The+Bauhaus

The Bauhaus School

Background

The modern 20th century movement in architectural design, called the Bauhaus, responded to emerging changes in technology and society during the time period. The rapid emergance of advanced machines and large cities caused artists to change their view of the world and change their art to reflect it. Everything from new music, new revolutionary technological advances like the Chunnel between Paris and London. Modernist ideas have influenced every form of artistic expression, from literature and music, to architecture and graphic design, the Bauhaus movement reflected many artists' reactions to the changing world around them.

Beginnings A German architect from Berlin named Walter Gropius started the Bauhaus movement through his foundation of the Bauhaus school of design in 1919. Gropius' Bauhaus School was technically preceded by the controversial school of Henry van de Velde, a Belgian architect of the late 19th century, but most historians are in agreement that Gropius was the founder of the aptly named "Bauhaus movement". Germany became the epicenter of this new style of design, with the Bauhaus school as the focal point of all Bauhaus creative design. The new functionalist ideals of the Bauhaus movement were met with skepticism at first, however, and were not truly embraced by the populous until the work of Hannes Meyer, one of the great Directors of the Bauhaus school.

Ideals Behind the Bauhaus

The Bauhaus movement started as a rebellion against the ideals of Impressionistic art in Europe. Central to all Bauhaus schools of art was the idea of productive workshops being actively incorporated into the artistic school. Workshops for areas of art such as metal working, mural painting, weaving, and even printing were included in the Bauhaus' artistic schools. The art and architecture itself is characterized by the use of practical materials, geometric design, and very economical construction. The term 'Bauhaus' literaly means 'house construction', displaying the extreme stress on functionality by Bauhaus artists. The Bauhaus movement also declared in the Bauhaus manifesto that architecture was the "ultimate aim of all creative activity". All of the central founders of the Bauhuas movement; Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe were all architects, thus the Bauhaus movement is one of the first artistic movements to incorporate architecture as a major theme.

Fagus Works, Designed by Gropius in 1911

Walter Gropius Walter Gropius was the main founder of the bauhaus movement, particularly the movement in architecture. he founded the Bauhaus school in 1919, and continued to profoundly influence the movement throughout his life. His most famous building is the Bauhaus building in Dessau, Germany which he designed in 1919, and took a full 6 years to complete. Other famous works by Gropius include the Gropius House in Lincoln Massachusets, the Fagus Works at Alfred an der Leine, Germany, and the Harvard graduation Center at Cambridge Massachusets. Gropius mainly embraced the ideal of functionalism and popularized it as a relevant artistic mode. Functionalism aimed to eliminate the senseless embellishment of past architecture and aimed to make buildings streamlined and functional, while still keeping them aesthetically pleasing. Gropius applied this functionalistic style to everything he designed, and because of his activism the functionalist style became widely accepted by the Western community.

Hannes Meyer Hannes Meyer was another of the central founders of the Bauhaus movement in Europe during the 20th Century. hannes Meyer was born in 1889 to a family of Swiss architects. Meyer's influence on the Bauhaus movement has long been undermined, largely by his colleague Walter Gropius, who prerceded him as director of the Bauhuas school until 1928, when Meyer took the position. Meyer's main contribution to the movement was the fact that he publicized the new art form and made it largely accepted by the masses, especially by Communist sympathizers.

Johannes Itten Johannes Itten was a famous teacher at the Bauhuas school in Weimar, Germany. His book, The Art of Color, revolutionized 20th century artistic expression, and introduced the familiar confusing and colorful paintings of so-called "modern" art. Johannes' tremendous accomplishments in the artistic sphere embodied the changes in art made by the Bauhaus movement. Itten is known for his exagerated use of color contrats to create dynamic and interesting paintings.



Ludwig Mies van der Rohe The final major contributor to the Bauhuas movement in architecture was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Van der Rohe began his architectural career as a mason in his family's stone working business. He became director of the Bauhaus school in 1930 up until its disbandment in 1933. Van der Rohe took the Bauhaus ideals of minimalism and functionalism to the next level in his ultra-modern skyscrapers, which have been labeled as the first modern skyscrapers. Some of his most famous works are the controversial Farnsworth House near Chicago, the Seagram building in New York, and the Barcelona Pavilion. Va der Rohe brought to surface the idea of using glass and concrete as major elements in the buildng design, andmost modern glass skyscrapers are modeled off of his work.

The Bauhaus School The Buahaus School was founded in 1919 in Weimar, Germany by Walter Gropius. It eventually became the epicenter of the Bauhaus artistic movement, employing such famous teachers as Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Wassily Kandinsky, Josef Albers, Oskar Schlemmer, László Moholy-Nagy and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. It changed locations multiple times, moving from Wiemar to Dessau in 1924, and then moved agian to Berlin in 1932, and then shut down in 1933. Despite its tumultuos past, the Bauhaus school was always the focal point of Bauhuas ideals, and will forever be remembered for that.

Modern Influences The Bauhaus movement has profoundly influenced modern architecture in its embracement of the ideals of functionalism and minimalism, as well as its increased use of formerly unused materials such as glass, concrete, and steel. Many people argue that the Bauhaus movement gave birth to the skyscrapers and functional modern buildings of today, and all of the evidence suggests that this is true. in fact, if it had not been for the Bauhaus movement, we would not live in the modern cities that we know today. The Bauhaus movement could be compared to the Haussmannisation of Paris in the way that it totally revolutionaized architecture and the appearance of European cities. The Bauhaus has forever changed the way that we construct large buildings, and without it the landscapes of our cities would be completely different.

Bauhaus around the World The Bauhaus movement soon took root worldwide, spreading out from Germany and the Netherlands to the rest of Europe, then to the US, and eventually to the rest of the world. The influence of the Bauhaus movement can be seen everywhere from Chicago to Tel Aviv, from Paris to New York City. The Bauhaus' worldwide expansion began with the construction of the Gropius House in Lincoln Massachussets. This was the first building of Gropius' to be built in the United States, and many people view it as the seed that flourished into the worldwide Bauhaus movement. In Tel Aviv, the first building that was truly Bauhaus in design was the Beit Engel, built in 1933 by Zeev Rechter. The construction of these two famous buildings truly reflects the new international influence of the once humble Bauhaus school in Germany.

Gallery

Bauhaus Dessau Video

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Other 20th Century Links

1972 Munich Olympics Massacre History of the West End Lawrence of Arabia

Sources

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