1Bauhaus Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist

is ‘the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time,’ then possibly nothing is more representative of that than Bauhaus. This year marks the centennial anniversary of the world’s most influential school of art, design and architecture in the 20th century.

ts founder, architect Walter Gropius, intended to create a Gesamtkunstwerk (“total’ work of art”), a place in which all the arts, including architecture, would eventually come together.

The curriculum was structured such that students would be taught everything under one roof in a compulsory, multi-disciplinary foundation course known as the Vorkurs, after which students could move into areas of specialization.

The Bauhaus Vorkurs (Foundation Course) is discussed as a versatile, enduring prototype for combining art, design, and architectural studio education in the American K-12 curriculum.

Kadinsky moved to bauhaus from Moscow, he taught mural painting and analytical drawing. He believed that there was a correspondence between colour and form. He believed squares were intrinsically red, circles are blue and triangles, yellow.

This belief inspired the look of a number of products designed at the Bauhaus. Kadinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist and is credited as one of the pioneers of abstraction in western art. The main idea of the Bauhuas is to reimagine the material world to reflect the unity of all the arts. The Bauhaus was founded by architect Walter Gropius in Weimar. It was grounded in the idea of creating a Gesamtkunstwerk (“comprehensive artwork”) in which all the arts would eventually be brought together.

It quickly became a very influential style.

Walter Gropius (1883-1969) was the Bauhaus director from 1919-1928. He was an architect whom designed Fagus factory aswell as modelled Bauhaus on medieval “Bauhütte” and wrote original Bauhaus Manifesto.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) was the Bauhaus director from 1930-1933. He was an architect - German Barcellona Pavilion. Concerned with beauty, believed that good design came with a price. He also believed that the Bauhaus was a school of architecture.

The building Dessau manifested into a school of thought that became free-spirited. Women at Bauhaus wore cropped hair and were permitted into metal workshops. People wrote in low caps. There was a lightness among the teachers and students. All symbolising a departure from traditional views of manner and etiquettes. These factors also ended up turning the Bauhaus into a more creative place.

The focus of the school was to reimagine the material world to reflect the unity of all the arts. Gropius’ initial aim was a unification of the arts through craft. At the time, the school also adopted the slogan “Art into Industry”. The Bauhaus believed in being efficeint therefore everything work made was important and made for the industry.

Some of the key events that happened in this time include: 1919, Bauhaus Weimar opened under Walter Gropius’ leadership. 1922, Oskar Schlemmar creates triadic ballet. 1923, Haus am Horn by Georg Muche created. 1925, Bauhaus moves to Dessau and Marcel Breuer designs The Wassily chair. 1926, Dessau building completed. 1928, Hannes Meyer becomes director as Gropius leaves. 1930, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe becomes director of the school. 1932, Bauhaus moves to Berlin and 1933, Bauhaus school closes due to nazi pressure.