Magazine No 3 2019 Elmhurst Art Museum, Illinois, USA
* Fritz Kuhr, 1928; student at the Bauhaus from 1923, member of staff in the wallpainting workshop 1928–29, teacher of drawing 1929–30
THE WHOLE WORLD A BAUHAUS*
I N T R O D U C T I O N
The Whole World a Bauhaus presents eight chapters with varied, exciting and surprising insights into work and life at one of the most important art academies of the twentieth century – the Bauhaus, founded in Weimar in 1919. In 1926 the Bauhaus moved to Dessau, and in 1932, when the Nazis made it impossible to continue there, it moved to Berlin, only to finally close forever in 1933. This exhibition presents photographs, works on paper, models, documents, films, and objects, inviting you to explore the wide range and diversity of Bauhaus theory and practice in contemporary modernist design in architecture, everyday objects, painting and theatre, and including theories and models of teaching. The Bauhaus always endeavored to create suitable and improved environments and to promote new ways of life. In each thematic chapter in this exhibition, you will also find selected biographies of Bauhaus people, based on one work and illustrating differences and common ground in their careers.
Throughout the fourteen years of its existence, the Bauhaus underwent a constant process of redefinition and reinvention. The strategy was enthusiastically discussed and defined – and often disputed – by the three Bauhaus directors, the architects Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and the Bauhaus masters and students. For this exhibition, audio recordings of some of these different positions at the Bauhaus and also of contemporary critical voices from outside have been made, and you can listen to these on headphones.
There was always lively debate and controversy concerning the purpose and significance of the Bauhaus at the Bauhaus itself, and also outside, and this continues to this day. This is illustrated by posters with quotations from various sources, mostly from newspapers from 1945 to today. They show the reception history and the changing interpretations of the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus was always open to the world and interested in all the avant-garde movements of its own time. This exhibition, which will tour to many countries all over the world, is therefore intended to encourage interest in the avant-gardes operating at the exhibition venues and to invite curators, artists and scholars to discuss them. Boris Friedewald
In the 1921 Weimar Bauhaus program Walter Gropius announced the creation of a total work of art: “The Bauhaus strives for a unity of all artistic creation, the reunification of all the art disciplines – sculpture, painting, the crafts and trades – to form a new art of building in which they are all indispensable components. The final, if the distant goal of the Bauhaus is the unified work of art – the grand building – in which there are no borders between monumental and decorative art.” […] “The Bauhaus wishes to train architects, painters and sculptors of all standards according to their abilities to become either hard-working artisans or free artists, and to found a working community of leading and young working artists, a community that knows how to design buildings in their totality – shell construction, fitting out, and ornament and decoration – in a like-minded spirit and unified design.” This “grand building,” based on ideals of Medieval cathedral construction, remained utopian, but in several projects, the Bauhaus did come close to the total work of art. In 1921, students took part in building Walter Gropius‘s and Adolf Meyer’s “Haus Sommerfeld” in Berlin. In 1923 numerous masters and students – from the weaving, carpentry, metal, and ceramics workshops – worked on the “Experimental House at Horn,” designed by painter and Bauhaus master Georg Muche. The Bauhaus building in Dessau, designed by Walter Gropius and opened in 1926, and the master’s houses there were also “total” works, in which masters and students worked together and used products from the Bauhaus workshops. This led to the making of metal and wooden furniture, lamps, and also to the color plans for the interior. The wish to create a total work of art is also seen in the work of the theatre workshop, in the expressionist plays of Lothar Schreyer at the Weimar Bauhaus, in which language, gestures, colors, and sculpture were all radically interlinked. Plans for theatre by László Moholy-Nagy, such as the “Sketch of a Score for a Mechanical Eccentricity: Synthesis of Form, Movement, Sound, Light (Color) and Smell,” also had the character of a total work of art or a “total work,” as Moholy-Nagy put it.
T H E
Aerial view,
Bauhaus bu
ilding Dessa
u, 1926 / 27,
1927
T O T A L W O R K
Walt e with r Gropiu “ C at hed s (autho ral ” c ove r), Lyon el r, A p r il 19 Feining er (il 20 lu
st r a
tion)
, Ma
nifes
to a n
d pr
o gra
m of
the S
t ate
B au
h au
s We
imar
O F A R T
T H E
em, e), House Sommerfeld in Berlin -Dahl Staatliche Bildstelle Berlin (Carl Rogg Meyer (architecture), 1920–21 court yard, Walter Gropius und Adolf
T O T A L
d, Heiland,“ from the pub
lication crossplay, 192
0
W O R K
Lothar Schreyer, „Heilan
O F
He
r be
rt B
ay e
r, E
me
rge
ncy
c ur
ren
cy
of t
he
St a
te o
fT
hu
r in
gia
, 19
23
A R T
view of the
S t aa A lm t lic he B il a Bu s c h d ste l l e er, E B r i c h e r l i n, H S t aa ous Bren e t l del i M ar c he B (fur n at Hor n il dst tha , iture Er p s elle ), 19 children B (c ar 23 ’s be pet) er lin, H dr o o , Lá a m, v s z l ó u s at H i ew M oh o r n, of t h o lyliv in e di N ag g ro ning y (w o m, room all li M ar ght) c and e , 192 l Breu k i tc h 3 er (f en ur ni ture ), G y ula Pa p (lam p)
,
Mar ia
nne
B ran
dt , A
s ht r a
y, 19 2
4, b r
as s
A R T
“Architects, sculptors, painters, we all must return to the crafts!” Walter Gropius demanded in the Bauhaus Manifesto of 1919. Therefore, the first goal was to have every student learn a craft in one of the workshops. Artistic creation was only possible on the basis of a handicraft, and the artist was a more intensive kind of artisan. In early 1922, there was a debate about individual or mass production. Walter Gropius noted: “Master Itten recently demanded that we must decide whether to create individual and unique works in complete contrast to economic realities, or whether we need to get closer to industry.” In this debate, Itten himself came down in favor of the individually made unique work, quite in line with the original Bauhaus idea. Gropius announced a decisive new direction in 1923, with the new slogan “Art and Technology – a New Unity.” This was to be highly significant for the future development of the Bauhaus, and it led to Johannes Itten leaving the Bauhaus. In the catalogue of the large Bauhaus Exhibition of 1923 in Weimar Gropius stated that the Bauhaus was not a school for handicrafts and that its goal was to contact with industry. The workshops would now focus on standardized procedures, making prototypes and models that were suited to industrial serial production. The first results of this new approach were functional products consisting of just a few parts and often very basic shapes, such as the combination teapot by Theodor Bogler, the “Slatted Chair” by Marcel Breuer, the legendary “Bauhaus Lamp” by Carl Jakob Jucker and Wilhelm Wagenfeld and the Bauhaus chess set by Josef Hartwig. In 1925, Bauhaus Book No. 7 was published, entitled “New Works from the Bauhaus Workshops.” It amounted to a catalogue for orders for Bauhaus products, as Gropius said: “The Bauhaus workshops are primarily laboratories in which models are developed and continually improved for typical products of our time to be produced in series.” The same year the Bauhaus Dessau published the “Catalogue of Patterns,” in which Bauhaus products were advertised and could be ordered. Gropius had suggested that the main principle in the design of these products was “research into their essence.” He said: “A thing is determined by its essence. To be able to design it to work properly – be it a container, a chair, or a house – it is necessary to first research its essence; it should serve its purpose perfectly, being practical and functional, long-lasting, inexpensive and ‘beautiful.’”
C R A F T S
Lin Ot to
dig, D
o r nb
ur g
ic s c eram
wo r k
,C shop
p ot of fee
9 L16, 1
23
The Bauhaus was able to derive income from the sale of goods and to thereby gain some independence from the need for public subsidies. Students also benefited, as they participated in the profits from their designs and the sale of licenses, thereby covering part of their living costs. When the Bauhaus moved to the new building in Dessau in 1926, the workshops were equipped with new machines that made it possible to produce prototypes for the industry as well as Bauhaus own products in larger numbers. This transformed the workshops into real production facilities, where teaching nonetheless continued. It was under the charge of Hannes Meyer, who advocated “the needs of the people before the needs of luxury,” that the most successful standard Bauhaus product was made. These were the Bauhaus wallpapers, whose designs were chosen in a student competition. Under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, mass production in the workshops was terminated, but prototypes for industry continued to be made, including Heinrich Siegfried Borrmann’s lamps, which were sold by Körting & Matthiesen as Kandem Lamps.
Otto Lindig, Dor nburg
ceramics wor kshop, Pla
te, 192 2 / 23
T E C H N O L O G Y
A R T C R A F T S T E C H N O L O G Y
Unknown Designer, Walter Grop
ius, houses, from the publication
“State Bauhaus Weimar 1919 –23,
1923 ”
Unknown Designer, Structured cloth pattern “Semmer ing” no. 187 from a pattern book with Bauhaus textiles, 1928–31
Firma Rasch, Bauhaus wallpaper patterns, designed by Bauhaus students, 1932
Josef Ha
ckagin ), Joost Schmidt (pa rtwig (game design
g typography), The
Bauhaus, set, model
XVI, 1924
Today the Bauhaus is seen as one of the most innovative and influential art schools of the twentieth century. Walter Gropius, its founder, was certain that “art cannot be controlled, but the technical means can be.” This was why the Bauhaus established workshops for wall painting, metals, weaving, and carpentry as the centerpiece in the training of apprentices and journeymen, marking a clear innovation when compared to the classical art academies. The first workshops were the gold, silver, and copper workshop (later the metal workshop), the graphic printing workshop, the book-binding workshop, and the weaving workshop. In 1920 there followed the workshops for ceramics, glass painting, wall painting, and wood and stone sculpture. In 1921 the carpentry and theatre workshops were founded. There were difficulties at first in finding the teachers who were able to both teach the appropriate skills and crafts while also addressing artistic issues. “First a new generation which was able to combine both qualities had to be educated,” Gropius later said. This was the reason that the workshops were jointly led by a “work master,” responsible for the practical skills, and a “form master,” responsible for formal and design questions. This principle was maintained until the Bauhaus moved to Dessau when it was dropped. If students wished to train in one of the workshops, they first had to pass the Foundation Course, which was taught by Johannes Itten and later by László Moholy-Nagy and Josef Albers. The Foundation Course was intended to develop students’ creative abilities and to free their minds from conventional approaches and the principles of existing and past styles and movements. Gropius said: “First the whole person, and then – as late as possible – specialization.”
Rohe at class in the Dess Pius Pahl, Ludwig Mies van der (front), Heinrich Neuy, with students, Annemarie Wilke le), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (midd
Architect Hannes Meyer became Bauhaus director in 1928, and he reorganized the curriculum, merged several workshops, increased the period of study, brought numerous guest teachers in, and also organized lectures by scientists. Meyer consolidated the training of architects, which had only been introduced to the Bauhaus in 1927. He also introduced the teaching of sports and photography. He wanted to focus more than previously on “studies in practice,” in particular through participation in joint construction projects, for which very precise analysis of the future uses of the buildings would provide a “scientifically founded design.” When Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was appointed Bauhaus director in 1930, students with the right prior experience and training were able to enroll without having to do the hitherto obligatory Foundation Course. A lot of theory was now taught, and the length of the studies was significantly cut. In 1930, on the occasion of his appointment, Mies said: “I don’t want jam, I don’t want workshops and school, I want school.”
Unknown Designer, Scheme of teaching, from the publication “State Bauhaus Weimar 1919–23, 1923” 1923
Unknown Photographer, Wall paint
ing class in the Bauhaus building,
in Dessau, 1928 / 29
au Bauhaus
R A D I C A L P E D A G O G Y
R A D I C A L
Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, “The three primary colors yellow, red, blue, distributed on the corresponding primary shapes with identical surface areas, triangle, square, circle …,” color panel from the colors seminar with Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, from the publication “State Bauhaus Weimar 1919–23, 1923”
“pictorial form theory” by Paul Klee, 1923–24, drawings
ercise fr ibuted), ex mann (attr A hlfeld -Hey 23 –24, drawings Mar ianne 19 Paul K lee, theory ” by
P E D A G O G Y
Marianne Ahlfeld-Heymann (attributed), exercise from the class
om the clas s “pictoria l form
Ku
rt K
ran
z, I
wa
oa
nd
Mi
ch
iko
Ya m
aw
ak
io
nt
he
te r
r ac
eo
f th
eB
au
ha
us
ca
nte
en
in
De
ssa
u, 1 92
7
Lotte Gerson-Collein, The largest and the smallest Bauhaus members, Peter Bücking and Takehiko Mizutani in the vestibule of the Bauhaus building in Dessau, from bauhaus. Journal for design, 2 / 3, 1928
Erich Consemüller, Marcel Breuer and his “harem,” from the left: Marta Erps-Breuer, Katt Both, Ruth Hollos- Consemüller 1927
E
ollein, dmund C
B auh aus
members
o
g tr ip a n a bathin
t the rive
r Elbe 19
28
From the very early days, the idea of a Bauhaus “community” was common currency, and its meaning shifted in many ways over the years. In the very first school program of April 1919 Walter Gropius emphasized that the aim was “to train architects, painters, and sculptors of all standards according to their abilities to become either hard-working artisans or free artists, and to found a working community of leading and young working artists.”
As well as this community of labor, Gropius was just as interested in the living community of masters and students, which he also noted expressly in the Bauhaus program. This was a community with shared leisure activities, particularly evident in the Bauhaus evening events and the legendary Bauhaus parties. In 1932, Bauhaus director Ludwig Mies van der Rohe also noted the importance of this working and living community, just as the closure of the Dessau Bauhaus was imminent: “There is no educational institution to match the Bauhaus in Germany and the whole world. Particularly in the past two years, relations between teachers and students in Dessau have gained a far greater quality of cooperation than can be achieved in any other German university.” And van der Rohe’s predecessor, Hannes Meyer, also made the cooperative and collective work of everyone at the Bauhaus his guiding principle. The goal of a cohesive community at the Bauhaus was, however, repeatedly challenged by the formation of specific interest groups, such as the separatist Mazdaznan community led by Johannes Itten at the early Bauhaus, and also by communist groups during the eras of Hannes Meyer and Mies van der Rohe. And the “equality of the sexes” that Gropius had proclaimed at the beginning was not always easy – it had to be renegotiated in the Bauhaus community many times over the years.
C O M M U N I T Y
Marcel Breuer, “Bambos 3,” design for a settlement in Dessau for young masters, from bauhaus. journal for design, 1, 1928
ure / order card for Bauhaus Dessau, Advertising broch ”, folder, 1927 all the circles of the cultural world
C O M M U N I T Y
the journal “bauhaus,
Unknown Photographer, Bauhaus living estate area, Walter Gropius, (design), Farkas Mólnar (drawing), 1922
Ha nn es Me ye ed r( i to E r), rn st Ká lla i (c op ye dit ), b or au ha us . jo ur na l fo rd es ign ,2 /3 92 ,1 8 tio nst r a emo 0 d t n 93 de e stu Meyer, 1 of t h s oto s r H a n n e h p h e wit s directo u nt a g r, Mo of Bauha e h p l ra a g s o t is Pho he dism t ow n Unkn t against s e p r ot
n to
Much has been said, and deservedly so, about the Bauhaus, a legendary German school that revolutionized the parameters of art, craft, and technology. While it existed for only fourteen short years (1919–33), its influence shaped modern thinking and artistic approaches to industrialization. One hundred years after its founding, the ideals of the school have spread the globe, become fundamentals of modern art history, and are still integrated in today’s interdisciplinary approaches to the arts. We are proud to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus along with many other museums and institutions around the world. This exhibition, The Whole World a Bauhaus, curated by Boris Friedewald and organized by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) will travel to the cities of Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Elmhurst, and Karlsruhe. Our participation as the only U.S. venue on this incredible world tour could not have been accomplished without our partners at the Goethe-Institut and sponsorship through the Year of German-American Friendship initiated by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institut, and supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI). We especially wish to thank Petra Roggel and Irmi Maunu-Kocian, in addition to Ronald Grätz, Dr. Ellen Strittmatter, Bettina Bingel, Valerie Hammerbacher, Clea Laade, Christoph Muecher, Frederic Atwood, Marion Bacher, and Rosalia Maier-Katkin. Through this collaboration, a historical survey about the German school will be presented to our Chicagoland audience, which was significantly impacted by the immigration of several Bauhaus instructors and students. We hope anniversary exhibitions such as this will further recognize the lasting contributions of many of the incredible artists, designers, architects, and others that participated in the collective experiments of the Bauhaus, a historically famous and influential creative force that then spread across the world. The Whole World a Bauhaus is divided into eight different chapters, each focusing on an aspect of work and life at the Bauhaus during its operation: Art, Crafts, and Technology; Floating; Community; Encounters; The Total Work of Art; The New Man; Radical Pedagogy; and Experiment. It is an incredible thrill for us to exhibit works by Bauhaus instructors and students – many of which are now considered Modern masters such as Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Wassily Kandinsky, Josef and Anni Albers, László MoholyNagy, Marcel Breuer, and more. Photographs and documents combine with art and design pieces to highlight the work students did in their revolutionary workshops with industrial materials and processes, the school’s major impact on the international avant-garde, and how the students and instructors sought to rethink their world. We are grateful to Boris Friedewald, Ilke Penzlien, Peter Kortmann, Robert Müller, Martin Edelmann, and Jens Joswig for all of their efforts in organizing this exhibition, as well as HIT for the graphic design work including this brochure. The museum is uniquely positioned with international partners to reveal the global impact and legacy of the Bauhaus. Recent restorations of the McCormick House – designed by Mies van der Rohe, the last director of the Bauhaus – have suddenly cast a new light on the architect and house, and created new programming possibilities for the museum. This June, the McCormick House’s façade, including the
Mc Cormick Hous e, Elmhurst Ar t Mu seum, 2018 Kendall Mc Caug herty © Hall+Me rrick Photograph ers
carport and front door, were revealed for the first time in nearly twenty-five years. Audiences are now able to fully appreciate the McCormick House’s full exterior and Mies van der Rohe’s original design. This transformation revitalizes the past, while positioning the museum to better educate and inspire generations to come. We are fortunate to reinterpret the McCormick House through this restoration and continued programming, including artist-led projects and complementary exhibitions such as The Whole World a Bauhaus, a historical survey about the German school overseen by Mies before his arrival in Chicago. Many of the influential figures involved at the Bauhaus left Germany and spread the school’s philosophies internationally, including Mies and others who emigrated to the United States. Influencing generations of students across the country, Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius both taught at Harvard, Josef and Anni Albers at Black Mountain College, and then Josef later taught at Yale. László Moholy-Nagy established the New Bauhaus to immediately succeed the Bauhaus, in Chicago in 1937. Mies van der Rohe also came to Chicago, became the director of the Department of Architecture at the Armour Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology), and designed the campus. Art, design, and architecture in the Chicago area were permanently shaped by the teachings these major figures left, as well as their lasting works – for instance Mies’s glass and steel structures are now a hallmark of the skyline. Numerous complementary exhibitions and programs at the museum will bridge the international gap for our audiences and provide contemporary interpretations. We are grateful to all of our sponsors, partners, speakers, and other collaborators for making this exhibition richer. The Virtual Bauhaus experience helps our visitors tour the iconic Dessau Bauhaus, interacting with and exploring its architecture, design and educational philosophies. The McCormick House will feature site-specific projects by Chicago-based Assaf Evron and Claudia Weber. Treating the windows of the McCormick House, Evron furthers a conversation about global citizenship. As Weber lives, works, and exhibits in the house, her projects will reflect on the structure’s history as a prototypical home and current function as a museum space. Many people will be involved throughout the duration of the exhibition, from area teens to former residents of the McCormick House. We are grateful to have such collaboration and willingness of others to participate, as well as our staff who helped with many arrangements. A schedule of related programs is printed in this brochure. I’m honored to lead the Bauhaus celebrations at the museum and extend my gratitude to the museum’s entire staff: Lal Bahcecioglu, Greg Caraballo, Alfonso Castellanos, JoAnn Concialdi, Monica Fichtner, Jenn Guistolise, Joseph Hladik, Scarlett Hoffer, Bailey Jacobson, Sara Rutkowski, Joe Troutman, as well as numerous art preparators, docents, volunteers, and others such as our Teen Art Council that help the museum inspire its community. I’m deeply indebted to this team. John McKinnon Executive Director, Elmhurst Art Museum
der Rohe Ludwig Mies van ter ior, 19 52 e, view of front ex ical Society us Ho ick rm Co Mc , Chicago Histor 0B 69 15 HB , ive ch Ar ing ss Ble ch Hedri
Mies van der Rohe Director of the Bauhaus 1930–33
McCormick House, 1952 In 1952, the renowned modern architect Mies van der Rohe designed a home for Robert Hall McCormick III, a member of Chicago’s most prominent families, and his wife, the poet Isabella Gardner. The home is a rare and important example of Mies’s mature style, incorporating elements of his celebrated designs for the Farnsworth House (1951) and 860–880 Lake Shore Drive (1951). The McCormick House – one of only three single-family homes designed by Mies in the United States – originally served two purposes: it was a home for the McCormick family and a prototype for a proposed group of smaller, affordable mass-produced modular homes in the western Chicago suburbs that McCormick and co-developer Herbert S. Greenwald were hoping to build. However, the cutting-edge, high-end buildings were not met with enough buyers to begin construction.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (American, b. Germany, 1886–69), commonly referred to as Mies, is considered one of the 20th Century’s greatest architects. In his lifetime he achieved international recognition for his visionary minimal designs, and is credited with popularizing the phrase “less is more”. In 1921, he proposed a skyscraper entirely made of glass and steel. While this reductive geometric design did not get built, it later became a modern standard. From 1930 to 1933, he served as the last director of the Bauhaus – a legendary German school for design, architecture, and applied arts – before it was closed by the Nazi regime. He later fled the country and came to Chicago to lead the Department of Architecture of the Armour Institute, which later became the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). His influential career in Chicago and the United States altered the course of architecture forever. His sleek, bold glass and steel structures are now a hallmark of Chicago’s skyline, including the 860–880 Lake Shore Drive apartment towers (1951) that had a direct influence on the McCormick House (1952) in Elmhurst. Mies developed the master plan for IIT, including twenty of his own buildings, influencing generations of design and architecture students at the college.
Lu d w Mc C ig Mies H e d o r m i c k va n d e r H r ic h R B l e s o u s e, c o h e ar sing A rc h p or t an d i ve , H B1 front e n 569 0 C , t r a n c e, 1 Chic a g o 9 52 H i st or ic
al S
oc ie
ty
Sold by its last occupants, Ray and Mary Ann Fick (Ray was the former mayor of Elmhurst), to the Elmhurst Fine Arts and Civic Center Foundation in 1991, the structure was moved from its original location at 299 Prospect Avenue to a new campus for the museum in Wilder Park in 1994. This unique opportunity influenced the museum’s new building and tied the organization’s mission to include the celebration of Mies’s legacy through exhibitions and various programming. With these uses in mind, the Museum carried forward Mies’ concept of flexible space to create more open exhibition spaces. The museum is in the middle of a multi-phase restoration plan to return the McCormick House back to many of its 1952 specifications and honor the architect’s original designs. Phase 1 was completed in 2016, including preservation of the exterior steel structure. Phase 2, completed in June 2018, included separating the house from the museum hallway and revealing its original façade, complete with the carport and new front door. The iconic entrance of this historically significant building is now visible for the first time in over twenty-five years and allows its unique features to be fully recognized by visitors and the larger art and design community. Upcoming Phases 3 and 4 will convert the floor plan back to its original layout as well as adding / repairing finishes to the interior.
McCormick House, original layout, 1952
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe McCormick House, interior view of hall and kitchen, 1952 Hedrich Blessing Archive, HB17555A, Chicago Historical Society
Installation vie w of McCor m ick House: 19 52–59 cura ted by Robert Kleinschmidt Photo by the and Ryan Mon adamkovi teleagre
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe McCormick House, living room, 1952 Hedrich Blessing Archive, HB17555A, Chicago Historical Society
van der Rohe chen, 19 52 Ludwig Mies towards the kit use, looking ric al Society sto Hi go McCor mick Ho ica Ch sing Archive, Hedr ich Bles
Virtual Bauhaus: An Interactive Exhibition March 1–22, 2019 Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus with an interactive, virtual tour into the essence of the Bauhaus: its ideas, products and masters! In the spirit of The Bauhaus’ central goal, to harness modern technology in order to improve the lives of everyday people, Virtual Bauhaus uses innovative Virtual Reality technology to bring Bauhaus to any space anywhere in the world. After putting on VR glasses, the visitor tours the iconic Dessau Bauhaus School as a former student, interacting with and exploring its architecture, design and educational philosophies. Spoken eyewitness accounts and background information round out the experience. Virtual Bauhaus is developed by the Goethe-Institut Boston in cooperation with Cologne Game Lab (CGL) at TH Köln and a team of Bauhaus advisors. This exhibition is part of the Year of German-American Friendship initiated by the German Federal Foreign Office and the GoetheInstitut, and supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI).
All public programs are free with museum admission or current membership unless otherwise indicated. Saturday, February 16, 1:30 PM Lecture: Margret Kentgens-Craig On the occasion of this traveling exhibition and the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus, scholar Kentgens-Craig will expand on the legacy of the legendary school and its lasting effects in the United States.
R E L A T E D P U B L I C P R O G R A M S
Kentgens-Craig is adjunct associate professor of architecture at the NCSU College of Design and former head of the department of archives and collections at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, in Germany. She is the author of several books of the Bauhaus including The Bauhaus and America: first contacts 1919-1936 and The Bauhaus in America: the modernist émigrés and their influence on American architecture, interiors, and design, 1920–40. This lecture is part of the Year of GermanAmerican Friendship initiated by the German Federal Foreign Office and the GoetheInstitut, and supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI). Saturday, February 23, 1–4 PM Family Day Workshop We invite you and your family to participate in hands-on art activities inspired by the Bauhaus and our current exhibition. Sunday, February 24, 1:30 PM McCormick House Tour: From the Bauhaus to Our House Learn about the history and unique design of the McCormick House (1952) by Mies van der Rohe. This docent-led tour will introduce concepts in the historical exhibition The Whole World a Bauhaus and end in the two contemporary site-specific exhibitions in the McCormick House. Saturday, March 2, 1:30 PM Artists Talk: Assaf Evron and Claudia Weber Hear from Chicago-based artists Assaf Evron and Claudia Weber about their site-specific installations in Mies van der Rohe’s McCormick House. For this two person exhibition, each artist took over a separate wing of the single-family home. Learn more about their artistic intent and particular interests in Mies’s biography, his legacy, the Bauhaus, and unique features of the house. This program is part of the Year of GermanAmerican Friendship initiated by the German Federal Foreign Office and the GoetheInstitut, and supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI). Sunday, March 10, 1:30 PM McCormick House Tour: From the Bauhaus to Our House
Elmhurst Art Museum 150 Cottage Hill Avenue Elmhurst, IL 60126 630.834.0202 elmhurstartmuseum.org
Sunday, March 17, 1:30 PM
Sunday, April 7, 1:30 PM
McCormick House Tour: From the Bauhaus to Our House
Lecture: “Bauhaus Translated: Transcultural Encounters with the Avant-garde school”
Learn about the history and unique design of the McCormick House (1952) by Mies van der Rohe. This docent-led tour will introduce concepts in the historical exhibition The Whole World a Bauhaus and end in the two contemporary site-specific exhibitions in the McCormick House.
Dr. Regina Bittner will give a talk on the global impact of the Bauhaus. She is the Head of the Academy of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and responsible for the conception and teaching of the postgraduate programs for design, Bauhaus and architectural research.
Sunday, March 24, 1:30 PM McCormick House Tour with Claudia Weber Tour the McCormick House with exhibiting artist Claudia Weber to learn about her site-specific projects including research about the 1952 prefab prototype, various changing installations including works by other artists, interactions with visitors, and more. Saturday, March 30, 1:30 PM Discussion and Oral Histories of the McCormick House Mies van der Rohe’s McCormick House has been part of Elmhurst’s history since it was built in 1952. Join us as we record memories of this historically significant building, including conversations with former McCormick House residents. Co-organized with the Elmhurst History Museum Sunday, March 31, 1:30 PM McCormick House Tour: From the Bauhaus to Our House Learn about the history and unique design of the McCormick House (1952) by Mies van der Rohe. This docent-led tour will introduce concepts in the historical exhibition The Whole World a Bauhaus and end in the two contemporary site-specific exhibitions in the McCormick House.
This program is part of the Year of GermanAmerican Friendship initiated by the German Federal Foreign Office and the GoetheInstitut, and supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI). Co-organized with Northwestern University and Elmhurst College Saturday, April 13 Teen Design Competition Drop off: 10 AM–12 PM Reception: 3:30 PM In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus, we invite area teens to submit their own architecture and design proposals. This juried competition will be on view at the museum, and will celebrate creative design of today’s young creatives. Designed objects in any 3D medium are welcome, the use of today’s industrial materials and technologies is encouraged. Sponsored by the OPUS Foundation
Tuesday, April 2, 6:30–8 PM
Sunday, April 14, 1:30 PM
Book Discussion: The Turner House
McCormick House Tour with Claudia Weber
Join us to discuss The Turner House by Angela Flournoy. Shortlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction and later winning the VCU First Novelist Award, the novel tells the story of a Detroit family with 13 children as it responds to the economic woes of the city, in both the 1940s, and then in 2008. The house that sees the changes in the family, also becomes a character in the family’s saga.
Tour the McCormick House with exhibiting artist Claudia Weber to learn about her sitespecific projects including research about the 1952 prefab prototype, various changing installations including works by other artists, interactions with visitors, and more.
Co-organized with the Elmhurst Public Library
Soirée 2019: Celebrating Bauhaus100
Learn about the history and unique design of the McCormick House (1952) by Mies van der Rohe. This docent-led tour will introduce concepts in the historical exhibition The Whole World a Bauhaus and end in the two contemporary site-specific exhibitions in the McCormick House.
Please register in advance by calling (630) 834-0202.
Saturday, March 16, 1:30 PM
Saturday, April 6, 1–4 PM
Teen Design Competition Workshop
Family Day Workshop
Just as Bauhaus students were encouraged to use the materials and technologies of their day, teens will be introduced to a variety of methods to fabricate their creative designs in advance of the Teen Design Competition on April 13th. Design professionals will teach skills and provide advice on how to construct their projects. Teens interested in all media are encouraged to attend.
We invite you and your family to participate in hands-on art activities inspired by the Bauhaus and our current exhibition.
Sponsored by the OPUS Foundation
Bittner has curated numerous exhibitions on the Bauhaus and the cultural history of modernism. Her work focuses on: international architecture and urban research, modernity and migration, cultural history of modernity and heritage studies. The results of her research and teaching are published in numerous publications. She studied cultural sciences and art history at the University of Leipzig and holds a doctorate from the Institute of European Ethnology of the Humboldt University Berlin.
Saturday, April 27, 6 PM Ticketed event Join us for the Elmhurst Art Museum’s Soirée 2019, celebrating the centenary of the Bauhaus. The event, presented by EAM’s Sustaining Fellows will include cocktails, a multi-course dinner, entertainment, and live and silent auctions filled with artworks by established and emerging artists as well as a fabulous selection of vacations and experiences. Proceeds will be used to help the Elmhurst Art Museum enrich people’s lives by deepening their knowledge of art, architecture and design, increasing their understanding of the relevance of visual art in our society and sparking the development of individual creativity.
Walker, 19 23 Tightrope Paul K lee,
The themes of suspension and floating featured at the Bauhaus in various guises – as motifs in architecture and fine art, and as a metaphor for a modern way of life. In 1926 Marcel Breuer demonstrated the design of his chairs in his collage “A Bauhaus Film,” beginning with the “African Chair,” made at the Bauhaus in 1921. The series of designs culminated in a vision of a seated person floating on an “elastic column of air” – Breuer left the actual date, when this might become reality, open. Furniture made of steel tubing, like Breuer’s and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s cantilever chairs, are also signs of this desire to overcome material restrictions. After the Bauhaus reopened in Dessau in 1926, students and masters began to take photographs that either showed floating people or objects or presented them as if they were about to take off. In his lithograph “The Tightrope Walker,” Paul Klee had already addressed this theme back in 1923. The figure of the tightrope walker stands for a future and more modern type of man, whose longing to escape gravity takes him into heady heights, and who yet still needs a rope under his feet and a pole for balance.
Umbo (Otto Umbehr), Slippers, 1926
F L O A T I N G
Mies van der Rohe’s design for a “Skyscraper in Glass and Reinforced Concrete” also negated all sense of weight, and the transparency of the construction gave the impression that it was about to dissolve. The same effect is true of the Dessau Bauhaus building designed by Walter Gropius, particularly when it is lit up at night. In 1923 Gropius noted: “The increasing stability and greater mass of modern building materials (iron, concrete, glass) and the increasing boldness of new suspended constructions mean that the sense of gravity that pertained to older ways of building is now being transformed.” In the Dessau Bauhaus building, there were always a number of “suspended sculptures” on view, made by students in MoholyNagy’s Foundation Course, which the teacher saw as valuable preliminaries towards “a highly spiritual form,” and specifically “kinetic sculptures.”
ass, Prelim
inar y Le o Bar
gl af t made of struction dr ollein, Con 28 / 27 Edmund C 19 s Josef A lber Course with
o n, G er tr ud
T. Lux Feininger, Eury thmic s, 1927
H er old on t he r o of of t h eB auh aus buil din g in D ess au, 9 192
firewo on for str ucti 3 t, Con kshop, 192 chmid or Kur t S e Stage W th from r ks ,
F L O A T I N G
Joost Schmidt, Folder
for the City of Dessau
, 1931
Ludwig
Mies v
an der
Ro
c ha he, A rm
ir M R 5
3 4, 192
7– 32
Iwao Yamawaki Article by Iwao Yama waki on the photocollages of Kurt Kranz, Koga Journal, 12, vol 2, 1933
Walter Gropius, László Moholy-Na gy (editors) “International Architecture,” Bauh aus books, 1, 1925
Bauhaus products also found their way around the world right from the start. In 1922 there were sales outlets in Vienna, Amsterdam, Leicester, and the USA, offering items from the Bauhaus workshops. The Bauhaus also showed its work in exhibitions all over the world, including a presentation in 1922 with pictures by masters and students in Calcutta, together with contemporary Indian painters. In 1929 there was a touring exhibition of Bauhaus work, shown in Basel, Zurich, Breslau and other cities. In the same year works from the Bauhaus workshops were shown at the World’s Fair in Barcelona, and in 1930 there was a touring exhibition in the USA (Harvard, Cambridge, and New York). In 1931 Hannes Meyer presented the first Bauhaus exhibition in Moscow, which focused on the years 1928–30 when he had been the director. Many international artists and intellectuals also visited the Bauhaus, among them Solomon Guggenheim and Marcel Duchamp. Some of these guests came to hold lectures or teach, like the composers Béla Bartók and Henry Cowell, Sufi master Murshid Inayat Khan, or Naum Gabo and El Lissitzky. As these visits show, the Bauhaus was open to the world, with a crosscultural awareness that always shaped teaching and work, and which was not restricted to a “cult of India” and “Americanism,” as Oskar Schlemmer noted in 1921.
E N C O U N T E R S
Iwao Yamawaki Article by Iwao Yama waki on the photocollages of Kurt Kranz, Koga Journal, 12, vol 2, 1933
In the “Bauhaus books” published between 1925 and 1930, the Bauhaus was not only able to gain international artists and architects as authors. These books also showcased the Bauhaus as a focal point for the vanguard of the avant-garde, as clearly seen in the 1923 portfolio “New European Prints, 4th Portfolio – Italian and Russian Artists” and in the “Exhibition of International Architects” that was part of the Bauhaus Exhibition in the same year. When he became Bauhaus director in Dessau, Mies van der Rohe wrote a letter to America trying to acquire “international” partner institutes with which the Bauhaus could cooperate across borders.
Walter Gro pius, Lász ló MoholyMalevich. Nagy (edito The Objec rs), “Kasim tless Wor ld ir ,” Bauhaus books, 11, 1927
From the very beginning, the Bauhaus wanted its work to be seen outside Germany, not least in order to attract students from all over the world. With this in mind, in 1920 Walter Gropius wrote letters to Japan, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, Peru, and Chile, praising the fact that the Bauhaus was known “beyond Germany’s borders” and that its “many artists from many countries […] had international renown.” Gropius’s endeavors were continued by his successor, Swiss architect Hannes Meyer, who invited prospective students to come to the Bauhaus in several languages in the Bauhaus’s own magazine. In 1929 there were 140 German students and 30 foreigners, from Poland, Russia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, the USA, Palestine, Turkey, Persia, and Japan. Weaver Gunta Stölzl later wrote: “The international student body promoted cooperative learning among comrades.” Some of these students were to take the Bauhaus idea around the world, participating in international architecture tenders and founding their own institutes. Examples are the Hungarian Sándor Bortnyk, who established the “Mühely” – the “little Bauhaus” – in 1928 in Budapest, and Takehiko Mitzutani, co-founder of the Japanese “Institute for Life Design.”
E N C O U N T E R S
Moscow with Peter Bücking, Unknown Photographer, Bauhaus members visiting Vchutein in Arkadij Mordwinow, behind Arieh Sharon, 3rd from the right, 12.5.1928
the bauhaus!” bauhaus, journal
for design, 2 / 3, 1928
A lfred
Bischo
ff, Pi- o -M
urshid
Hazrat
Inayat
K han in
J ena, 1 921
Hannes Meyer, (editor), “study at
Gunta Stölzl,
Unknown Photographer, Barbara Josephine Guggenheim, Wassily Kandinsky, Hilla von Rebay, Solo in the garden of the Dessau mast mon R. Guggenheim ers’ houses settlement, 1929
Frit z Kuhr, Self-portra
it, 1927
O. Z. Hanish, David Ammann, Masd asnan – Breathing Lessons, 1919
Richard
Oelze, S
elf-portra
it with G
ir lfriend,
T H E
192 2 / 2 3
N E W
er, Schematic ov erview of teaching in the subject “M an,” from bauhau s. journal for desig n 2 / 3, 1928
As early as May 1919, when the Bauhaus had only been open for just a few weeks, painter and Bauhaus master Lyonel Feininger wrote to his wife Julia: “What I have seen from the students thus far looks very self-assured. Nearly all of them were soldiers during the war. This is a completely new kind of person. I think they all want to create something new in art and are no longer so timid and harmless.” And Oskar Schlemmer declared in 1921 “that the Bauhaus is ‘building’ in a very different sense than expected – building people. Gropius seems to be very aware of this, and he notes the weaknesses of the academies here, where educating people to be people is neglected.” But what this new man might actually look like, and which values and capabilities he would have, was the subject of controversy throughout the entire Bauhaus period. Johannes Itten, for example, thought that breathing and physical exercises and a vegetarian diet must promote individual self-awareness, while Oskar Schlemmer focused on theatre, in which the relationship of every character to space was to be explored beyond the level of a “typical body.” There was also painting and photography, where abstraction, distortion, and collage were leading to new images of humanity, and the “communist faction” of students in favor of a “world revolution” under director Hannes Meyer, who saw himself as a “scientific Marxist.”
The goal of work at the Bauhaus was to make contemporary products for a new and future generation. For art critic Adolf Behne, this was evident in the architecture of Walter Gropius’s Bauhaus building: “Here in the new Dessau Bauhaus building we see a striking and pure expression […] of the fact that a new type of man and a new relationship to the world is both the starting point and the aim of this new movement in architecture. New materials, new forms of construction, and new technologies are important and must be discussed, tried out, and observed. But they are only a means to an end, and the highest end is the man himself.”
Oskar Schlemm
It was the aura of a radical new start, particularly after the First World War, that people at the Bauhaus embraced from the outset, and that particularly attracted the young. They not only wanted to give a new shape to the world tomorrow but also to their own lives. Bauhaus members quickly got a reputation for unconventionality, which included their bob hairstyles and the relaxed relations between men and women, and also the fact that some Bauhaus families were living together without being married.
M A N
love and cannot ted by the light of s that are illumina m the first Bauhau alth to the hearts nish,” original fro “Greeting and he of a hell. O. Z. Ha Johannes Itten, aven or the fear the hopes of a he ar,” 1921 be led astray by uhauses in Weim s of the State Ba portfolio, “Master
T H E
N E W
M A N
aus Man, 1923
Herbert Bayer, The Model Bauh
an,”
O skar S chlemm er, Sche from ba matic o uh aus. v journal for desig erview of teac hing in n 2 / 3, 1 the sub 9 28 ject “M
Lis
From the moment it was founded, the Bauhaus was criticized for its focus on the mere experiment, for both masters and students – especially by conservatives in government and society. The whole Bauhaus was, in fact, just one big experiment, they said. While these critics wished to discredit the Bauhaus, experimentation was, in fact, a very deliberate and significant principle at the Bauhaus, where it went far beyond teaching and theory. Bauhaus people were very sure that the new approaches that they were keenly looking for after the world war could only be explored in a spirit of experimentation. This was not meant as a scientific experiment, but as a free and playful testing of ideas, as all the students in the Foundation Course were to discover. But because experimentation frequently led to very practical problems in the teaching of specific skills in the workshops, in late 1921 Gropius planned a specific space dedicated to experimenting, “since it is practically very difficult to unite both purely experimental work and the implementation of real works in one and the same workshop.”
be
th
Oe
st r
eic
he
r, P
at t
er n
for
cu
r ta
in
ma
te r
Grete Reichardt
At the large Bauhaus Exhibition in 1923, the institution presented its experiments in a very diverse overview, including a built “experimental house” that was a technological, ecological and living experiment all at the same time, and the “Reflectory Light Games” by the students Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack and Kurt Schwerdtfeger.
When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925, the workshops were renamed “laboratory workshops,” and the use of lower case in all letters, brochures and the Bauhaus’s own magazine was introduced – a decision which was heavily criticized in bourgeois circles. This then gave Gropius good reason to again note the principally experimental character of the Bauhaus: “the bauhaus is primarily an experimental institute for the whole country, in all fields of design. it is also not only our right but certainly our duty to continue to test things that have not yet been tested.”
In Dessau, Marcel Breuer experimented with furniture made of curved steel piping, while Oskar Schlemmer finally had a dedicated “experimental theatre” in the Bauhaus building. Then there was photography – in no other field was there so much experimentation outside of class than with the camera and film developing techniques, particularly thanks to the use of the compact camera. Werner David Feist, who began his studies at the Bauhaus in 1927, looked back: “Experimenting, testing the limits, breaking rules and regulations, discovering new fields – this was the overarching spirit at the Bauhaus.”
ial
,1 93
0
(at tributed), Weav
ing sample, 1926
–31
E X P E R I M E N T
Ma
rc e
lB
reu
er,
Ch
air
B5
, 19
26
E X P E R I M E N T
ltless shelf,� Hubert Hof fmann, “bo 0 lf, prototype, detail, 193 she k boo le tab oun dism
Image Credits The total Work of Art © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 © Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne © Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne © Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 Art, Crafts, Technology © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 Radical Pedagogy © Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Sammlung Bernd Freese © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie Community © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Klassik Stiftung Weimar © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Galerie Kicken © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne Floating © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Harvard Art Museums / Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of the Baron-Baum Family, 2007.115 © Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie, Estate of T. Lux Feininger © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 Encounters © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018, © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 © Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Archiv der Moderne © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Centre G. Pompidou / Bibliothèque Kandinsky © Nekbakht Foundation, Suresnes The New Man © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 © Hermann Famulla (Nachlass Fritz Kuhr) © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 © Harvard Art Museums / Busch-Reisinger Museum, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie
The Whole World a Bauhaus an exhibition by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) Stuttgart, Germany. www.ifa.de
Responsible Dr. Ellen Strittmatter Artistic Director Dr. Valerie Hammerbacher
ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) promotes worldwide cultural exchange to assist peoples, nations and religions in learning from one another and living together peacefully. We promote art and cultural exchange in exhibitions, dialogue and conference programs. As a competence centre for international cultural relations, ifa connects civil societies, cultural practices, art, media and science. We initiate, moderate and document discussions on international cultural relations. The exhibition “The Whole World a Bauhaus” is supported by Ministerium für Kunst, Wissenschaft und Forschung Baden-Württemberg and the US tour is sponsored by the Year of German-American Friendship, a collaborative campaign initiated by the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut, and supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI).
Project Management Dr. Clea Laade Research Assistant Lara Eva Sochor
Exhibition Curator Boris Friedewald
Experiment © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie © Photo: ifa, A. Körner, bildhübsche Photografie
Scenography / Architecture Studio Ilke Penzlien with Peter Kortmann and Robert Müller in cooperation with Elmhurst Art Museum, Illinois, USA Goethe-Institut, Chicago The Whole World a Bauhaus February 16 – April 21, 2019 Elmhurst Art Museum, Illinois, USA kindly supported by Ingrid L. Blecha Gesellschaft m.b.H., Filmolux Deutschland GmbH, KPM Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin GmbH, Christopher Farr, Mevaco GmbH, Tecnolumen GmbH & Co. KG, Naef Spiele AG, Dringenberg GmbH
Technical Advice Martin Edelmann Graphic Design HIT Chronology Nicole Opel Biographies Astrid Volpert Translation Dr. Greg Bond, English Photography Andreas Körner, bildhübsche Fotografie Sound Technician Levi Harrison Voice Acting Dagmar Harrold, Levi Harrison Copyright Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e. V. (ifa), the artists and authors
The Spirit of the Bauhaus Valérie Hammerbacher
The Bauhaus was in existence from 1919 to 1933 in the cities of Weimar, Dessau and Berlin. Already in these years it became a symbol of modernism, and this was reinforced after its closure. No art school has succeeded in any comparable way in transforming itself from a teaching establishment to a way of life. Today the Bauhaus stands for a state of mind: avant-garde, free, progressive – and modern in the social, political and artistic senses of the word. In spite of criticism of its formalistic approach, expressed especially in and since the 1960s, Bauhaus modernism is still a key point of reference. It has been critically reviewed, but has returned with a vengeance as a counter to postmodernism. Art historian and Documenta 12 director Roger M. Bürgel found a precise formulation for this contradictory state of affairs in one of his key questions. One of the themes and theses of the Documenta was: “Is modernity our antiquity?” The Bauhaus is certainly part of our historical and cultural identity, formed by the processes of writing history, but it also fascinates us again and again through its still topical questions and the radical rhetoric with which these were raised. On the one hand, the spirit of the Bauhaus is seen in the intellectual force that this institution had during the years of the Weimar Republic, and on the other it is that ephemeral phenomenon whose concepts are appropriated, transposed or imbibed. In 1928 Sergio Larraín GarciaMoreno came from Chile to Dessau in order to study the Bauhaus teaching methods and he then implemented them when he founded the Escuela de Architectura de la Universidad Católica in Santiago de Chile. Even the thistle that students painted in Johannes Itten’s Bauhaus foundation course was integrated into teaching there, where it was no longer a synesthetic exercise, but an abstract form together with indigenous patterns. Then, after 1933, the emigration to the USA of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, László Moholy-Nagy, and Josef and Anni Albers, and the arrival of Bauhaus teachers and students in Australia, China, Japan, Latin America, Africa and Israel carried the ideas of modernism into many disparate parts of the world. The Bauhaus is thus not only a part of a large movement in classical modernism in the 1920s, but also a part of a world cultural heritage. On the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of its foundation, in 2019, we may again ask what makes the Bauhaus relevant today. Argentinian architect Tomás Maldonado (born 1922, Buenos Aires), teacher and director of the Ulm School of Design (1955–67), which saw itself as a successor to the Bauhaus, answered this question as follows: “The Bauhaus is only accepted in a superficial and restorative sense. […] Essentially, this is just a false flower, an attempt to canonise the
Bauhaus, or – better – to archaeologise it, to transform the Bauhaus into a relic that is only brought out for high ceremonies. A cult object that sometimes fulfils the functions of a totem and sometimes of a taboo.” His text, entitled “Is the Bauhaus relevant today?” was published in 1963, at a time when the reception of the Bauhaus had reached a peak. In 1960 the Bauhaus Archive was founded in Darmstadt by art historian Hans Maria Wingler (1920–84), who directed it until his death in 1984. The aim of the archive was to conduct research on the Bauhaus and to publish results. Through texts, catalogues and exhibitions the memory of the Bauhaus was kept alive, securing it a place in the present. On the opening of the archive, the Stuttgarter Zeitung wrote: “If you will, you can refer everything back to the Bauhaus, and let it shine out into the future from there.” 1 Under Wingler, the archive saw itself as the memory of the institution, with the task of reflecting on its significance for the present day. Documents were collected, ordered and administered, and the network of the Bauhaus teachers and students who were still living was nurtured. Hans Maria Wingler and Walter Gopius, with whom Wingler worked very closely, were instrumental in shaping the contemporary image and discourse of the Bauhaus.2 Wingler also organized the 50 Years of the bauhaus exhibition, together with former Bauhaus teacher Herbert Bayer (1900–85), exhibition designer Dieter Honisch (*1932), and art historian Ludwig Grote (1993–74). ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) organized a successful tour for this exhibition in 1968. ifa sent this exhibition to various museums around the world; it was shown in 1969 in Chicago, 1970 in Buenos Aires, and 1971 in Tokyo. There was an accompanying catalogue in several languages, published by ifa. The aim of this ifa exhibition is clearly stated in its title. 50 Years of the bauhaus defines a period of time much longer than the actual existence of the school itself, which continued to be alive and well decades after its closure. There is a Bauhaus spirit here too, asserting a certain philosophy (not dependent on specific objects) all over the world. This exhibition, financed by the state of BadenWürttemberg and the German Foreign Office, also had a cultural and political agenda: to show the Bauhaus as an exemplary free and democratic German community in the times of the Cold War and the conflict between East and West – even if this community was historical. The Bauhaus idea was a model that could be applied all over the world, independent of one institution and timeless. The 50 Years of the bauhaus exhibition made it possible to report on an artistic avant-garde, and also to take a closer look at the Weimar Republic years, seen as shaping the context within which the Bauhaus was possible. This was an age that was open for democracy and freedom and a positive point of reference for the culture of memory in contemporary West Germany. The Bauhaus was a place where earlier advocates of democracy worked, and its activities were abruptly brought to an end by the Nazi dictatorship. 3 In 1969, one year after the exhibition premiered in Stuttgart, Wingler’s Bauhaus Archive association received an offer of finance from the city of Berlin, including the building of new premises and a move from Darmstadt to Berlin. Walter Gropius
designed the new building, which was then built – with considerable alterations to Gropius’s design – between 1976 and 1979. The Bauhaus supporters thus established an institution that to this day works to keep the memory of the Bauhaus alive, in both academic circles and for a general public. From the 1960s, information on the Bauhaus, and its artists and products was collected, researched, and then brought into the depots of museums, and at the same time a new generation of designers was becoming more critical. With remembering the Bauhaus at a peak, the Bauhaus approach was subjected to fundamental critique. Functionalism and its advocacy of the separation of working and living environments was in crisis. Classical modernism, which saw itself a new and timeless movement, was considered blind to history. Universalism assumed that the achievements of progressive architecture could be implemented anywhere in the world, but this view was now challenged. How international is an international style and to what extent can Bauhaus ideas be transferred to other cultures? 4 This is the context that underlies our own view of the Bauhaus today. The exhibition The Whole World a Bauhaus intends to once again draw attention to the Bauhaus school, and to show both its diversity and complexity. In just a few years, the Bauhaus attracted designers and artists who revolutionized the first half of the twentieth century – with abstract painting and figurines that moved from the two-dimensional space of the painting and walked on stage; with experiments with photography and film; with text and font designs that challenged established reading habits; with applied art that was seen as equal to the fine arts; and with teaching methods that were to become exemplary for schools all around the world. Artists working at the Bauhaus had very different approaches to design, and also different political views. Modernism was visible here in many forms, and fundamental questions were asked concerning the connections between art and life, social relevance, and the design of everyday life. In their search for radical contemporary and abstract forms of art many Bauhaus teachers and students turned to other cultures outside Europe. Influenced by the Munich avantgarde and the writings of art historian Wilhelm Worringer (1881–65), who provided the conceptual inventory for an autonomous and abstract art, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee analysed African, Ancient Egyptian, and Asian masterpieces, which they studied using illustrations in books or by visiting museums of ethnology. 5 Discourse at the Bauhaus was thus not just shaped by interpersonal contacts, but also by interest in and influence by nonEuropean cultures. We wish to acknowledge this in this exhibition, and at every exhibition venue are inviting local experts to participate. How did modernism develop in Latin America; what were the key ideas in Mexico; and what were the similarities with Bauhaus ideas in other parts of the world? The Whole World a Bauhaus is intended to be a learning platform that draws on knowledge about the avant-gardes in the regions where the exhibition is shown, and thereby discusses different perspectives on this twentieth-century movement in the light of specific contexts around the world.
This can only be done thanks to the collaboration and assistance of many people. We wish to thank curator Boris Friedewald, who identified the themes of the exhibition and selected the objects on display. We also thank designers Ilke Penzlien, Peter Kortmann, and Robert Müller for their exhibition design. The title image was designed by Annette Lux and Lina Grumm from HIT design studio, making the artistic character of the Bauhaus prominent. We thank all lenders of works, supporters and sponsors, who have all enriched this exhibition. The Baden-Württemberg Ministry for Art, Research and Science has shown special commitment to this exhibition, without which the project would not have been possible. I would especially like to thank Rosalia Maier-Katkin, Irmi Maunu-Kocian, Marion Bacher and Lena Jöhnk from Goethe Institut USA and John McKinnon, Joseph Hladik and Lal Bahcecioglu from Elmhurst Art Museum. Together with you, we wish to experience the spirit of the Bauhaus in this exhibition, in “productive discord,” as painter Josef Albers said of the community of Bauhaus masters in 1922.
1 Richard Biedrzynski, “Bauhaus. Zur Eröffnung des Darmstädter Archivs auf der Mathildenhöhe,” in Stuttgarter Zeitung, 10.04.1961. 2 Walter Gropius: “I back him up through thick and thin because he opened his ears to all my advice, and I hope he will go on doing this,” cited from Claudia Heitmann, Die Bauhaus-Rezeption in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Etappen und Institutionen, Trier 2001, p. 49. 3 Claudia Heitmann (see note 2), “Die Ausstellung 50 jahre bauhaus – Kulminationspunkt der bundesdeutschen Rezeption,” pp. 224–238. 4 See Rasheed Araeen, “Our Bauhaus others’ Mudhouse,” in Third Text. Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Culture, 6, vol. 3, London, 1989, pp. 3–14. See also the exhibition Magiciens de la Terre, 18 May 1989 – 14 August 1989, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and also the polemic text by Tom Wolfe, From Bauhaus to Our House, New York, 1981. 5 “The urge to abstraction stands at the beginning of all art and remains the primary force in nations at a higher level of culture,” Wilhelm Worringer, Abstraktion und Einfühlung, Munich 1921, p. 19, first published in 1908.