From 1919 to 1933 This Was a German Art School That Combined Crafts and Fine Arts

GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION
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non-objective fine art, run into:
Abstract Paintings: Peak 100.
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see: Abstruse Fine art Movements.

World'Southward GREATEST ARTWORKS
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sculptors: All-time Artists of All Time.

Evolution OF VISUAL ART
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and styles, see: History of Art.
For the chronology and dates
of key events in the evolution
of visual arts around the world
see: History of Art Timeline.

World'S GREATEST Fine art
For a list of masterpieces
of abstract painting & sculpture,
by famous artists, see below:
Greatest Paintings E'er
Oils, watercolours, acrylics,
past the best painters.
Greatest Sculptures Always
Superlative iii-D art in marble, stone,
bronze, wood, steel and
other media.

Introduction

Bauhaus, the German language word for "house of building", refers to the Staatliches Bauhaus, a German language school of design founded in Weimar by Walter Gropius (1883-1969) which functioned from 1919 to 1933 and which taught a fusion of art and crafts. It became renowned for its modernist approach to fine art education, which scrapped the traditional divide between "fine" and "applied" arts, and redefined the relationship between art, design and industrial manufacturing techniques. In particular, its mission according to Gropius was to conceive and create the new building of the hereafter, combining architecture, sculpture, and painting in a single class, which required the teaching of a new guild of craftsmen without the class-distinctions separating craftsmen and artists. In short, the Bauhaus trained students to be equally comfy with design, craft and methods of mass production.

The school operated in three successive locations (i) Weimar 1919-1925; (ii) Dessau 1925-1932; (3) Berlin 1932-1933), under three different directors (Walter Gropius 1919-1927; Hannes Meyer 1927-1930; Mies van der Rohe 1930-1933), until information technology was finally closed by the Nazi authorities. Despite a series of abiding changes to its location, educational activity staff, syllabus and educational aesthetic, the Bauhaus school succeeded in developing an international reputation for innovative work in the field of architecture, interior design, industrial blueprint and handicraft.

ARTISTS SINCE 1800
For details of the best mod
painters, since 1800, see:
Famous Painters.

Bauhaus Origins

Bauhaus was born against a back-drop of radical experimentation in all the arts (encounter for instance Dada), and a new desire for art to meet the needs of society (equally propounded past the English Arts and Crafts Movement founded past the medievalist designer William Morris) particularly in industrial and interior design. Fortunately, since 1907, the Deutscher Werkbund (the authoritative Association of German national designers) had been actively promoting the reconciliation of craft and industry, so several of the design innovations traditionally associated with the Bauhaus were already partly developed in Germany before the Bauhaus was established. I of the leading figures in the Werkbund was a young architect named Walter Gropius. Himself strongly influenced by the architect, professor and pioneer of industrial Peter Behrens (1868-1940), Gropius believed passionately in the unity of visual arts, crafts and architecture, and sought every opportunity to include specific creative elements into his building designs, as exemplified by his collaborative work on the AEG Turbine Hall in Berlin and the Fagus Factory. Bauhaus instructors were also influenced by modernist designs coming out of America, notably the "Prairie School" architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), equally exemplified by Unity Temple (1908), Robie House (1910) and Fallingwater (1936-37). Bauhaus ideas

HISTORY OF THE BAUHAUS

Weimar 1919-1925

In 1919 Walter Gropius merges the Weimar Constitute of Fine Arts (Hochschule fur Bildende Kunst) and the Weimar School of Craft (Kunstgewerbeschule) to plant the Bauhaus. To starting time with, Gropius recruits the Swiss painter Johannes Itten, the German-American painter Lyonel Feininger, and the High german sculptor Gerhard Marcks, who along with himself becomes the full-time teaching staff of the school. The following year he adds the German painter, sculptor and designer Oskar Schlemmer and Swiss painter Paul Klee, and in 1922, the Russian painter Wasily Kandinsky, and (temporarily) the Russian Constructivist artist and architect El Lissitzky. (Several of these instructors are masters of physical art - geometric abstraction - including painting, printmaking and design.)

In his prospectus, Gropius formulates three principal aims: (1) To unite all arts to allow painters, sculptors and craftsmen to work harmoniously on cooperative projects; (2) To raise the status of craftsmen practicing applied fine art and decorative art to the same level as those involved in fine art; (3) To maintain shut liaison with the leaders of the main crafts and industries in the country, to ensure the schoolhouse operated in line with their basic requirements.

Gropius believes strongly in the Gothic and Renaissance tradition that architectural building work is the cardinal framework for all artistic activity. For instance, he holds up cathedrals as the perfect examples of artistic collaboration between architects, designers, sculptors, painters, and those craftsmen involved in stained glass, wood-carving, mosaic art, metalwork, illuminated manuscripts, decorative plasterwork and stonework. In his opinion, architects, painters, sculptors and other craftsmen must in one case again come to empathise the composite artistic nature of a building, rather than continue to be distracted by the production of "salon fine art". It is to be Bauhaus' mission to train a "universal designer" able to work with equal creativity in the fields of compages, handcrafts, or industry. Gropius duly turns Bauhaus into a workshop-based school, with classes directed jointly past both artists and chief-craftsmen to eliminate the standard distinction betwixt fine and practical arts.

Another of import influence at Weimar is Johannes Itten, who teaches the "preliminary course" (Vorkurs). All students are obliged to begin their studies with a 6-month course which covers the principles of form, colour and the attributes of various materials, and encourages participants to develop their inventiveness. Itten is essentially a "fine arts" man, whose pedagogical ideas are strongly influenced by German Expressionism, notably the Der Blaue Reiter grouping in Munich and the Austrian Expressionist Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980). Itten'due south influence leads to the hiring of Wassily Kandinsky (founder of Der Blaue Reiter), subsequently which Itten is presently forced to resign. He is succeeded by the Hungarian designer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, who (with Gropius' approving) changes the Vorkurs course to reflect a stronger applied arts artful.

1919
At get-go, art tuition begins in the instructor's classrooms, while craft courses take place in the workshops: initial courses include metalwork, bookbinding, weaving, printmaking, and painting. No architectural class is offered, though individual tuition is available.

1920
Further workshops are added: for woods and rock sculpture, pottery, cabinet-making, glass painting, and wall-painting. Past now the curriculum broadly corresponds to a arts and crafts apprenticeship.

1921
Theo van Doesburg, the leader of the Dutch De Stijl design motion, lectures at the Bauhaus and casts doubtfulness on the expressionist tendencies and crafts orientation of the schoolhouse. He advocates a new concept of constructivist design, capable of efficient mass-production.

1922
Gropius responds by restructuring his original concept of the Bauhaus. Henceforth the focus is to be on creating designs to mesh with industrial product. The first Bauhaus exhibition of works by students opens in April. At this time, the school's weaving and pottery workshops play a lead part since they are the only ones making a significant contribution towards the upkeep of the school through the sale of their works.

1923
The Zurich Museum for Arts and Crafts holds an exhibition with works from the Bauhaus workshops. In addition the school participates at the Leipzig Off-white showcasing its woven materials, ceramics, and metalwork. In Baronial, a week of exhibitions, lectures and other events are held at the Bauhaus. The school receives widespread publicity for its workshop products, architecture by Gropius - including the experimental firm "Am Horn" in Weimar which is equipped by the school's workshops. Gropius invents a new Bauhaus slogan "Art and technology - a new unity" - reflecting the primacy of mechanized production, which becomes the new watchword for all Bauhaus activities.

1924
An uncertain yr dominated by political wranglings over funding problems. Bauhaus is still dependent on public funds from the state of Thuringia. In Feb 1924, the newly elected Nationalist authorities cuts the schoolhouse's funding in half, resulting in its eventual closure a year subsequently. Meanwhile Gropius organizes the establishment of the "Circle of Friends of the Bauhaus" to offer support for the design school. Its members include leading figures such equally Marc Chagall, Albert Einstein, and Gerhart Hauptmann.

Bauhaus at Dessau 1925-1932

1925
The Bauhaus reopens in Dessau, in a grouping of buildings designed by Gropius. In March, the town council of Dessau, adopts the Bauhaus as a municipal schoolhouse. Classes kickoff at the beginning of April. Neither the pottery nor the wood and stone sculpture workshops are replicated in Dessau. Gropius announces a new scientific design programme to create a modern housing development embracing everything from the simplest household item to the complete structure. In June, the first "Bauhausbucher" (Bauhaus books) are published by Gropius, Moholy-Nagy, Klee, Kandinsky, and Piet Mondrian, to be owned by a newly formed company, the Bauhaus Co. Ltd.

1926
In October, the status of the school is officially upgraded; art masters are promoted to professors; from now on the Bauhaus carries the subtitle "School of Design". The Bauhaus grooming form now equates to university written report and leads to a Bauhaus Diploma. In December, the spectacular new Bauhaus schoolhouse edifice is opened in Dessau designed by Gropius and equipped by the school'due south own workshops. The school, congenital in a style very similar to designs by Gropius's contemporary Le Corbusier (1887-1965), rapidly attracts international attending and renown.

1927
In Apr, a department for architecture is gear up under the professorship of Swiss architect Hannes Meyer (1889-1954), a partner in Gropius' compages practice.

1928
Gropius resigns as Bauhaus manager to concentrate on his own architectural practice, he names Meyer as his successor. This brings mixed results. On the one hand, Meyer oversees the acquisition by the Bauhaus of its 2 most important edifice commissions: five blocks of apartments in the city of Dessau, and the head office of the Federal Schoolhouse of the High german Merchandise Unions (ADGB) in Bernau. Meyer's highly rational methodology together with the use of standardized architectural components to reduce costs, proves an attractive combination, and Bauhaus duly makes its first turn a profit the post-obit year.

Unfortunately Meyer is a highly political figure. A committed communist, he introduces a strong political tone into the teaching syllabus. Students become active in left-wing politics. In add-on Meyer he tries to establish an commutation programme with Vkhutemas, the Russian state art schoolhouse and equivalent of Bauhaus. This provokes further outrage from Nazi (NSDAP) and conservative politicians.

Bauhaus appliance models are used for mass production past ii lite manufacturers. Other textile manufacturers do the same with several Bauhaus weaving designs. The number of Bauhaus students rises to 166; the Bauhaus Circle of Friends now numbers 460 members.

1929
In the Spring, the Basle Museum of Arts and Crafts showcases a representative sample of piece of work by Bauhaus students. In July, the workshops for metal, cabinet making, and wall-painting are combined into one finishing department under Professor Alfred Arndt. This reinforces the primacy of compages: Bauhaus designs buildings which are and so equipped by its workshops. Towards the finish of the twelvemonth the bauhaus opens a photography department.

1930
Meyer's political activities eventually bear witness likewise much. He is fired by Gropius and is succeeded by the renowned exponent ("less is more") of Minimalism - the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969).

Van der Rohe restructures the syllabus into 5 sections: building, interior design, weaving, photography, and fine arts. The program has a more integrated timetable, and is shortened to v semesters. Architecture classes become more of import, and are strongly oriented towards aesthetic issues. The importance of industrial design, is downgraded.

1931-2
Despite Mies van der Rohe best efforts to rid the school of its left-wing political image, local Nazis campaign and win election in Nov 1931 on their hope to shut the Bauhaus.

1932
In October, the Dessau town council orders the closure of the Bauhaus.

Bauhaus at Berlin 1932-1933

Using funds from the auction of Bauhaus royalties, Mies van der Rohe rents a disused telephone factory in Steglitz Berlin, where he reopens the school equally a individual found. With fourteen students, together with staff members Kandinsky, Josef Albers, Hilberseimer, Reich, and Peterhans, it survives for most half dozen months until the Nazis finally close it downwards in Apr 1933. Mies van der Rohe is expelled from Federal republic of germany.

BAUHAUS Artistic OUTPUT

Bauhaus Compages

It wasn't until 1927 that Bauhaus began to offer classes in architecture so "Bauhaus" manner designs produced from 1919 to 1927 - such as, the competition pattern for the Chicago Tribune Tower, the Sommerfeld house (Berlin), the Otte house (Berlin), the Auerbach house (Jena), and the 1926 Bauhaus school buildings in Dessau - were the exclusive work of Gropius. Bauhaus student output during this period was geared to the finishing and equipping of these buildings' architectural designs, and encompassed interior finishes, and craft piece of work like cabinets, chairs and pottery. Under Meyer, Bauhaus gained 2 major architectural commissions, and these were also fully equipped by workshop products. Under Mies van der Rohe the school won no further design commissions.

Although the Bauhaus promoted a certain fashion of popular standardized architectural pattern - ideas shared by several other professional architects across Germany - information technology did non involve itself in worker housing estates. The development of big-scale housing projects for workers was not the main priority of Gropius, Meyer or Mies. This type of architectural piece of work was actually washed by non-Bauhaus city architects like Hans Poelzig, Bruno Taut, and especially Ernst May, who responded energetically to the promise of a "minimal dwelling" written into the new Weimar Constitution and went on to build thousands of socially progressive housing units in Desden, Berlin and Frankfurt, respectively.

The design manner embodied by Walter Gropius became known as the International Way of mod compages, and later spread to the Us, where information technology was developed past Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) and other European emigrants similar Richard Neutra (1892-1970).

Bauhaus Painting

While architecture had always been the highest goal of Bauhaus grooming, to brainstorm with the staff consisted almostentirely of painters: first, Feininger and Itten; and then Muche, Schlemmer, Klee, Kandinsky and Moholy-Nagy. These outstanding teachers provided a level of technical and stylistic tuition which has rarely been equalled. Correct from the very beginning, nearly students tried their manus at painting and drawing - in a non-academic way. The main goal was to stimulate and sharpen a student's creativity, rather than acquire how Sometime Masters painted.

Bauhaus Printmaking/Graphic Art

The printmaking workshop but operated when the school was located in Weimar. Its artistic managing director was Lyonel Feininger, while its supervising craftsman was the lithographer Carl Zaubitzer. Open up to use by both staff and students, it produced Feininger's "Twelve woodcuts" as well as a Portfolio of the State Bauhaus Schoolhouse, and started a New European Graphics project highlighting all the major tendencies of the international avant-garde - from Futurism to Dada, Constructivism, and Surrealism. In add-on, the impress workshop took on outside commissions such as lithograph-production for Piet Mondrian and Alexander Rodchenko.

The workshop was likewise an early pioneer of typography and graphic art, through its affiche art and typography designs for various internal projects. These included production of Bauhaus postcards - widely distributed every bit original graphic miniatures - whose typeface and image became an of import advertisement medium for the school.

Bauhaus Sculpture

During the Weimar flow, two split up sculpture workshops operated at the Bauhaus: i for stone work, ane for wood-carving. To begin with, Johannes Itten directed both, and in 1922 was succeeded past Oskar Schlemmer. The supervising master-craftsman (later famous for his Bauhaus-manner chess set) was the sculptor Josef Hartwig. At Dessau a single workshop was gear up in 1925 by Joost Schmidt.

At Weimar, in keeping with the focus on architecture, students worked mainly on architectural sculpture. Thus for case in 1921-22, the woods workshop created reliefs and wooden cravings for the Adolf Sommerfeld house designed by Gropius and Meyer, while in 1922-23 the stone workshop produced wall decorations for the Bauhaus' own school buildings.

If the initial accent at Weimar was on free creative work, sculpture classes at Dessau concentrated more on educational aspects. Joost Schmidt's workshop provided an introductory course in sculpture, while students also explored stage pattern, the creation of maquettes as well as architectural sculpture.

Bauhaus Practical Arts

Graphic designs for a range of decorative arts were widely explored by students, after the earlier instance of William Morris in England. Interestingly, the virtually profitable tangible production of the Bauhaus was its wallpaper. Also, as we have seen, Bauhaus weaving models were adopted by leading manufacturers for mass-production, every bit were several of its electic light fittings. Bauhaus also excelled in modernistic furniture blueprint. The cantilever chair by Dutch designer Mart Stam, and the Wassily Chair, designed by Marcel Breuer are ii notable examples.

Bauhaus Legacy

Most fine art historians admit that the Bauhaus arroyo to design had a major bear on on art and architecture throughout Western Europe, North America and Israel, non least considering so many of its influential teachers fled Germany and took upwardly didactics posts abroad. Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Blueprint, influencing the likes of I.Chiliad. Pei, Lawrence Halprin and Paul Rudolph, amongst others; Herbert Bayer organized and designed a major exhibition of Bauhaus work at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1938-9; Mies van der Rohe relocated to Chicago, where he enjoyed the patronage of Philip Johnson (1906-2005) - ane of the most influential American architects of his day, with whom he later designed the landmark Seagram Building - and became i of the leading figures in American architecture; Moholy-Nagy also settled in Chicago and ready the New Bauhaus schoolhouse with philanthropist Walter Paepcke. Bauhaus printmaker and painter Werner Drewes taught at Columbia University and Washington Academy St. Louis, while Josef Albers lectured at the experimental and influential Black Mount College, earlier heading the department of architecture and design at Yale University. He duly became world famous for his not-objective art - namely, his Homage to the Square series of paintings.

Important Collections of Bauhaus Art & Design

- Bauhaus-Archiv, Museum fur Gesaltung, Berlin.
- Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard Academy
- Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco
- Minneapolis Constitute of Arts
- Paul Klee Eye, Bern, Switzerland

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Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/bauhaus-design-school.htm

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