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BAUHAUS & ITS OFFSPRING |
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Craft
skills & an objective definition of form |
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"..the Bauhaus believes the machine to be our modern
medium of design and seeks to come to terms with it."
Walter Gropius
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Bauhaus
metal workshop
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In
1919, the Bauhaus school of design was set up in Weimar, Germany
under the direction of Walter Gropius, whose aim was to unite
art with technology; by educating the new generation of designers
and architects to combine creative design with modern industry.
It later moved to Dessau, then to Berlin where it was closed
by the Nazis in 1933. The name Bauhaus is derived in
German from the words ‘building’ and ‘house’.
Gropius was a member of the German Werkbund
and leader of the ‘New Objectivity’ movement. An architect,
he believed that the ‘ultimate aim of all creative activity
is the building’.
The Werkbund was formed in 1907 by Hermann Muthesius who travelled
to England to study the English Arts and Crafts movement,
particularly its influence on architecture. Impressed by its
simplicity and functionalism, and its emphasis on the handcraft
ethic, Muthesius was determined to encourage these qualities
in German design. On his return from England, he was appointed
to supervise the schools of art and design in Germany.
Seeing
the potential of mass-production, he wanted German designers
to work with the new industries to establish a reputation
for high quality manufactured German goods, and believed that
this lay in fundamental product design rather than decoration.
Mechanised production was incompatible with ornament,
and to facilitate the integration of designers with industry,
he brought artists and manufacturers together in the organisation
he called the Werkbund. Designers needed to produce smooth
forms reduced to their essential function, and to this end,
he advocated the hands-on approach to design teaching. He
encouraged new training workshops which would teach the students
to actually make things as well as design them.
Muthesius was also an advocate for the establishment
of homogeneity and universal standards in building, particularly
the standardisation of building components, and their mass
production.
This coincided with an architectural and art movement at that
time after the Great War called New Objectivity. This
movement rejected, among other things, the exclusivity of
the arts -especially ‘Expressionism’ which stressed personal
self-expression to the exclusion of universality; and called
for the consolidation of all artists, to bring the arts down
to earth and make them more real to ordinary people rather
than just art-lovers. In architecture, this meant simple and
functional buildings replacing the elaborate, heavily decorated
styles of the century just passed.
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Gropius
chair
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The
leader of this new philosophy was Walter Gropius. Another influence
was the architect Le Corbusier, whose attitudes about the superiority
of geometric form ‘pure, tangible, clear-cut’, were published
in 1918, and were summed up in his declaration: ‘a house is
a machine for living in.’ Le Corbusier was referring to the
need to create a house that was convenient and functional..
he was saying that a house should function like a machine.
Gropius took this desire for machine-making, geometry
and modular design, and applied its principles to Bauhaus teaching,
in effect creating a laboratory to develop the existing Werkbund
theories of design. He aimed to teach Bauhaus students the coexistence
of modern style, machine processes, manual work, construction,
and good design to instill a clear aesthetic in a new generation
of design students. He believed in ‘simplicity in multiplicity’,
that is, the design of something simple that could be standardised
and then mass produced.
The Bauhaus became the centre for the new creative
forces in design which accepted the challenges of technical
progress.
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Peter
Behrens
1910 clock
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Peter
Behrens, another member of the Werkbund, became the designer
for AEG, manufacturer of electrical machines in 1906 and created
the AEG buildings and their factory products as an integrated,
all-encompassing style, putting into practice the standardisation
ethic of Muthesius.
Before this, he was appointed by Muthesius to direct
the art and craft school in Dusseldorf, where he rearranged
the teaching to involve craft tuition directly with mechanised
production. During the time when Behrens was designing for AEG,
Le Courbusier, Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe all worked
for his architecture firm in the early stages of their careers,
and two of them became directors of the Bauhaus.
Gropius believed in the idea that there is a fundamental theme
underlying all branches of design, and he wanted the students
to achieve a knowledge of this overriding theme.. a totality
of skills rather than specialised expertise. To this end, he
directed all students to complete a full apprenticeship under
the Weimar trades council.
Lasting from 1919 up to 1933, the Bauhaus began
as a fusion of two schools in Weimar: the Academy of Fine Arts
and the ‘Kunstgewerbe’ or Arts and Crafts school set up by Van
de Velde in 1907. Thus it began its teaching which combined
the aesthetic (though impractical) fine arts with the utilitarian
usefulness of skilled trades. The students learned to create
machine-made models of good functional design.
Gropius at the start was heavily influenced by British
Arts and Crafts beliefs, adopting the Morris view of inspired
craftsmanship, for as he said:
"there is no essential difference between the artist
and the craftsman...let us create a new guild of craftsmen
without...distinctions that raise a...barrier between craftsman
and artist."
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Hoffmann
Silver cup
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Gropius'
words of 1919 don’t mention machinery which was to become central
to the school’s activities, but the Bauhaus didn’t develop its
theme of mechanised production and the problems of designing
for it until 1923. Up until that time, the teaching staff was
dominated by artists. However, an emphasis on craftsmanship
had become an essential part of its teaching methods and this
was one of its main strengths.
Craft teaching replaced academic theory, and the
system that evolved in those early years - ‘learning by doing’
rather than learning by listening, had a world-wide influence.
This new teaching method encompassed two main innovations. For
the first time, handcraft was introduced into a Fine Arts institution
and secondly, the Bauhaus introduced their ‘preliminary’ course
which was general and all-encompassing. Its primary aim was
to remove incoming students’ preconceptions about art and design,
directing them instead to start from scratch.
After this first year, the students then went on
to more specific classes. In an effort to entrench the unacademic
teaching approach, Bauhaus staff were called ‘masters’ and the
students became ‘apprentices’. This preliminary course inspired
the 'foundation course' which is today the basis of design schools
worldwide. The new trends in design favoured modernism, abstract
images and geometric form. This was mainly a joining of Cubist
forms, Futurism and De Stijl.
De Stijl was the first to organise its ideas in a cohesive manner
and its publications gave leadership to scattered groups striving
to achieve modern design ideas. Van Doesburg arrived in Weimar
in 1921, publishing his De Stijl magazine there, and he gave
lectures at the Bauhaus on De Stijl principles.
From him came principles of geometric austerity:
proportion superseding form, mechanical study replacing craftsmanship,
logical construction to replace artistic free lyricism. At the
Bauhaus, its teaching staff still dominated by artists, Van
Doesburg declared he saw ‘pictures, nothing but pictures’ and
a lack of useful production:
"In order to reach the goals aimed for by the Bauhaus
in its manifestos other masters are required..."
While too purist to become a master at the Bauhaus, his criticisms
were accepted by Gropius, who was becoming concerned at the
dominance of handcraft as art rather than as prototype;
and especially the emphasis on Expressionist art which, with
its concern for the expressive impulse of the artist, was moving
the Bauhaus concept away from collective work relevant to ordinary
people and too far towards individual self-indulgence.
In Weimar, the school staff was dominated by artists particularly
Johannes Itten, a mystic who taught the preliminary course,
and they stressed the development of the individual artist.
This preoccupation with spirituality and self-development went
hand in hand with political activism and the desire to create
a new society, in keeping with the emerging Socialist age.
But this preoccupation was increasingly against
the intention of the original Bauhaus idea. Despite this however,
the painters gave valuable instruction at the Bauhaus on drawing
and the use of colour -theories that were put into practice
and widely disseminated among artists evrywhere. Gropius said:
"Forms and colours gain meaning only in so far
as they are related to our inner selves...red, for instance,
evokes in us other emotions than does blue or yellow, round
forms speak differently to us than do pointed or jagged ones.
The elements which constitute the grammar of creation are
its rules of rhythm, of proportion, of light values, of full
or empty space."
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Paul
Klee
Senecio
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The
painter Paul Klee taught the basic design course, emphasising
the need to work from nature -not the superficial imitation
of nature but in analysing the growth processes by which natural
things grow, what he called rendering the invisible visible.
He spoke of design as a feeling, rather than a merely visible
thing:
"Follow the ways of natural creation, the becoming,
the functioning of forms."
"When I say, form a figure of "Rest", it is
probably very tempting to draw a man asleep in bed. But it
should be formed as a picture in layers. Something like a
vault burial: layer upon layer..."
Wassily Kandinsky, a former law lecturer in Russia and the most
celebrated abstract artist of the time, gave instruction in
colour theory. He conveyed to his students the possibilities
of combining the expressive nature of colour with intellectual
control. He stressed that colour must be examined from the points
of view of physics, chemistry, physiology and psychology. These
influences meant that Bauhaus teaching showed a fascination
for the possibilities in geometry, primary shapes (triangle,
circle, square), and primary colours.
Meanwhile
Johannes Itten was in charge of the joinery and metal workshops
as well as the first year students, and was becoming more esoteric
in his teaching. He stressed the idea of a vocation to the material
or technique, rather than to the products’ function in society.
Also he concentrated on the inner self -the cultivation of intuitive
sensibility, rather than the external acquirement of learned
knowledge.
Increasingly ascetic, he was directing students
towards a communion with the transcendental - breathing exercises,
vegetarian diets, shaved heads and monastic dress. Finally Gropius
had to fire him. He replaced him with a Hungarian photographer
and artist, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, an admirer of De Stijl and Russian
Constructivism.
Moholy regarded anyone who knew nothing about photography a
visual illiterate, and was of the opinion that any artists who
restricted themselves to a single medium should not be taken
seriously. A rationalist, he rejected subjective approaches
to art, preferring the world of the engineer. However, he did
believe in the importance of combining artistic creativity with
technology.
He was an admirer of the Russian Constructivists
particularly Vladimir Tatlin who, inspired by Picasso’s Cubist
paintings, sculptures and particularly his collages, created
‘constructions’ out of junk -string, cardboard and rubbish.
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Vladimir
Tatlin
Monument to the 3rd International
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Tatlin
saw art as the product of a decadent society and he stated his
theme as ‘art into life’. In Russia, after the revolution Tatlin
became a designer of useful objects such as stoves that consumed
minimal fuel while giving maximum heat, and workers clothes.
He also designed a monument to the spirit of the
revolution, to be twice the size of the Empire State Building.
Within it were to be three large buildings which revolved like
a clock, like a model of the world.. once a month, once a year,
once a day respectively. But it was never built.
Constructivist ideas spread, particularly their rejection of
notions of naturalism or romanticism. They were creating art
that was not only abstract, it was absolute.
Absolute geometric form. They combined with the ‘New Objectivity’
movement in Germany which replaced expressionism with themes
of practicality, restraint and discipline. These themes became
the new aesthetic which dominated the new design developments
of the times and still resounds.
Moholy avoided mysticism, romanticism and everything irrational,
believing in the potential of abstract art to create new visual
laws of pure and simple logic. His teaching emphasised the objective
study of colour and form, using new techniques and materials.
On replacing Itten as head of the metal workshop and the preliminary
course, he discouraged artistic handcraft and concentrated on
producing prototypes for mass production.
He had difficulty convincing the students to stop
producing finely hand-worked objects in precious metals in favour
of electrical household appliances and light fittings. But as
he said:
"to be a user of machines is to be of the spirit
of this century."
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Marianne
Brandt
desklamp
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Moholy
avoided the use of silver and other expensive metals in favour
of sheet steel. Instead of silver wine jugs and coffee services,
Moholy directed the students to use nickel and chrome plating,
and to produce prototypes for the lighting fixture industry,
and student Wilhelm Wagenfeld designed a tablelamp which used
frosted glass to cast a soft light, and also designed glass
tableware, using the new toughened glass then used in the manufacture
of laboratory equipment. Moholy created a new role for the workshop,
involving at the same time education and industrial production.
He noted that there was a conspicuous lack of simple and functional
objects for daily use, and he set the students to produce models
for mass production, which manufacturers paid royalties to produce.
Marianne Brandt designed a table lamp which is still manufactured
today.
The appointment of Moholy and former students to the teaching
staff, such as Marcel Breuer, returned the Bauhaus to a simpler
and more worldly approach.
This meant emphasising practical design, mixing
craftwork and industy which would combine the learning of trade
expertise with design artistry and provide the best opportunity
for students in practical training for their role as industrial
designers. Instead of precious materials, the students now used
common materials, turning out functional light fittings instead
of decorative candleabra. This reversed the Expressionist artistic
leanings and returned to the original intention of Bauhaus teaching
-the teaching of a craft leading to designing for industry.
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Marcel
Beuer
chair
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Marcel
Breuer was a student when he arrived at the Bauhaus, and the
handcraft approach suited him. From the start he designed products
for sale, earning money and spending much of his time in the
cabinet-making workshop.
Influenced by Rietveld and De Stijl, in his wood
furniture he evoked their ideas of geometry, space and weightlessness,
and standardisation of parts in construction. He became head
of the cabinetmaking workshop, creating furniture designs in
wood and metal, particularly chromed and bent steel tubing.
His metal furniture -particularly cantilevered chairs,
combined simplicity and strength, and were more comfortable
to sit in due to their use of stretched materials, cloth and
leather, than his wooden chairs. He said he used metal to achieve
modern spatial effects, continuing from the inspiration of Rietveld.
Also from Rietveld came the idea of standardised parts and easy
assembly.
For Breuer,
"this metal furniture was intended to be nothing
but a necessary apparatus for contemporary life."
His ‘Wassily chair’ demonstrated Bauhaus principles of design
in that the structure determined the outer shape, while its
open form showed the school’s preoccupation with the manipulation
of space, learned from De Stijl. He regarded his furniture as
having no particular style, instead being a neutral object which
received the owners imprint, rather than making a design ‘statement’.
To him, the modern house was a moving environment -open, spacious;
and furniture had to be light, movable, and to not hinder the
movement of the eye or body through the room when not in use.
The Bauhaus method was to start the student with the simplest
tools and least complicated jobs, leading the student to master
more difficult problems, work with machines and learn to keep
in touch with the entire process of production from start to
finish.
The metal workshop and furniture workshops benefitted
from the mutual visits of Bauhaus students and factory technicians
to study the problems and solutions of designing for industrial
production. New materials including heat resistant glass were
utilised in domesticware, exploiting its properties of cleanness
and clearness to convey transparency; an ongoing Bauhaus preoccupation
being the concept of space and openness. Gerhard
Marcks, who was head of the pottery workshop designed the ‘Sintrax’
coffee maker which was particularly well designed, its shapes
combining in a pattern of geometric forms. Pottery at the Bauhaus
was geared to mass production, resulting in designs that in
some cases are still manufactured today.
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Gropius
Directors house, Bauhaus
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In
1925 the Bauhaus was forced to leave Weimar due to a withdrawal
of funding largely caused by its radical reputation. Invited
to relocate to Dessau by the more progressive town council there,
Gropius designed the new buildings for the school and staff
accommodation. At Dessau, the new buildings displayed the spirit
of the times -they were new and different. The spirit of the
‘new objectivity’ movement was embodied in their boxy, functional
shapes.
Gropius’ architectural designs expressed his theme of a unity
between work and building. A new aesthetic as he described it:
"clear, organic (form) whose inner logic (is) radiant,
naked, unencumbered by lying facades and trickeries."
This style is everywhere today, but in the 1920s it was new
and different. The idea that a building’s function should be
expressed in its design as simplicity and plainness, produced
something that looked very different.
Plain, asymmetrical and airy, the interiors were
also functional and modern. Heavily decorated interiors with
wallpapers, paintings and exuberant flourishes were out. The
new Bauhaus building was stark, light, plain. New furniture,
chairs especially, were designed not for their looks, but for
people to sit on comfortably. Rooms were neutral, ready to adapt
to the inhabitants rather than the other way round. The innovation
of Gropius’ designs was immediately influential. Visitors, architects,
were struck by such things as:
"glass walls that form a transparent angle, merging
in the air yet separated from it by a precise act of will.
I was involuntarily brought up short. It was not just amazement
at a clever invention, it was pure admiration."
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Naum
Slutzky
teapot
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The
new look of the Bauhaus at Dessau conveyed the break from the
past in Weimar and its concentration on old-fashioned craftwork.
The Bauhaus had evolved. At Dessau, a new kind of industrial
designer was being trained. Gropius resigned in 1928, replaced
by Hannes Meyer who concentrated on architecture, building,
and the production of saleable designs; cheap, mass-produced
and essential. Meyer was determined to turn the Bauhaus away
from art and totally towards style-less functionalism. He emphasised
engineering, industry and the production of cheap, practical
goods that society needed. Unfortunately, Meyer was a marxist,
encouraging communist activism among the students -a political
attitude that was increasingly dangerous in 1930s Germany.
In 1930 the new director was Mies van der Rohe, an established
modern architect, he had learned principles of product design
when he worked for Peter Behrens at the beginning of his career
and by now renowned for the stylish elegance of his work. An
apolitical man, he attempted to remove the political activism
and return the Bauhaus to its original role - a school of instruction
in design.
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Mies
van der Rohe
cantilevered chair
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Already
known as an architect of the steel-and-glass modern style, Mies
designed chairs at the Bauhaus, notably cantilevered, using
steel and leather similar to Breuer.
In 1929 he designed the German pavilion at the Barcelona
world fair. An exercise in pure composition and open, infinite
space, this pavilion brought together influences such as Berlage
in its creation of open space; Wright in its flat slab construction;
and Theo van Doesburg in its scattered planes. Its precision
and elegance epitomised modern architecture.
And inside it, Mies placed some chairs...
Comprising a luxurious leather seat held within two pairs of
intersecting metal straps, these chairs introduced plain metal
to the world of luxury furnishings.
Mies van der Rohe returned the Bauhaus to a concern
for aesthetics, after Meyer’s departure. The school had lost
virtually all of its original staff and with the rise of Nazism,
the school was closed down. Mies tried to revive it in a disused
factory in Berlin, without public funding, but it was closed
finally in 1933. Key Bauhaus staff emigrated to Europe and the
United States.
The Bauhaus style -plain, functional, anonymous,
became enormously influential throughout Europe and in the United
States when Gropius emigrated there in 1937 together with Breuer.
Mies van der Rohe and Moholy-Nagy went also, Moholy setting
up a new Bauhaus in Chicago.
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Leica
camera
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While
the Bauhaus was the most famous workshop of modernist style
and design, other contemporary developments in modern design
then were just as significant -particularly in the field of
cars and cameras.
In
Germany at the same time, photography was being revolutionised
by an engineer, Oskar Barnack, who invented the 35mm camera.
His first camera was made in 1914, and the Leitz company started
manufacturing it after the war in 1924 as the Leica. Barnack
designed it to fit in a pocket, and to use cheap, readily available
movie film. This camera became the prototype for the Japanese
camera industry.
Also in Germany, in 1936 Ferdinand Porsche introduced the Volkswagen
car, which was inspired by the model T Ford, as a robust, relatively
inexpensive peoples' car (volkswagon). An aerodynamic
design, it commenced full production after the war.
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Walter
Teague
radio
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In
Britain, designers were still largely following the Arts and
Crafts aesthetic, although Gordon Russell was designing modernist
style objects -simple, angular furniture for machine manufacture.
And in 1932, British designer George Carwardine designed what
he called the anglepoise lamp, a design which remains essentially
the same today. It was in turn inspired by a French lamp, designed
by Buquet in 1927 which relied on balanced masses for its movement,
unlike the springs of the anglepoise.
Meanwhile,
in the United States and the rest of Europe, Art Deco, with
its smooth, rounded contours was gaining popularity, especially
in the work of three American designers, Walter Dorwin Teague,
Norman Bel Geddes and Raymond Loewy. With his radio of 1934,
Teague followed the aesthetic of geometry derived from Le Corbusier.
He sought perfection in the relationship of forms and symmetry
in its detailing, but the geometric lines and divisions became
something other than a radio.
Some new type of decoration, that rather than just sitting there,
looked like it was moving.. fast..
QMR97
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