Chapter 13 bauhaus and the teaching of modernism

1. Chapter 13
BAUHAUS AND THE
TEACHING OF
MODERNISM

2. The Bauhaus was a modernist art school of the 20th century. It focused on
the relationship between art, society. The Bauhaus was influenced by
• the Arts and Crafts movement
• the Art Nouveau and its related styles
• the Jugendstil
• and Vienna Secession.
Bauhaus had a major impact both in Europe and in the United States long
after it closured under Nazi pressure in 1933.
Early on the school sought to eliminate the distinction between the fine and
applied arts.
Later, the Bauhaus stressed the uniting of art and industrial design. This
became the school’s most important achievements. Its renowned faculty
contributed to the development of modern art throughout Europe and the
United States.

3. Walter Gropius (1883 -1969
studied architecture between 1903
and 1907 in Munich and Berlin.
From 1908 to 1910 Walter Gropius
worked for Peter Behrens, who
designed the AEG Tubine Hall.
In 1910 Gropius established his
own architecture practice in Berlin
with Adolph Meyer.
This Fagus Shoe Factory building
shows Gropius’ innovation in
utilizing of complete glass
sheathing on the entire building.
Walter Gropius and Adolph Meyer,
Fagus Shoe Factory, 1911–25.
Alfeld-an-der-Leine, Germany.
Audacious Lightness:
The Architecture of Gropius

4. The "State Bauhaus“ was founded in
Weimar in 1919, and Gropius was its
first director.
In 1925, when the "Bauhaus" in
Weimar came under political pressure
from the authorities, Gropius moved it
to Dessau.
With the Model Factory For Deutscher
Werkbund Exhibition of 1914, Walter
Gropius and Adolph Meyer promoted
new ideas that would become the
model for twentieth-century
architecture. Architecture.
Walter Gropius and Adolph Meyer,
Model Factory at the Werkbund
Exhibition, 1914. Cologne.

5. In 1922 Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer
designed an office and administration
building for the Chicago Tribune for the
international competition announced by
the paper on the occasion of the sixty-
fifth anniversary.
There were Among two hundred and
sixty-five submissions from twenty-six
different countries. Raymond Hood
waon the competition.
Walter Gropius and Adolph Meyer,
Design for the Chicago Tribune
Tower, 1922.

6. In 1908 Henry van de Velde founded the School of
Applied Arts in Weimar. The school closed in 1915.
In 1919 Gropius founded the Bauhaus in the city of
Weimar with a focus on reflecting the unity of all the
arts.
Bauhaus Desssau
In 1925, under political pressure, the Bauhaus
moved from Weimar to Dessau. There Gropius
designed a building to accommodate workshops,
which included:
• metalworking,
• cabinetmaking,
• weaving,
• pottery,
• typography,
• and wall painting.
The Building as Entity:
The Bauhaus
Walter Gropius,
Workshop wing,
Bauhaus,
1925–26. essau,
Germany.

7. Gropius explained his vision for uniting art and design, in the
Proclamation of the Bauhaus (1919).
The Bauhaus would:
• be a craft guild combining
• architecture,
• sculpture,
• and painting
• have a curriculum that included courses
• from social and educational backgrounds,
• to the study of materials,
• color theory,
• and formal relationships.
•
The Bauhaus maintained a stress on intellectual and theoretical
pursuits.
The Vorkurs: Basis for
the Bauhaus Curriculum

8. Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy was:
• a Hungarian-born artist
• one of the greatest modernists
• an experimentalists
• was shaped by
• Dadaism,
• Suprematism,
• Constructivism
László Moholy-Nagy, Light Prop for an Electric Stage (Light–Space
Modulator), 1922–30. Kinetic sculpture of steel, plastic, wood, and
other materials with electric motor, 59-1⁄2 × 27-1⁄2 × 27-1⁄2”. Busch-
Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA

9. He believed that artists’:
• understanding of
vision through
photography would
modernize art
• utilizing the camera
would learn to see
again.
• had to renounce the
training of previous
centuries
• had to stop to
reproduce old formulas
and experiment with
vision.
László Moholy-Nagy,
Untitled, c. 1940.
Photogram, silver
bromide print, 20 ×
16” (50 × 40 cm).
The Art Institute of
Chicago. Gift of
George and Ruth
Barford.
László Moholy-
Nagy, Untitled
(looking down from
the Radio Tower,
Berlin), c. 1928.
Gelatin-silver print,
14-1⁄4 × 10”. The Art
Institute of Chicago,
Julien Levy
ollection.

10. Josef Albers
• extensive theoretical work focused on:
• color rather than form,
• Color as the primary medium of pictorial language,
• influencing the development of modern art in the United States
during the 1950s and 1960s.
In this artwork, titled City, a 1928 Bauhaus glass "wall painting", Albers
used color and placement to suggest three-dimensionality and
movement.
Albers influenced movements such as Geometric Abstraction, Color
field painting, and Op Art.
Josef Albers, City, 1928. Sand-
blasted colored glass, 11 × 21-
5⁄8”. Kunsthaus, Zurich

11. Klee
Paul Klee,
• Swiss-born painter, printmaker
and draughtsman of German
nationality,
• as originally associated with
the German Expressionist
group Der Blaue Reiter,
• Inspiraed the New York School,
as well as many other artists of
the 20th century.
• explored a new expressive, and
poetic language of symbols and
signs. Arrows, letters, musical
notes, appear in his work.
Paul Klee, Um den Fisch (Around the
Fish), 1926.
Oil and tempera on primed muslin on
cardboard; original frame, 18-3⁄8 × 25-
1⁄8” . The Museum of Modern Art,
New York. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Fund.

12. Klee always experimented with
painting techniques .
He often broke the “rules” of painting
in oils on canvas.
During the period he taught at the
Bauhaus, Klee also applied paint by
spraying and stamping.
Klee also painted on a variety of
everyday materials, such as
• burlap,
• cardboard panel,
• muslin.
Paul Klee, In der Strömung
sechs Schwellen (In the
Current Six Weirs), 1929. Oil
and tempera on canvas;
original frame, 16-3⁄5 × 16-3⁄5”
Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, New York

13. Klee admired the art of children, for their way
of representing the world in different ways.
In his own work he focused on achieving a
similar simplicity.
Paul Klee, Ad Parnassum,
1932. Oil and casein paint
on canvas; original frame,
39-3⁄8 × 49-5⁄8”
.Kunstmuseum Bern,
Dauerleihgabe des Vereins
der Freunde des
Kunstmuseums Bern
(Society of Friends of
Kunstmuseum Bern).
Paul Klee, Tod und
Feuer (Death and Fire),
1940. Oil and colored
paste on burlap;
original frame, 18-2⁄5 ×
17-1⁄2”
Zentrum Paul Klee,
Bern.

14. Paul Klee and Wassily
Kandinsky developed a
relationship shaped by mutual
inspiration and support
during their time at the
Bauhaus.
In his art, Kandinsky strove to
use abstraction to give
painting the freedom from
nature that he admired in
music.
His discovery of a new
subject matter based solely
on the artist’s “inner
necessity” occupied him
throughout his life.
Vasily Kandinsky, Composition VIII, 1923.
Oil on canvas, 55-1⁄8 × 79-1⁄8”. Solomon
R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Kandinsky

15. Vasily Kandinsky, Several Circles,
No. 323, 1926. Oil on canvas, 55-
1⁄8 × 55-1⁄8” Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Kandinsky’s Several Circles, No. 323,
• is part of his experimentation with
linearity in painting
• shows Kandinsky interest in the
"The circle," which he claimed, "is
the synthesis of the greatest
oppositions.
• The different dimensions and bright
hues of each circle are balanced
through careful juxtapositions of
proportion and color.
• the dynamic movement of the round
shapes evokes the cosmos

16. Schlemmer
Oskar Schlemmer, a painter, was appointed
head of the theater group at the Bauhaus in
1925.
He experimented with design in the eighteen
costumes for the Triadic Ballet’s twelve
choreographies, performed against
backdrops of yellow, white, and black.
Oskar Schlemmer, Study for The Triadic
Ballet, c. 1921–23. Gouache, brush and
ink, incised enamel, and pasted
photographs on paper, 22-5⁄8 × 14-5⁄8”.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Die Werkmeistern:
Craft Masters at Bauhaus

17. Schlemmer’s Abstract figure
represents the human figure
reduced to the essence of
• form,
• posture
• and movements.
The sculpture comprises a totality
of geometric and organic basic
shapes, such as spheres and
cylinders and combinations
thereof.
It seems he was inspired by the
dancers and their ‘movements in
space’ for which he designed
abstract costumes and masks.
Oskar Schlemmer, Abstract
Figure, 1923. Bronze (cast 1962
from original plaster), 42-1⁄8 ×
26-3⁄8”. Museum Moderner
Kunst, Vienna.

18. Stölzl
In 1925 Gunta Stölzl started to direct
the weaving workshop at Bauhaus.
She wrote about the Bauhaus
Weaving Workshop after moving to
Dessau, in an article published in the
journal bauhaus, July 1931:
"The transfer to Dessau brought the
weaving workshop new and healthier
conditions. We were able to acquire
the most varied loom systems (shaft
machine, Jacquard loom, carpet-
knotting frame) and in addition, our
own dyeing facilities.”
Gunta Stölzl, Tapestry, 1922–23.
Cotton, wool, and linen, 8’ 4-
13⁄16” × 6’ 2”. Busch-Reisinger
Museum, Harvard University Art
Museums, Cambridge, MA.
Association Fund. BR49.669.

19. Breuer, and Bayer
Brewer created many
classics.
He designed the Wassily
chair, at the age of the 23
during his apprenticeship
at the Bauhaus in Weimar,
Germany.
Inspired by Constructivist
principles, the Wassily
chair employs the
functionality and simplicity
taught at the school.
Marcel Breuer, Armchair, Model B3,
Dessau, Germany. Late 1927 or early
1928. Chrome-plated tubular steel with
canvas slings, 28-1⁄8 × 30-1⁄4 × 27-3⁄4”
The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

20. Herbert Bayer advocated the
integration of all arts throughout his
career. He began his studies as an
architect in 1919 in Darmstadt.
Between 1921 to 1923 he attended the
Bauhaus in Weimar. He studied mural
painting with Vasily Kandinsk.
Between 1925 to 1928 he worked as a
teacher of advertising, design, and
typography at the Bauhaus
There he integrated photographs into
graphic compositions.
Herbert Bayer, Bauhaus
Dessau, 1926. Letterpress, 8-
1⁄2 × 5-7⁄8” .The Museum of
Modern Art, New York

21. Paul Citroën created this collage by
cutting images of buildings from
magazines/postcards etc.
The collage became very successful
because it offered a view into the
future, envisioned as dynamic and
chaotic.
Paul Citroën, Metropolis, 1923.
Collage, printed matter, and postcards,
30 × 23”. Printroom of the University of
Leiden, the Netherlands. [Fig. 13-20]
“The Core from Where Everything Emanates”:
Constructivism and the Bauhaus

22. Gabo
• Was born in Briansk in Russia. His name was
Naum Pevsner. His older borhter was Anton
(Antoine) Pevsner.
• Joined his brother in Paris. After the Break of
the WWI he moved around Europe.
• In 1946 Gabo moved to to the United States.
• He became a US citizen in 1952.
• Between 1953-54 he was a professor at the
Graduate School of Architecture at Harvard
University
Naum Gabo, Construction for the
Bijenkorf department store, 1956–57.
Pre-stressed concrete, steel ribs,
stainless steel, bronze wire, and marble,
height 85’.

23. Pevsner
Antoine Pevsner was born on Jan.
18, 1886, in Orel, Russia.
Pevsner studied at the Academy of
Fine Arts in Kiev (1908-1910) and in
St. Petersburg (1911).
Pevsner went to Paris in In 1912
Pevsner . There he was influenced
by the art of Pablo Picasso, Georges
Braque, and Alexander Archipenko.
Pevsner became a French citizen in
1930.
Anton Pevsner, Monde (World),
1947. Bronze, 29-1⁄2 × 23-2⁄3 × 22-
3⁄4”. Musée National d’Art
Moderne, Centre d’Art et de Culture
Georges Pompidou, Paris.

24. Baumeister
Willi Baumeister (1889-1955) was born in
Stuttgart, Germany.
His mother, the talented daughter of a
decorative painter. introduced Baumeister
to painting early on.
He was admitted to the Königliche
Akademie (Royal Academy Stuttgart).
There he met Oskar Schlemmer. They
developed a lifelong friendship.
Willi Baumeister, Wall Picture with
Circle II, 1923. Oil and wood on
wood panel, 46-1⁄2 × 27-1⁄8”.
Kunsthalle, Hamburg.

25. Mies van der Rohe
Was born March 27, 1886, Aachen,
Germany.
Mies, Le Corbusier and Walter
Gropius pioneered the conception of
the International Style
Mies called buildings he designed
in steel-and-glass, skyscrapers.
Mies is father had a stonecutting
shop, This contributed to Mies’
attention to the qualities of different
materials in his designs.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Model
for a glass skyscraper, 1922.
From Bauhaus Dessau
to Bauhaus U.S.A.

26. • The concept for this house was to reorganize and simplify the
composition.
• Vertical and horizontal brick planes were carefully to blur the
distinctions between outside or inside spaces.
• Three elongated walls leading resemble De Stijl cubist and abstract
paintings.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Elevation
for brick country house, 1923.

27. • In 1928, Mies van der Rohe began to design the pavilion that
represented Germany at the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition,
• The pavilion was disassembled after the fair. The building is known
through photographs, architectural plans and building documents.
• The pavilion was built from glass, steel and different kinds of marble.
Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe, German
Pavilion, International
Exposition, 1929.
Barcelona, Spain.
Reconstructed 1986.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,
German Pavilion, International
Exposition, Barcelona, Spain.
Floor plan, 1929 [

28. • Barcelona Pavilion was
furnished with chairs and tables
designed by Ludwig Mies van
der Rohe.
• The furniture complemented the
proportions and materials
characteristic of Mies van der
Rohe's architecture.
• The shape of the chair desigend
for the pavilion are known as
the Barcelona Chair.
• The chair is the essence of a
long history of the chair.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,
German Pavilion, 1929. Interior
view

29. Bauhaus U.S.A
• Mies van der Rohe emigrated to
the United Statesin the 1930.s.
• Gropius’ work contributed to his
expulsion by the Nazis in 1934.
• In 1937 Gropius accepted a
position at Harvard and moved to
the United States.
• Albers emigrated to the United
States.
• The WWII émigrés contributed
significantly to major
developments in the arts and
architecture in United States.
• They contributed to America’s
gaining leadership in the art.
Josef Albers, Homage to the
Square: Apparition, 1959.
Oil on board, 47-1⁄2 × 47-1⁄2” .
Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, New