The Bauhaus - Research Paper Example

Bauhaus was an arts that operated between 1919 to the end of 19331. The was founded by Walter Gropius and was located in Weimar. This paper shall critically analyze whether Bauhaus succeeded in merging art with mass production and technology what challenges they went through and if at all their ideals were limited to design for an elite. The Bauhaus succeeded in merging art with mass production. However, their activities and actions were opposed by the principles of Nazism. Because of great opposition from Nazism, the teachers of this school went in to exile, and they continued to spread the ideals of Bauhaus in whatever country that they lived in2. Take foe instance the pottery department of the Bauhaus was moved from Weimar, to Dessau, because of oppression from the government, in its bid to stop the organization from spreading the ideals and principles of Bauhaus. With the defeat of Germany during World War 1, Germany experienced an increase in various experiments that advocated for the promotion of arts. Most of these were political in nature, and this is the difference between the German art of this period, and the one that was being advocated by Walter Gropius. Therefore, the principle of Bauhaus was not political, and this was able to appeal to a large group of people, which in turn led to the embrace of these principles of Bauhaus. Furthermore, the influence of Bauhaus is depicted on the works of William Morris. William Morris denoted that there is no need of creating a boundary between function and form, and art should always carter for the needs of the society. This was a major principle and teachings of art that was advocated by the Bauhaus3. Another important achievement of Bauhaus is modernism. Modernism was a cultural movement tracing its origins from the late 1880s. For instance, before the set up of the institution, the principles of functionality, mass production, and the merger of arts, and crafts had began in Germany. These are some of the ideals of Bauhaus. In the year 1907, Deutscher Werkbund, a German national designer’s organization had been formed under the leadership of Herman Muthesius to harness and collect the potentials of mass production with the single aim of maintaining Germans economy in its competitiveness with the English economy. Over the first few years the organization came to be known as the authoritative body on design in within Germany and was emulated by many other countries4. The Bauhaus was founded when most of the German designers had moved from employing emotions in their designs to employing new objectivity and facts5. It is noted that a lot of German architects turned away from creative experimentation to functional, rational, and standardized procedures of design. Beyond where the Bauhaus’ influence was felt, many German designers applied the very same techniques of standardization, use of facts and little or no influence of artistic ideas i.e. beauty and fanciful experimentation6. It is perceived by many that Gropius was against the use of expressions in art, commonly referred to as expressionism. However, he himself in the year 1919 prepared a pamphlet stating a new craftsmanship that was based on expressions. However, by the year 1923, he was no longer championing for images and craftsman driven aesthetics but advocated that architecture and art I general should be adapted to world machines i.e. cars, construction machines, earth movers, computers, radios, and even electricity7. He insisted that the new period of art and design had begun and the history had gone with the war and with this wanted to create a new architectural style that reflected the techniques, tools, and way of thinking of the new era. He greatly influenced his style of architecture and design of consumer goods to be cheap, functional, and consistent with technology and mass production. With this influence, he managed to unite art, craft and technology in the creation of high end functional products that have artistic merits8. The influences of his teachings have been greatly felt in the United States of America (USA), as well as Great Britain prompting designers to have a new skill and type of art education going hand in hand with the institutions philosophy (The artist should get trained to work with the industry in the industry). Bauhaus has had a very great effect and impact on the trends of architecture and art in the United States of America, Western Europe, Israel, as well as Canada. This was greatly catalyzed by the fact that many idealists of Bauhaus fled to most of these nations after being exiled by the Nazi regime. In the year 2004, Tel Aviv was included in the World Heritage sites of the United Nations by greatly having and embracing Bauhaus architecture, Tel Aviv is known for having over 4000 buildings of Bauhaus architecture erected from the year 1933. In the year 1928, a Hungarian painter by the name Bortnyik Alexander opened up a school of design in Budapest by the name Mugely meaning Studio. His intention was for it to be the Bauhaus reflection in Hungary. In other forms of literature available the institution is referred to as Budapest Bauhaus9. The Hungarian painter had met with Gropius in Weimar and had shared a lot in the same line of ideology. Gropius and Marcel Breuer settled in Britain during the 1930s, there, they lived and worked in the Isonko project before the Second World War caught up with them. Both of them later went to teach in the Harvard school of design, there, their collaboration produced great works of architecture and these include; Aluminum terrace city in Pennsylvania, New Kensington, and the famous Frank house located in Pittsburg. It’s is a result of this that great pioneers graduated from the school and these include Paul Rudolf, Phillip Johnson and Lawrence Halprin, all of who have greatly benefited from Bauhaus ideologies and have greatly influenced the world of art by using the knowledge acquired to combine crafts and arts with technology and contemporary means of mass production10. The impact of Bauhaus on education and design has been very significant over the years. Its main objective was to unify craft, art, and technology. This is the approach that was incorporated in its curriculum. The institution had a preliminary course, referred to as the Bauhaus Vorkurs, which greatly relied on the integration of application and theory. Students in their first years of study learned some of the basic principles of design and experimented on a large rage of materials as well as processes. This principle in design adopted by the institution became the ideal principle for most schools of architecture and design across the globe. A good example is the Shilton School of design in Sydney Australia11. Its color and design syllabus closely matches that one used in Bauhaus and is completely based on Bauhaus principles and ideologies. Another great contribution of Bauhaus is in the field of furniture. Some of the most celebrated furniture’s whose designers borrowed design principles from Bauhaus are the Wassily chair and the Cantilevel chair. Bauhaus physical plant in the city of Dessau survived the harshness of the Second World War and started operating as a design institution with some architectural and was controlled by the German democratic republic12. This not only included teaching but showcased live productions on stage in the Bauhaus theater. After the reunification of Germany, the institution continued with no essential roots from Bauhaus under Walter in the 1920s. In later years, Bauhaus-Dessau collage was started, its intent was to help organize postgraduate programs and it facilitated this with participants from all over the world and the college has received a lot of support from the Bauhaus-Dessau foundation that was initially started in the year 1974 and is a public institution13.Some of the key ideas of Bauhaus included the following; The major motivations behind the creation of Bauhaus lay in the 19th century. It resulted from people anxieties of the spaces that existed in the manufacturing sector as well as in the products produced. Creativity and manufacturing were not being used together and were drifting apart. Bauhaus aimed at unifying the tow again and bringing in new color to everyday design. Although the institution abandoned much of the academic ethics in the older academics, it retained some of the intellectual pursuits it deemed worth it in the discipline. It has linked these older techniques to newer techniques and has used this combination to emphasize craft, art, and practical skills that were more of missing14. The combination of fine art and craft were brought together by Bauhaus with the aim of solving the problems of design in modern industrial societies. By this, the institution effectively put the old hierarchy of art and craft at the same level, hence, paving a way for new ideas for new ideas that have inspired a lot of artistic adventures in the 20th century and the 21st century. The institution stressed on the use of experimentation in problem solving and this proved enormously beneficial to the approaches in education and in arts. This lead to a new thinking of final art, it’s now seen as visual art and is now combined with more technology.Central to its operations, the institution had a very influential curriculum. The curriculum was characterized by a six month course that laid emphasis on practical analysis15. Specifically, this curriculum concentrated in imparting skills on how to mix the elements of color and materials to come up with a piece of art. There was a three year course that focused on problems related to form, and practical lessons, whose main instructions was to impart knowledge on the issues of functionalism. This was done through geometric and simplified forms that increased the ease of production by properly designing products. In the contemporary world, the works and influences of the institution have been greatly accepted and appreciated. This can be reflected upon by the mushrooming of other institutions in the world that adopt Bauhaus principles and ideologies. A good example is Vkhutemas a state owned technical school in Russia. Founded a year after Bauhaus, it greatly coincides with Bauhaus in terms of scope, intent, as well as organization16. These are the first two institutions in the world to teach students in a modern manner artistic design.Both institutions were state owned initiatives commissioned with the task merge traditional arts and crafts with modern technology and means of mass production. The institutions achieved this by introducing new courses this includes; courses in color theory, courses in aesthetic principles, architecture, as well as industrial design. From the above information it is clear that the ideologies by Bauhaus have been very influential in and have had great impact in the field of designs. It is clearly brought out Bauhaus has achieved its goal, of adhering in a new era of where crafts, art and technology could be used together to improve work. These new techniques especially championed upon by Walter have been used in mass production and architecture. They have also been used in various fields of design and have greatly improved various industries. A majority of companies employ these techniques and have been very fruitful. It is clear that Bauhaus underwent some challenges andthis has been illustrated above, one of them being political pressure from the Nazi regime that viewed them as advocates of communism. Most of the scholars including Walter had to seek refuge in other countries. Additionally, the Second World War caused a lot of damage to most of Bauhaus infrastructure and this greatly affected the remaining remnants of the institution. Bibliography: Barter, Judith A. "Designing for Democracy: Modernism and Its Utopias." Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies (2001): 7-105. Top of Form Bergdoll, Barry, and Leah Dickerman. Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2009. Bottom of Form Gropius, Walter. The new architecture and the Bauhaus. Vol. 21. MIT Press, 1965. Gropius, Walter. "“The Theory and Organization of the Bauhaus”(1923)." Art in Theory: 1900- 1990 (1992). Read More