Bauhaus

31 January 2022 / ERIKAFUKASAWA

Style and Period:

Bauhaus is considered the first design school in the world. It was founded by the German architect and director of the “School of Applied Arts”, Walter Gropius in 1919. The architect joined two existing schools: the Fine Arts and the Arts of the Craft, and created the Bauhaus with the aim of having a democratic school and with the principle of building fully functional pieces. (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Figure 1 – Bauhaus School Dessau

Formed by an eclectic group of industrial artists, engineers, architects, painters, artisans and designers, the Bauhaus was a centre for the presentation of new modern artistic trends. The Bauhaus was really innovative and very much in line with the historical context, bringing a totally new teaching proposal.
The architecture was extensively worked on at the Bauhaus School. The architectural projects produced have a design in which they manage some elements, such as:

  • straight, simple lines and geometric shapes;
  • facades with many windows;
  • enhancement of ventilated areas;
  • use of “pilots”, or pillars, that support the constructions;
  • predominance of white color that highlights the structures;
    (Kelly Richman-Abdou, 2021)

Characteristics:

  • Union of art and craft;
  • Use of innovative materials (wood, steel, glass);
  • Functionality of artistic products;
  • Architecture and urbanism;
  • Influence of constructivism.

Colours, Themes and Typify:

  • Figure 2 – Yellow-Red-Blue, 1925 by Wassily Kandinsky
  • Figure 3 –
  • Figure 4 – Bauhaus Dessau project
  • Figure 5 – Josef Albers (1888-1976) – Homage to the Square: Soft Spoken (1969), Metropolitan Museum of Art

Josef Albers took a unique approach, especially to the relationships between different colours. For example, depending on the other colours surrounding them, two identical squares could look darker or lighter. Albers focused especially on feeling the relationships between colours as opposed to just seeing them. Geometric shapes and eye-catching patterns, all of which had a carefully-selected balance of colours, were a staple of Bauhaus art.
Despite the rich colour theory taught by Itten, Kandinsky, Klee, and Albers, many Bauhaus artists took a minimalist approach to design, which we can still see today. (Jacob Olesen, 2013)

The main practitioners:

  • Walter Gropius was an architect and educator who, particularly as director of the Bauhaus.
  • Ludwig Mies van der Rohe converted to the simplicity of the Bauhaus and composed the phrase “less is more”. He developed an architectural concept of pure lines.
  • Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian painter and artist as well as a teacher at the Bauhaus school.
  • Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian plastic artist, professor at the Bauhaus and considered a pioneer in the abstractionist movement.
  • Paul Klee was a painter and poet. His highly individual style was influenced by art movements that included expressionism, cubism and surrealism.
  • Herbert Bayer came up with a kind of universal alphabet, with only lowercase letters and reduced to the simplest possible graphic forms.
  • Marcel Breuer was a Hungrarian designer and architect, but he really stood out for the production of furniture.
  • Oskar Schlemmer was a German painter as well known as designer and choreographer.
  • Johannes Itten was a Swiss painter and writer associated with the Bauhaus school. He developed the colour pallete, which even today makes it possible to discover harmonious combinations between colours.

Contemporary Design or Designers:

Artur de Menezes Fernandes created “Oil Chair”, inspired by the modernist movement, but with a re-reading from his own point of view, using glass and holographic aspect finishing. ” I would say that the Bauhaus has an indirect effect on my work in terms of visual appeal.” (Kathryn O’Regan, 2019)

Reference list:

Pictography:

Published by erikafukasawa

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