For me, the Bauhaus Movement has long been a fascinating, as well as a revolutionary one. Image what was going through most people’s minds when they first came across this minimalist aesthetic after being accustomed to a variety of ornate architecture and furniture designs. It must have been quite a shock! I wrote this article, nearly 10 years ago when I attended Parsons, and occasionally found myself referring back to it, either for design ideas or simply just because…
Oskar Schlemmer. Bauhaus Stairway. 1932. Oil on canvas
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Philip Johnson.
© 2009 Estate of Oskar Schlemmer, Munich/Germany
“The greater the chaos in the outside world, the more people seek clarity, peace and order at home.” These words were uttered by Wolfgang von Wersin in connection with the fact that after the First World War, German designers found themselves excluded on political grounds from the progress in the decorative and applied arts in Europe, and there were no longer wealthy clients abound wanting to have their villas built and furnished in luxury. In 1919, an attempt to rectify these new challenges fell in the direction of a man by the name of Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus Movement.
Bauhaus Master House
Marcel Breuer Tubular’s Stell Chair, 1926
Backtracking a bit, one could see how this stunning innovation took further roots. Weimar, Germany was once a prominent literary city but fell out of grace in the 19th Century due to a virtual insignificance, and the beginning of cultural renaissance, and was brought forth by the design of the Nietzsche Archive in 1903 by the architect and designer, Henry van de Velde. Van de Velve had made his name in his native Belgium in the 1890s. He had spent some time in Paris, where the art dealer, Samuel Bing sought unsuccessfully to promote his talents in his gallery La maison de L’Art Nouveau, which also showed the work of other prominent designers of that time, and then moved to Berlin in 1900.
Walter Gropius’ house in Massachusetts
In 1902, a Count Kessler, one of the most influential patrons of the Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau) invited van de Velde to Weimar as principal of the Grand Duchy of Saxony’s new School of Applied Arts. He intended for this little regional capital to follow the Darmstadt model and become a center of progressive German art. Van de Velde indeed brought a breath of fresh air into the little town stultified by conservative historicism. He began by setting up craft workshops, assisting them financially with the proceeds from his many private commissions; and by placing his furniture orders with local artisans, such as the Scheidemantel firm, he helped them to achieve an undreamed-of prosperity. It was van de Velde who, in 1915, suggested that Walter Gropius should establish a school providing artistic guidance for industry, trade and craft.
This institution eventually materialized as the Bauhaus, which was to be responsible for one of the most important chapters in the international history of design in the 20th Century. At the Bauhaus institution, Mr. Gropius’ students were none others than the greatest painters, graphic designers and architects of his day. The institution also contained a carpenter’s workshop, a metal workshop, a pottery, and facilities for paining on glass, mural painting, weaving, printing, wood and stone sculpting. The Bauhaus institute flourished under such great artists, but it also generated a radical set of ideas. What exactly were those ideas?
Well, the school aimed at dictating function alone and encouraged its students to work cooperatively and combine all of their skills. There was no justification for decorative features, unless they were traditionally associated with a particular material or their application facilitated the production process and therefore fitted a practical purpose. At the Bauhaus, Marcel Breuer and Mies van der Rohe produced some of the canons of modern furniture design – most notable in Breuer’s tubular steel chair, which became an icon of 20th Century design.
In was Walter Gropius himself who said, “The Bauhaus believes the machine to be our modern medium of design and seeks to come to terms with it.” When one look at the interior of a Bauhaus building, one would see that an emphasis was placed on factory-produced designs that were simple, functional, and industrial. The egalitarian philosophy espoused by the school embraced clean designs in basic materials, and this philosophy permeated all types of design, from furniture to textiles to applied art.
Alas, not all were in favor of these new ideas. Stark white washed walls were perceived by some as “operating theater”; and some people at the time felt that they were entitled to art as well, and preferred the styles of the past.
Recommended Reading: Bauhaus 1919-1933 by Magdalena Droste
Bauhaus by Jeannine Fielder
Design and Form: The Basic course at the Bauhaus by Johannes Itten
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