Eldon's Bauhaus and Today's Skyscrapers.

     At the turn of the twentieth century a movement aimed at combining arts and crafts with fine art and architecture was started. This started in Germany in three cities from the end of the First World War until the beginning of the Nazi Regime. This short essay will briefly discuss what Bauhaus was and how it influences architecture today.

     The Bauhaus School was founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 in the German town of Weimar with the intent of combining architecture with fine art. One of the driving forces behind it was the industrial revolution and the assembly line. Gropius wanted to merge fine art with other crafts minus the snobbery often associated with fine art. He wanted to make art that could be easily replicated and mass produced. This school's further intent was to bring together craftsmen and artists and train them in this style. the only  problem facing the school was politics. Because of the shifting political climate it ended up moving to Dessau, Germany.

    In Dessau the Bauhaus started to move architecture away from Neo-classical style and more towards a more modernist abstract style. The school sometimes collaborated with the Russian Vkhutemas school which had similar goals. They learned constructivism from El Lissitzky and were influenced by De Stijl and the work of Le Corbusier. Gropius and Meyer worked on the Project for the Chicago Tribune Tower in 1922
which shows some of the influences of Expressionism in it and looks like some of the modern skyscrapers that litter the New York City skyline.

Gropius an The Project for the Chicago Tribune Tower. 1922.

     If a person were to walk down any street in Manhattan they can see evidence of the Bauhaus influence. Almost every skyscraper looks like like a combination of fine art and architecture. This combination and the use of steel are remnants of the intents of the Bauhaus School. Most of the abstract looking buildings in New York are reminiscent of Gropius' Chicago Tribune Tower project.

Eldon's Picture of a building in Manhattan. 2012.

     To conclude I say that the Bauhaus idea of combining fine art with architecture and arts and crafts was a good one. Fine art should be shared with the world and not just with the elite. Because of the work of the Bauhaus School and other modern artists and architects our cities look the way they do now. The only thing that stopped the Bauhaus was foolish politicians and greedy power hungry asswipes like Hitler. Just like today the only thing stopping artists and the world from moving forward are foolish politicians and greedy power hungry jerkoffs.

Hunter, Sam., Jacobus, John., and Daniel Wheeler. Modern Art. 3rd Ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000. Print.

"Bauhaus." Wikipedia. November 2012. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.