Art Movement: Bauhaus –Towards the Unity of All the Arts

Droste, Magdalena. Bauhaus, 1919–1933. Berlin: Taschen, 2002. Naylor, Gillian. The Bauhaus Reassessed. New York: Dutton, 1985. Wilk, Christopher, ed. Modernism: Designing a New World, 1914–1939. Exhibition catalogue. London: V&A Publications, 2006.

The Bauhaus, 1919–1933

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. The Bauhaus combined elements of both fine arts and design education. The curriculum commenced with a preliminary course that immersed the students, who came from a diverse range of social and educational backgrounds, in the study of materials, color theory, and formal relationships in preparation for more specialized studies. This preliminary course was often taught by visual artists, including Paul Klee (1987.455.16), Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944), and Josef Albers (59.160), among others. Following their immersion in Bauhaus theory, students entered specialized workshops, which included metalworking, cabinetmaking, weaving, pottery, typography, and wall painting. Although Gropius’ initial aim was a unification of the arts through craft, aspects of this approach proved financially impractical. While maintaining the emphasis on craft, he repositioned the goals of the Bauhaus in 1923, stressing the importance of designing for mass production. It was at this time that the school adopted the slogan “Art into Industry.” In 1925, the Bauhaus moved from Weimar to Dessau, where Gropius designed a new building to house the school. This building contained many features that later became hallmarks of modernist architecture, including steel-frame construction, a glass curtain wall, and an asymmetrical, pinwheel plan, throughout which Gropius distributed studio, classroom, and administrative space for maximum efficiency and spatial logic. The cabinetmaking workshop was one of the most popular at the Bauhaus. Under the direction of Marcel Breuer (1983.366) from 1924 to 1928, this studio reconceived the very essence of furniture, often seeking to dematerialize conventional forms such as chairs to their minimal existence. Breuer theorized that eventually chairs would become obsolete, replaced by supportive columns or air. Inspired by the extruded steel tubes of his bicycle, he experimented with metal furniture, ultimately creating lightweight, mass-producible metal chairs. Some of these chairs were deployed in the theater of the Dessau building. The textile workshop, especially under the direction of designer and weaver Gunta Stölzl (1897–1983), created abstract textiles suitable for use in Bauhaus environments. Students studied color theory and design as well as the technical aspects of weaving. Stölzl encouraged experimentation with unorthodox materials, including cellophane, fiberglass, and metal. Fabrics from the weaving workshop were commercially successful, providing vital and much needed funds to the Bauhaus. The studio’s textiles, along with architectural wall painting, adorned the interiors of Bauhaus buildings, providing polychromatic yet abstract visual interest to these somewhat severe spaces. While the weaving studio was primarily comprised of women, this was in part due to the fact that they were discouraged from participating in other areas. The workshop trained a number of prominent textile artists, including Anni Albers (1899–1994), who continued to create and write about modernist textiles throughout her life. Metalworking was another popular workshop at the Bauhaus and, along with the cabinetmaking studio, was the most successful in developing design prototypes for mass production. In this studio, designers such as Marianne Brandt (2000.63a–c), Wilhelm Wagenfeld (1986.412.1–16), and Christian Dell (1893–1974) created beautiful, modern items such as lighting fixtures and tableware. Occasionally, these objects were used in the Bauhaus campus itself; light fixtures designed in the metalwork shop illuminated the Bauhaus building and some faculty housing. Brandt was the first woman to attend the metalworking studio, and replaced László Moholy-Nagy (1987.1100.158) as studio director in 1928. Many of her designs became iconic expressions of the Bauhaus aesthetic. Her sculptural and geometric silver and ebony teapot (2000.63a–c), while never mass-produced, reflects both the influence of her mentor, Moholy-Nagy, and the Bauhaus emphasis on industrial forms. It was designed with careful attention to functionality and ease of use, from the nondrip spout to the heat-resistant ebony handle. The typography workshop, while not initially a priority of the Bauhaus, became increasingly important under figures like Moholy-Nagy and the graphic designer Herbert Bayer (2001.392). At the Bauhaus, typography was conceived as both an empirical means of communication and an artistic expression, with visual clarity stressed above all. Concurrently, typography became increasingly connected to corporate identity and advertising. The promotional materials prepared for the Bauhaus at the workshop, with their use of sans serif typefaces and the incorporation of photography as a key graphic element, served as visual symbols of the avant-garde institution. Gropius stepped down as director of the Bauhaus in 1928, succeeded by the architect Hannes Meyer (1889–1954). Meyer maintained the emphasis on mass-producible design and eliminated parts of the curriculum he felt were overly formalist in nature. Additionally, he stressed the social function of architecture and design, favoring concern for the public good rather than private luxury. Advertising and photography continued to gain prominence under his leadership. Under pressure from an increasingly right-wing municipal government, Meyer resigned as director of the Bauhaus in 1930. He was replaced by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1980.351). Mies once again reconfigured the curriculum, with an increased emphasis on architecture. Lilly Reich (1885–1947), who collaborated with Mies on a number of his private commissions, assumed control of the new interior design department. Other departments included weaving, photography, the fine arts, and building. The increasingly unstable political situation in Germany, combined with the perilous financial condition of the Bauhaus, caused Mies to relocate the school to Berlin in 1930, where it operated on a reduced scale. He ultimately shuttered the Bauhaus in 1933. During the turbulent and often dangerous years of World War II, many of the key figures of the Bauhaus emigrated to the United States, where their work and their teaching philosophies influenced generations of young architects and designers. Breuer and Gropius taught at Harvard. Josef and Anni Albers taught at Black Mountain College, and later Josef taught at Yale. Moholy-Nagy established the New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937. Mies van der Rohe designed the campus and taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Citation

Griffith Winton, Alexandra. “The Bauhaus, 1919–1933.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bauh/hd_bauh.htm (August 2007; last revised October 2016)

Further Reading

Droste, Magdalena. Bauhaus, 1919–1933. Berlin: Taschen, 2002. Naylor, Gillian. The Bauhaus Reassessed. New York: Dutton, 1985. Wilk, Christopher, ed. Modernism: Designing a New World, 1914–1939. Exhibition catalogue. London: V&A Publications, 2006.

Additional Essays by Alexandra Griffith Winton

• Winton, Alexandra Griffith. “Charles Eames (1907–1978) and Ray Eames (1913–1988).” (August 2007)
• Winton, Alexandra Griffith. “Design, 1925–50.” (October 2004)

Related Essays

• Design, 1900–1925
• Design, 1925–50
• Paul Klee (1879–1940)
• Photography at the Bauhaus
• Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) and American Photography
• The Arts and Crafts Movement in America
• Design, 1950–75
• Design, 1975–2000
• Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959)
• French Art Deco
• Geometric Abstraction
• Georges Seurat (1859–1891) and Neo-Impressionism
• New Vision Photography
• Photojournalism and the Picture Press in Germany
• Shaker Furniture

Chronology

Keywords

Artist or Maker

• Albers, Josef
• Bayer, Herbert
• Brandt, Marianne
• Breuer, Marcel
• Gropius, Walter
• Kandinsky, Vasily
• Klee, Paul
• Moholy-Nagy, László
• Van Der Rohe, Ludwig Mies
• Wagenfeld, Wilhelm

Art Movement: Bauhaus –
Towards the Unity of All the Arts

“Architects, sculptors, painters—we all must return to craftsmanship! For there is no such thing as ‘art by profession.’ There is no essential difference between the artist and the artisan. The artist is an exalted artisan.”

Walter Gropius

Bauhaus definition: what is the Bauhaus movement?

Founded in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius in Weimar, the Staatliches Bauhaus, more commonly known as the Bauhaus, was a German art school that helped birth an art movement and the careers of innumerable artists and architects. Named after the German word meaning literally ‘house of building, Bauhaus’ focus was on the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (the ‘total work of art’), aiming to combine all arts in one place and under a united ideology, from fine art to industrial design, from graphic design to typography, interior design, and architecture.

Key dates: 1919-1933
Key regions: Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin, Germany
Key artists: Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and László Moholy-Nagy

Origins of the Bauhaus movement

Following the delays caused by World War I and a long-standing debate over the reconciliation of the fine arts and the applied arts, German architect Walter Gropius was made director of a new institution, the soon-to-be Bauhaus, integrating the Grand-Ducal Saxon Academy of Fine Art and the Grand Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts. Gropius’ fellow faculty members were Swiss painter Johannes Itten, German-American painter Lyonel Feininger, and German sculptor Gerhard Marcks, but soon their ranks would comprise German painter, sculptor, and designer Oskar Schlemmer who headed the theatre workshop, and Swiss painter Paul Klee, joined in 1922 by Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky and in 1923 by Russian Constructivist artist and architect El Lissitzky. Founded in Weimar, in 1925 the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925 where it experienced its most fruitful period of activity, ultimately moving to Berlin in 1932 under the direction of the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,

Key ideas behind the Bauhaus movement

Aiming to use many art forms for a single work, to create a piece that is a synthesis of art, at Bauhaus all pupils were working in tandem with their peers: fabric artists, painters, sculptors, furniture designers, architects, and many more. Moreover, Bauhaus teachers and students were united in a design approach of marrying mass production with individual vision, designing and crafting pieces to combine aesthetics and beauty with function and utility. The result of such an ideology was numerous buildings, paintings, drawings, textiles, and designs that helped to define our cultural lexicon and spread modern design around the world.

“God is in the details.”

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Famous Bauhaus Artists

Though countless volumes could be written about the famous artists that came out of, or contributed to the Bauhaus movement, here is just a small sampling of the talent nurtured at the unique institution. In addition to the artists below, the school nurtured the careers of Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, Franz Ehrlich, Lilly Reich, Marcel Breuer, Adolf Meyer, and countless others.

Walter Gropius

Founder of the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius was a German architect and a master of modernist architecture. Devoting his energy to finding and nurturing an exceptional staff, he brought the artistic minds of Paul Klee, Johannes Itten, Anni and Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, László Moholy-Nagy, Otto Bartning and Wassily Kandinsky together as faculty of the Bauhaus. Additionally, he oversaw the school’s shift from Weimar to Dessau and designed the infamous Dessau building himself, which would be the home of the school and the site of designer and architect pilgrimages to this day. Gropius left the Bauhaus in 1928 and went on to become the leading architect of the International Style, crafting iconic buildings such as the Harvard Graduate Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the John F. Kennedy Federal Office Building in Boston, Massachusetts and the Pan Am Building (now the Metlife Building) in New York City, among countless others.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

The last director of the Bauhaus, Mies van der Rohe emigrated to the United States after the school’s dissolvement and became the head of the architecture school at Armour Institute of Technology (later the Illinois Institute of Technology) in Chicago. Mies created a new modernist style, in which plate glass and industrial steel (new materials at the time) defined a minimal sensibility that expressed the spirit of the modern era. He is the architect behind the Barcelona Pavilion, Chicago Federal Complex, Farnsworth House, Seagram Building, and numerous others.

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky taught at the Bauhaus in the later years of his life and career, after already establishing himself as a foremost abstract painter and art theorist. At the Bauhaus Kandinsky taught the basic design class for beginners, and a course on advanced theory, where he developed a new colour theory based on elements of form psychology. Kandinsky is known today as the pioneer of abstract art, and his work can be found in museums and galleries the world over.

Paul Klee

One of the fathers of abstraction, Paul Klee developed a visionary idiosyncratic style influenced by music and the early avant-garde movements in constant experimentation with different techniques and materials, but also stood out as one of the most influential colour theorist and writers. He taught at the Bauhaus from January 1921 to April 1931 as a “Form” master in the bookbinding, stained glass, and mural painting workshops, but also taught various other subjects. Many of his lectures have been published.

Anni Albers

Anni Albers, German-born textile artist and printmaker, began as a student at the Bauhaus when her husband, Josef Albers took on a ‘Junior Master’ role at the school. She experimented widely with form, material, colour, and texture and developed numerous functional and unique textiles that served as stunning aesthetic pieces as well as absorbing sound and light. She later went on to become the head of the weaving workshop at the Bauhaus, becoming one of the only women in a senior role at the school. After the end of the Bauhaus, the Albers’ moved to the USA and took on teaching positions at the Black Mountain College. Anni Albers has published several books, and her work lives on in museums, galleries, and personal collections around the world.

The legacy of the Bauhaus movement

In 1933, with the rise of Nazism, the Bauhaus was forced to close first its Dessau location, and after a ten-month stint in a former factory in Berlin the Gestapo halted all Bauhaus activities. Upon closure, many of the Bauhaus’ disciples had to seek protection from the Nazi threat in other countries and fled persecution to Britain and the United States. Several artists, such as Anni and Josef Albers, ended up joining the faculty of Black Mountain College, an experimental arts-based school in North Carolina. The dissipation of students and faculty spread the Bauhaus influence and ideology around the world.

The Bauhaus’ talent, tradition, aesthetics, and ideology birthed an artistic and design movement that led the school to become nearly synonymous with German modernism. The school had a profound impact on the future of modern design, architecture, art, and education, providing inspiration for over a decade of aspiring designers.