BAUHAUS

Bauhaus was an art school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicised and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933.

The Bauhaus was first founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus during the first years of its existence did not have an architecture department. Nonetheless, it was founded with the idea of creating a “total” work of art in which all arts, including architecture, would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus style later became one of the most influential currents in modern design, Modernist architecture and art, design and architectural education. The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.

Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno) | Redgreen and Violet-Yellow Rhythms 1920
Oil and ink on cardboard 37.5 x 33.7 cm
The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Paul Klee ca. 1921

Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno) | The Man Under the Pear Tree 1921
Watercolor and transferred printing ink on paper, bordered with metallic foil, mounted on cardboard 45.1 × 34.9 cm
The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1987 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

El Lissitzky (Russian, Pochinok 1890–1941 Moscow) | Proun 1923
oil on canvas

El Lissitzky (Russian, Pochinok 1890–1941 Moscow) | In the Studio 1923
Gelatin silver print 10.9 x 8.3 cm
Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The school existed in three German cities: Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932 and Berlin from 1932 to 1933, under three different architect-directors: Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928, Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930 and Ludwig Mies van der Rohefrom 1930 until 1933, when the school was closed by its own leadership under pressure from the Nazi regime. The Nazi government claimed that it was a centre of communist intellectualism. Though the school was closed, the staff continued to spread its idealistic precepts as they left Germany and emigrated all over the world.

El Lissitzky (Russian, Pochinok 1890–1941 Moscow) | Runner in the City ca. 1926
Gelatin silver print 13.1 x 12.8 cm
Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

El Lissitzky at the Bauhaus 1928–1930
Photo by Josef Albers (American (born Germany), Bottrop 1888–1976 New Haven, Connecticut)
Gelatin silver print 41.8 x 29.7 cm
Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno) | May Picture 1925
Oil on cardboard 42.2 x 49.5 cm
The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Walter Gropius with Béla Bartók and Paul Klee in Dessau ca. 1927

Vasily Kandinsky (French (born Russia), Moscow 1866–1944 Neuilly-sur-Seine) | Free Curve to the Point – Accompanying Sound of Geometric Curves 1925
Ink on paper 40 x 30.2 cm – Rogers Fund, 1970 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Paul Klee and Vasily Kandinsky in Dessau ca. 1927
Photo by Nina Kandinsky

The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of focus, technique, instructors, and politics. For instance: the pottery shop was discontinued when the school moved from Weimar to Dessau, even though it had been an important revenue source; when Mies van der Rohe took over the school in 1930, he transformed it into a private school, and would not allow any supporters of Hannes Meyer to attend it.

László Moholy-Nagy (born Hungary, Borsod 1895–1946 Chicago, Illinois) | Fotogramm 1922
Gelatin silver print 17.8 x 23.7 cm
Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

László Moholy-Nagy 1925-1926
Portrait photo by Lucia Moholy-Nagy

Read more here