of
design in ulm, west-germany.
max bill is co-founder of the hochschule für gestaltung in ulm, he plans the curriculum
and the buildings, ﬁrst rector , he has studied at the bauhaus in dessau, under
teachers including wassily kandinsky, paul klee and oskar schlemmer.
the theory of functionalism strongly represented by the ulm academy for design, the
orientation toward technology, and systematic thinking had their effect on mass
production and brought about a rectangular formalism in both architecture and
design.


ulm hochschule für gestaltung

Good Form and Neo-Functionalism
During the 1960's the Ulm Academy for Design shifted its focus from its rectangular
functionalism to a new stylistic combination of "good form" and functionalism.
Through this adaptation of "form follows function" designers began to think of
themselves as engineers rather than creators. In the face of this changing tide, the
ﬁeld of ergonomics emerged

The Braun Sixtant by Hans Gugelot, 1962, became a classic among modern electric razors.
"Good Form", characterized by functionality, simply form, utility, durability, "timelessness,"
order, clarity, thorough and solid workmanship, suitable materials, ﬁnished details, technology,
ergonomic design, environmental responsibility


bauhaus - conclusion
u

the Bauhaus began with an utopian deﬁnition: "the building of the future" was to
combine all the arts in ideal unity.
this required a new type of artist beyond academic specialisation with holistic
vision, for whom the bauhaus would offer adequate education. in order to reach this
goal, the founder, walter gropius, saw the necessity to develop new teaching
methods and was convinced that the base for any art was to be found in handcraft:
"the school will gradually turn into a workshop".
indeed, artists and craftsmen directed classes and production together at the
bauhaus in weimar. this was intended to remove any distinction between ﬁne arts
and applied arts.


bauhaus - conclusion
u

of course, the educational and social claim to a new configuration of life and its
environment could not always be achieved. and the bauhaus was not alone with this
goal, but the name became a near synonym for this trend.
the history of the bauhaus is by no means linear. the changes in directorship and
amongst the teachers, artistic influence from far and wide, in combination with the
political situation in which the bauhaus experiment was staged, led to permanent
transformation.
the numerous consequences of this experiment still today flow into contemporary life.


Bauhaus

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