avant-garde III: bauhaus

bauhaus:

-weimar --> dessau --> berlin

-started 1919 until 1933

-founder: walter gropius

-"builder's house"

• utopian investment in abstraction

manifesto penned by gropius

craftsman

workshop

world that builds again

learning a trade

return to the crafts

art is not a "profession"

proficiency in craft is essential to every artist

desire, conceive, create new structure of the future

one unity

new faith

reunify all the disciplines of practical art

new architecture

working community

bauhaus educational plan- pedagogical circle
start from outside & go in when you start specializing more
rigorous curriculum for design

• aesthetic unity --> social unity

club chair- marcel breuer
industrial, tubular steel
visual transparency

-functional objects

-typography

-graphic design

-furniture

-sculptures

der schlag gegen das bauhaus (the attack on the bauhaus)- iwao yamawaki 1932
collage reflecting upon nazis' attack

• any art that was modern or avant-garde was consider degenerate
• many of the artists traveled to the U.S. --> open up black mountain college (european modernism makes its way to the U.S.)

program of the staatliche- walter gropius:
-aim of all visual arts is the complete/embellish buildings
-return to the crafts
-proficiency in a craft is essential to artists
-architecture, sculpture, & painting in one unity
-merger of grand-ducal saxon academy of art + grand ducal saxon school of arts & crafts = staatliche bauhaus
-bauhaus: bring together creative effort, reunify disciplines of practical art
-unified art where there is no distinction btwn monumental & decorative art
-know how to design buildings in entirety- structure, finishing, ornamentation, furnishing
-art can't be taught but craft can be
-individuality but strict study discipline