Bauhaus-The Inspired Influences- Princess Hickmond

Princess Hickmond

Professor Doris Cacilo

Development of Modern Art

Fall 2012

December 5, 2012

Bauhaus:

 The Inspired Influences 

         There have been many schools of art during the nineteenth century. One of the most prominent art schools is Bauhaus in Germany. Bauhaus was created after Walter Gropius merged the Weimer Art Academy and Weimar Arts & Crafts Academy. The first school was stationed in Weimar and later relocated to Dessau. Bauhaus successfully amalgamated their artists and designers from a wide range of disciplines, which included but are not limited to, architecture, graphic design, and even theatre. The school was only open from 1919 to 1933; this was a result of the strenuous scrutiny of the Nazi. The works created at both Weimar and Dessau was avant-garde, and most importantly, conflicted with the nationalist and nationalist socialism propaganda created for the Nazis. Nonetheless, they are renowned due to their functional yet transcendent concepts, their distinct combination of philosophies of earlier art movements, and creating a nearly universal language through abstraction, reduction, and simplification.  The students and teachers of Bauhaus employ the emphasis on craftsmanship conceptualized by the Arts & Crafts movement and merge it with the treatment of machines, mass-production, and economical materials utilized at the time, to construct high quality, well designed products. Their works show how European modernists not only moved from a spiritual to a mechanical approach, but also how they reevaluated how we perceived decoration. This analysis of ornamentation allowed them to use those elements to make a practical, yet aesthetically pleasing, comprehensive visual vocabulary. The Bauhaus still influences contemporary design and still translates as modern design now.

         Bauhaus consisted of some of Europe’s best architects, artists, and designer of the early nineteenth century. Their faculty list included Van de Velde, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee, and Walter Gropius worked as the director of the school. They also hired former students like Herbert Bayer, Marcel Bruer, and Joseph Abers, as faculty at the school. Their curriculum was a headmaster and student format that unified applied and fine arts and inspired by topics such as science, social awareness, and even literature. They were also influenced by the spatial organization of cubism, the kinetic movement of Futurism, Expressionism, and the reductive simplification of Dutch De Stijl and Constructivism. Through these artistic movements, they reiterate the boundaries of economical products like steel and also progress the straightforward visual language initiated by earlier movement. Their architecture, designs, and other works were characterized by the usage of strong rectangular forms, asymmetrical balance, san serif typography, the use of basic geometric shapes and typographic armatures, as well as, condensing their color palettes to only primary colors. Though they produced these artistic developments, they faced many feats due to the social circumstances during the early nineteenth century in Germany.

           As Bauhaus thrived, they also suffered the affects of Post World War II and the Nazis.  During the same time, Nazis and artists commissioned by them were creating propaganda art for nationalist socialism. The posters for the Nazis had a tendency of being illustrative, like the posters created by Pictorial Modernists, and used the idea of nationalism to gain support. As previously stated, the students and teachers at Bauhaus were making works that broke from these conventions. As a result, the school in Weimar was forced to create an exhibition showcasing their curriculum. Though it helped the school gain support, they ultimately had to close. This led to the opening of the school in small, industrial town called Dessau. Once again, the Nazis interfered and led to the closing of the school in Dessau. After the school closed in Dessau, some of the students and teachers went poor, killed, or even exiled. However, many of them migrated to other countries, particularly America and Switzerland. In these countries, they continued teaching at other schools and making crafts and architecture.

There were artists, like Jan Tshichold and Theo van Doesburg, who weren’t apart of the Bauhaus but were still inspired by it. For example, Jan Tshichold occasionally orated at the Bauhaus, but never worked there. Instead, he utilized their concept and applied it to create the New Typography. His book, Elementare Typographie, showcases how heavily influenced he was by the Bauhaus. He employed the rectangular forms as typographic armatures to navigate around the page, the san serif typography, the reductive color palette, and the grid based structure on the pages of his book; these were all formal and conceptual qualities explored by the Bauhaus. Theo van Doesburg also was inspired by the Bauhaus. He wanted to become a part of the faculty but was deemed to be too dogmatic by Walter Gropius. However, he still managed to correlate with his contemporaries and their students. The modern, precise formal and conceptual qualities of their work still heavily influence modern-day artists and designers.

The principles practiced by the Bauhaus have now become standard principles of Modern design, especially graphic design, architecture, academic curricular and art. Now, when creating digital and print materials, graphic designers must consider whether or not the forms of their designs serve the purpose of conveying a lucid, concise visual message. Designers must also be concerned with creating clear visual hierarchy, as well as, utilizing and considering the current technologies and artistic approaches. The expressionism of architecture, as well as the extensive use of glass windows and steel, is still used. Architects also still use foundational beams, other than the Roman column, to support buildings and still create unique shapes and counter areas in corners.  Schools, like Rutgers-Newark, also still expose their students to specific Fine and Applied Arts in hopes to familiarize them with a variety of methods of art and design. Art is also heavily influenced by the Bauhaus. Contemporary artists are more liberated in terms of, artistic conventions, due to the influences of Futurism, Cubism, Dutch De Stijl, and vice versa. These developments allow them to analyze subject manner vastly different than late eighteenth century artists and designers. Artists still consider attributes like spatial organization and precise structure. Their strides are still celebrated and their works are still avant-garde. Despite their short-lived reign and quarrels with the Nazis, The teachers and students of the Bauhaus have heavily influence, not only their contemporaries, but also modern-day designers.

Princess Hickmond

Work Cited:

Dearstyne, Howard. Inside the Bauhaus. Ed. David Spaeth. New York, NY: Rizzoli International Publications, n.d. Print.

Gomez-Palacio, Bryony, and Armin Vit. Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design. Beverly, MA: Rockport, 2009. Print.

Meggs, Phillip B., and Alston W. Purvis. Meggs' History of Graphic Design. 5th ed. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Print.