#history of bauhaus

[pagansphinx]

The Bauhaus, 1919–1933

Paul Klee (Swiss, 1879-1940) • Senecio or Head of a Man Going Senile • 1922 • Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland

“A drawing is simply a line going for a walk.“ – Paul Klee

The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 in the city of Weimar by German architect Walter Gropius (1883–1969). Its core objective was a radical concept: to reimagine the material world to reflect the unity of all the arts. Gropius explained this vision for a union of art and design in the Proclamation of the Bauhaus (1919), which described a utopian craft guild combining architecture, sculpture, and painting into a single creative expression. Gropius developed a craft-based curriculum that would turn out artisans and designers capable of creating useful and beautiful objects appropriate to this new system of living.

Read the rest of the essay here.

"Form follows function" (Bauhaus design principle)

Marcel Breuer (Hungarian-German, 1902-1981) • B3 “Wassily” Armchair • 1925 • chrome-plated steel, canvas upholstery • Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

"I am as much interested in the smallest detail as in the whole structure." – Marcel Breur

Annie Albers (German, 1899-1994) • Wall tapestry • Designed, 1925; woven, 1983

"Creating is the most intense excitement one can come to know." –Annie Albers

The Bauhaus was eventually closed under pressure from the Nazi regime, which branded the school, and modernism in general, as un-German.

[the-cricket-chirps]

Irene Rice Pereira

Black and White

c. 1940

[germanpostwarmodern]

"F51" Easy Chair designed in 1920 by Walter Gropius for his Headmaster's Office at the Bauhaus. The present example is a 1980s edition by Tecta.

[oliverscarlin]

Gerhard Marcks - Sitzender Athlet (1965)

[zabagar]

a guardian angel serves a small breakfast. paul klee. 1920

[kafkasapartment]

Die Farbige (The Colorful Woman), 1929. Paul Klee, 1879 - 1940. Watercolor and pencil on paper laid down on the artist's mount.

Though not Jewish, Klee was falsely labeled such by the Nazis, further fueling their animosity towards him and his art. This misattribution played into fascist anti-Semitic ideology and fueled their attacks on his work.

[typhlonectes]

[greencheekconure27]

I know it's a complicated matter, but there's really something very telling about a painter born into an Armenian family in Crimea, with an Armenian birth name, buried in an Armenian church, being always referred to as a "Russian painter"

Yes he was born in what was then the Russian Empire but why should the identity of the empire be the one prioritised here?

[markrothkono61]

bauhaus student/professor ID cards gunta stölzl/margaret leischner/herbert hirche/michiko yamawaki/ selman selmanagić/alma siedhoff-buscher/alfred arndt/ wassily kandinsky

[victusinveritas]

The women of the Bauhaus.

Dessau. 1926.

[nugothrhythms]

It’s July 11th, meaning it is both Peter Murphy’s birthday and the anniversary of the release of Joy Division’s Substance, two important days in goth history.

[pagansphinx]

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866-1944) • Composition 8 • 1923 • Guggenheim Museum, New York City

Composition VIII was the artist’s first methodical application of his ideas about the relationship between colour and form and his understanding of their spiritual and psychological effects. This painting also marks the beginning of Kandinsky’s long connection with the circle. – Alix Rule, Britannica

[the-cricket-chirps]

Oskar Schlemmer

Costume Design, Triadisches Ballett (Triadic Ballet)

1921-1929

(New Production, 2014, color photos: Wilfried Hösl)

[germanpostwarmodern]

Looking back at the life and work of Marcel Breuer (1902-81) one can only be astonished: at the age of only 25 he designed the club chair that is today known as the „Wassily“, led the carpentry workshop at the Bauhaus and with great passion advanced furniture made from tubular steel. But although his architectural oeuvre in terms of size by far outdoes his furniture designs it is the latter that are still primarily associated with his name. A classic dedicated exclusively to his furniture and interiors is Magdalena Droste’s and Manfred Ludewig’s monograph „Marcel Breuer - Design“, published in several editions by Taschen (the present one is from 1994). In it Droste provides a concisely written overview of Breuer’s genesis as a designer up until his very last furniture designs in the US that unfortunately weren’t able to live up to his successes in Germany and England. She also highlights his role as a pioneer of tubular steel furniture and the adventurous production circumstances that pivotally involved steel companies not quite familiar with furniture making. Unfortunately manifold patent cases ultimately spoiled Breuer for the material. All of the above is supplemented with what the book is about in the first place: countless historic photographs of Breuer’s furniture and interiors of which there are many more than just his primarily known designs: while at the Bauhaus, in Switzerland and England Breuer designed complete interiors, furnished them with one-off designs, created a seating line for Isokon and within less than twenty years established his legend status. Magdalena Droste‘s book still remains the richest publication dedicated to the design works of Marcel Breuer and as such is highly recommended!

[echera]

The Sorrows of Satan, directed by D.W. Griffith in 1926.

"A Midnight Visit to The Neighborhood Bloodbank", by Tom Wright in 1972

An album cover for Bela Lugosi's Dead, by Bauhaus, released in 1979.

[fashionlandscapeblog]

Oskar Schlemmer

Wire costume of the Bauhaus Triadic Ballet, 1922