The Bauhaus Movement - Essay Example

? Topic – The Bauhaus Movement THE BAUHAUS MOVEMENT The period during the World Wars was much restricted and constrained in itself. Almost every discipline that is required to form a civilized society was bonded by the archaic rules and ideas. Modern, rational thinking was a far sighted thought. But in 1945 when the World War II had ended, a pattern of thinking particularly in arts and architecture began to emerge. This was known as the Bauhaus movement. The presence of eminent personalities from arts and architecture like Joseph Albers, Gropius and Mies who supported the movement was an evidence of the movement gaining acceptance by the people at that time. Every movement in history has gone through phases of controversies and criticisms. The Bauhaus movement too, was no such exception. There were obstructions as well as political interferences. But still the Bauhaus movement was successful in providing a direction to a newly incepted art form which was known as the abstract art (Craig, 2001). The Bauhaus movement laid the foundation stone for the art and architecture that was to be used throughout the 20th century The Bauhaus movement- inception During the initial decades of the twentieth century many chaos and destructions were seen. While at the political level socialism and democracy uprooted monarchy, at the scientific level machines and new technology brought in many changes. It was at this time that visual art fused with new ideas and creation emerged. This growing pattern manifested itself in the form of Expressionism (Ryan and Conver, 2003, pp.49-50). In Expressionism form of art, the person or the objects in context were removed using strong contour lines or bold colors. Around 1907, cubism emerged. Cubism was of two forms – analytical cubism that derived abstracts from living objects and synthetic cubism, which was more metaphorical of the two, emphasized on representing the essence of the object only. Cubism form of art led to the occurrence of several other art movements like the Dadaism, Futurism and the Bauhaus (Arntson, n.d, p.24). The background The name Bauhaus movement was coined from the name Bauhaus that was a German school of crafts and fine arts in Germany during 1919-1933. It was founded by the Walter Gropius who was a German architect in 1919. Post World War II, a movement known as the Bauhaus’s movement began that aimed at the liberation and exploration of American art and artists. Prior to that, much of the focus laid on the European form of art with little scope for their American counterparts The European artists were restricted in their expression of art and architecture. Bauhaus movement uprooted these restrictions and offered new arenas for them to explore. But still in its effort to bring in modernism and incorporate new ideas in its art and architecture it faced severe criticisms from both the public as well as the ruling government in those times. The Bauhaus movement occurred in two stages. It made its appearance during 1919-1936 and gained momentum during its second phase (Craig, 2001, p.112). The initial stage laid the foundation for the acceptance of new ideas .This was implicit from the fact that people from the Bauhaus School of Arts were brought in the country to teach and express their ideas. The second phase saw marked improvement over the first phase in the form of establishment of the renowned artist Joseph Albers at the Black Mountain College in North California and its acceptance of the Bauhaus ideology by the German artist Gropius and German American architect Mies (Craig, 2001, pp.35). The influence of de Stijl on the Bauhaus movement The de Stijl was a Dutch artistic movement that occurred in Netherlands. The Guggenheim museum’s article on the de Stijl stated that the de Stijl form of art focused on the usage of geometrical figures like the straight line, the square, the rectangle in asymmetrical combinations and using pure primary colors with black and white (Ryan and Conver, 2003, p.52). The Bauhaus movement borrowed its ideas on modern art and architecture from the de Stijl works. Though Bauhaus borrowed its ideas from de Stijl works, there were differences between the two. Like Bauhaus used photo elements, circle and curved shapes in its architecture while de Stijl primarily used the rectangles and straight lines (Fein, n.d, p.109). Hitler’s role in the demolishment of the Bauhaus With Hitler at the top of his realm in 1933, the Bauhaus school of architecture suffered a heavy blow and was force to shut down. There was turmoil all around with people fleeing from their country and the ones who chose to stay back had no hope of professional advancements. Under Hitler, intellectual and ideological thinking was completely retreated by his troops. Works by the Bauhaus were defamed and ridiculed to be un-Germanic (Craig, 2001, p. 89). There was prohibition on the production of box like architecture, removal of artwork resembling international or Bolshevik sentiments, artists under the Bolshevik or Marxists affiliation were denied acceptance, removal of sculptures not accepted by the German public and dismissing the people in the museums who had the authority to purchase the so called un-Germanic art (Craig, 2001, p.89). Bauhaus contribution during the industrial revolution in Germany It has been stated by John Heskett that the Bauhaus did not make any significant effect in Germany during the industrial revolution. But they still maintained their presence by manufacturing for broad markets like the tubular metal and wood chair by Marcel Breuer that was manufactured by Thonnet in 1928. Marcel Breuer conceptualized his designs by using two legs for support instead of the conventional four legged support. Apart from these, students from the Bauhaus also developed designs like lighting fixtures that were manufactured by Kortung and Mathieson. Despite its limited contribution in the industrial revolution, the Bauhaus movement was important in the sense that it tried to blend in the idea between art, crafts and industry . (Raizman, 2003, p.186) The Bauhaus movement during the World War II World War II saw the emigration of many eminent Bauhaus participants to America. This included key figures like Marcel Breuer and Joseph Albers (Brackman, 2008, p. 113). Even Walter Gropius migrated to the Harvard (Consuegra, 1894, p.1968) while the new Bauhaus was set in Chicago by Moholy and Nagi in 1937 (Margolin and Buchanan, 2006, p.40) Picassso Art Towards the dawn of the 20th century many new forms of art were taking shape. One of it was the cubism form of art. Picasso was one of the artists who mastered the art of cubism. He began producing more of naturalistic drawings during the period of the war .The cubism from of arts were first traced in the handiworks of Henry Matisse (Harris, 2012, p.6). This art form gained many negative publicity from the public as is evident from the newspaper clip from the Parisian daily paper L’Intransigient published between 1840 to 1848 in 1911 that stated that people generally viewed cubism to be paintings in the form of cubes (Trier, n.d, p.6).This was proved wrong by Pablo Picasso in 1908 when he presented pictures of simple solid houses which gave the image of cubism art to the public (Harris, 2012, p.7). John Ruskin- a critic against the Bauhaus art form While the Bauhaus movement aimed at liberating the art form in America and providing more freedom to the artists in their expression, John Ruskin was the critic who opposed to the concept with much force. He was against the idea of differencing between the training conducted for applied arts the education imparted for teaching fine arts. He believed in non conformists views as regards to teaching art to the young minds (White, 2003, p.34). Critics against the Bauhaus movement The Bauhaus movement faced criticisms during the 2nd World War when Hilter banned its art forms and sculptors as being un-Germanic. Its teachings and teachers attracted the wrath from the conservative Nazi rulers. Likewise john Ruskin was against the idea of separate teaching for applied arts and fine arts (Junker, 2004, p.484). With the advancements in technology that was used in urban development and constructions, in 1953, Rudolf Schwartz severely criticized the Bauhaus movement of architecture. This was due to the emergence of prefabricated materials that was used in building purposes because of which even the architects who had supported the Bauhaus form previously, began to have second thoughts on it (Junker, 2004, p.484). Conclusion The period between 1919 and 1936 was prone to new developments and influences. The Bauhaus movement tried to change the prevailing form of art and architecture during the 19th century. Laden with great vision and thinking from people like Walter Gropius it had been successful in implementing its theories and ideologies to a great extent. It replaced the old and monotonous form of art with its new vision on abstract art like the cubism. Threatened by the colonial rules during World War II in Germany it had to shift its base to America. In America the Bauhaus found a strong foothold as America was still behind in the concept of modern arts and architecture. The first show on modern themes like unemployment, strikes, city and street life in America were depicted in the works of Alfred Stieglitz. Many exhibitions held after that like the exhibition on modern American art in 1920, the modernist show in 1921 in New York’s metropolitan museum of art, the armory show in 1913 in New York that was based on the Cologne Sonderbundausstellung further ignited the idea. Information on the Bauhaus began to circulate through books, journals, films, exhibitions and a form of direct communication between America and Europe. Despite being restricted to few places like New York, Boston, Cambridge, Chicago and Black Mountain College different forms of media contributed in its propagation and helped the movement to acquire a national face in America (Craig, 2001, p.36). During the twentieth century the Bauhaus movement simplified the form of living and its environment. Incorporating static designs and dynamic structural designs in it s layouts was one of the striking features in Bauhaus art from that is seen in art forms and architecture even today (Lipsey, 2004, p.194). So, it can be concluded that despite its shortcoming and minor failures the Bauhaus movement was successful in crafting a new outlook in the field of art and architecture. REFERENCES 1. Arntson, A. E., (1997), College Graphic Design Basics, New York: Harcourt Brace College. 2. Brackman, B. (2008), Making History - Quilts & Fabric from 1890-1970: 9 Reproduction Quilt, Concord: C&T Publishing Inc. 3. Craig, M. K. (2001), The Bauhaus and America: First Contacts, 1919-1936, New York: MIT Press. 4. Consuegra, D. (1894), American Type Design and Designers, New York: The Century Magazine 5. Fein, S., (1992), First drawings: genesis of visual thinking, Exelrod Pr,- Infibeam.com 6. Fein, S., (2003), First Drawings: Genesis of Visual Thinking, London: Paul Chapman Publishing. 7. Gantefuhrer-Trier, A., (n.d), Cubism, Basingstoke: Macmillan Publishing Company 8. Harris, J. (2012), Fractal Architecture: Organic Design Philosophy in Theory and Practice, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press. 9. Junker, D., (2004), The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1945-1990: 1945-1968, Cambridge University Press. 10. Lipsey, R. (2004), The Spiritual in Twentieth-Century Art, Shambhala. 11. Margolin, V. and Buchanan, R., (2006), The Idea of Design, New York: The MIT Press. 12. Raizman, D. (2003), History of Modern Design: Graphics and Products Since the Industrial Revolution, Laurence King. 13. Ryan, W.E. & Conover T. (2003), Graphic communication Today, West Publishing Co 14. White, J. (2003), Rethinking the School Curriculum: Values, Aims and Purposes, London: Taylor & Francis Inc. Read More