Blog post #9

Bauhaus exists from 1919-1933.
It was a school created in Germany that combined both fine arts and crafts.
It began in Weimar 1919-1925, it was then moved to Dessau from 1925-1932. Finally it was moved to Berlin 1932-1933.
Opened only for 14 years. Its ironic to think about how it was only opened for these few years and remains as one of the most important school in history.

It makes you wonder what would have happened, or what would have come out if it had lasted say 20 more years. Would it have been the same, would the work have increased in quality, new design eras? would new artists have developed? or would it have decreased in quality through time?
Its an interesting thought to consider.

It was because of the strong oppression by the nazis that the bauhaus artists flourished. Their passion and will became stronger, their anger against the governments injustice became an inspiring motive, which influenced greatly the work created and their desire to revolt.

Walter Gropius was the first director of the Bauhaus.
He takes the form of a cathedral as a metaphor for the three pilars of design (painting, sculpture, and architecture)

The key members (council of masters) from the begingin were:
Gerhard Marks (Sculpture)
Lyonel Feringer
Johannes Itten (foundation of art and design)

Johannes Itten, was what we could say, an "interesting" character. His goal was to release each student's creative ability. He wanted to develop an understanding of the physical nature of materials.

"what is the nature of a particular thing, the structure, what does it do?"

In his class they would compare work, analyse old masters.
At the time, they were creating projects made out of materials they found outside. There was no money in Germany at the time so they were using random materials for their studies.
Beginning with the idea of contrast. Something hard, agains something soft (metal agains wood).

Itten leaves the Bauhaus in 1923, because it starts to move away from this "medievalism and handycraft" which was why Itten had come there in the first place.


A new character come into play, Laslo Moholy-Nagy,he will become the right hand of Gropius.

He used photography to try and develop a new visual language.
Bayer developed the universal alphabet. Experimenting with strokes, bars and contrast.

The Bauhaus was created with the sole purpose of uniting all arts. The constant change of leaders, and directors began to shift the purpose of the school. In 1930 it was taken over by Mies Van Der Roeh, who then converted it into a private school.