A modernity project by nevia schultheiss
Background
About the Movement
The State of Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius as a school of arts in Weimar in 1919. As the Bauhaus was a combination of crafts and arts, its nature and concept was regarded a totally new way of approaching design and art. Numerous prototypes of furniture and utility items were created with the goal of "People's necessities, not luxuries". With plain and simple form, the products of the Bauhaus was an artistic revolution. Walter Gropius successfully built himself a international reputation as one of the most influential modern architects. With his new approaches on academic education in the field of fine arts, he united art and society in a way no one did before him. Gropius transformed the “fine arts” being rethought as the “visual arts” and made art seem as a kind of research science less than an adjunct of the humanities. With new materials, the emphasis on function and usage, new shapes and colors, Gropius shifted society from traditional to modern and changed the way society lived in the 20th century.
origin & founding
In the 20th century, modernism developed with the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain in the late 19th century and the Art Nouveau and developed its first theories in the German “Werkbund”, which was the precursor of the Bauhaus.
The history of the Bauhaus movement began in the late 19th century. The aspiring Germany replaced the British as the leading economic power in Europe. Many industrial productions and artisanal methods of the time were adapted from the United Kingdom. The Prussian schools of applied arts, which were mainly based on the arts, got redesigned after the British and expanded to include workshops. Contemporary artists such as Peter Behrens and Henry van de Velde took over the management of the arts and crafts schools in Dusseldorf and Weimar as teachers. EndFragmentThe history of the Bauhaus movement began in the late 19th centuryWell-designed industrial goods were seen as an important factor during that time period, which lead to the founding of the german federation “Werkbund” in 1907. The federations goal was to unify art, industry and trade to create a unique German style of design.
One of the most important thinkers in the arts at that time was the young architect Walter Gropius. As a soldier on the front lines, he made proposals for the establishment of a modern educational institution and called for a radical intellectual change. Gropius was against imitation, snobbery cautioned against such oversimplification as the notion that the function of a product should determine its appearance. As the appointed head of the Grand Ducal Saxon Academy of Fine Arts and the successor of Henry van de Velde, he created the most modern and most controversial art school in the 1920s: The "Staatliche Bauhaus in Weimar". (The Bauhaus)
People
"Masters of the form" the appointed artists of The Bauhaus are called and a master craftsman is there to help with the technicall problems. Johannes Itten, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, who incidentally also looks after the metal workshop, and Josef Albers conduct the pre- and elementary course. Lyonel Feininger teaches the print shop, Gerhard Marcks the pottery, Georg Munch weaving and Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee the wall or stained glass class. Oskar Schlemmer receives responsibility for the two sculptors classes (wood and stone) and the Bauhaus stage.
walter Gropius
The architect and Bauhaus co-founder Walter Gropius was born on 18 May 1883 in Berlin. He came from an upper class family and was a great-nephew of architect Martin Gropius, a Schinkel's pupil. 1903-1908 he studied architecture in Munich and Berlin, but dropped out before he would receive a diploma. In 1910 he came to prominence as architect and industrial designer independently and sat with his architecture and design proposals quickly new standards.
After WW1 Gropius became involved in various groupings for a major redirection of Architecture and began in 1919 with the creation and management of the State Bauhaus in Weimar to put his theories into practice. In 1928 he resigned from this post in order to return to work as a freelance architect. In 1934 he fled from the Nazis to England and in 1937 became a professor at the Harvard University in the US, where he in 1944 took American citizenship. In 1969 he died in Boston as one of the greatest architects of the past century.
Le corbusier
The French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier - full name Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris - was born on 6 October 1887 the Swiss La Chaux-de Fonds. His father was a designer and his mother was a music teacher.
In the year 1900 in his home town, Le Corbusier received an education as a painter, goldsmith and engraver. In 1904 he studied architecture. 1914 he succeeded in the development of his skeletal system "Domino" of reinforced concrete, for the construction of multi-storey buildings.
In1917 Le Corbusier settled as an architect and painter in Paris. He also published an architecture magazin from 1919 to 1925 called "L'Esprit Nouveau", that propagated innovative architecture concepts propagated. He also created himself a internationally and successful known reputation as an architect and furniture designer and in 1929 also as a city planner.
With provocative ideas he determined many contemporary architectural debate - but in the end others received the job. During the war, Le Corbusier seeked the proximity of great leaders like Stalin, Mussolini or Hitler for the realization of his revolutionary ideas. After the war, none of his products were created which was for the better in order to keep his positive reputation. Le Corbusier died on 27 August 1965th
wassily Kandinsky
The Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky was born on December 4, 1866 in Moscow, the son of a tea merchant. Beginning in 1885, he studied law and economics, but started becoming more and more interested in art and painting. Four years after his dissertation and inspired by a French Impressionist exhibition, Kandinsky in 1892 decided to study painting in Munich. With his lover and later wife, the painter Gabriele Münter, he undertook numerous study trips, the very contributed to his artistic development. He founded, inter alia, various art associations, including along with Franz Marc in 1911 in Munich the Blue Rider.
During the 1st World War Kandinsky returned to Russia, where he taught at various state institutions and organized art exhibitions. His artistic rested largely at this time. In 1921 he returned to Germany, where he taught at the Bauhaus school in Weimar from 1922nd This period ended in 1933 with the Bauhaus-closure and the defamation of his work as "degenerate art" by the Nazis. He then went into exile in France where he in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a Paris suburb, died on 13 December 1944th
ludwig mies van der rohe
The later Bauhaus director Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born on 27 March 1886 as Ludwig Mies in Aachen. Later he added his name to his mother's maiden name.
Mies van der Rohe learned from 1887 to 1900 at his father's stonemasonry at the Aachener Dombauschule. From 1903 to 1904 he worked as a draftsman in an Aachen architectural firm and moved 1905 to Berlin. There he met Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer and also know Le Corbusier. 1911/1912 was his design for the German embassy St. Petersburg, which he supervised as a supervisor. In 1912 he started his own business and took orders for mansions of wealthy Berliners.
In the 1920s he was a member and founder of various avant-garde groups, and co-editor of "G". World fame as an architect of modernity he reached at the World Exhibition in Barcelona. 1930-1933 he worked as Bauhaus director.
After its prohibition by the Nazis, he emigrated in 1938 to the United States, opened an architectural office in Chicago and headed the architecture department at the Institute of Technology / Illinois. There was a very creative creative period until his death on August 17, 1969 in Chicago.
paul klee
The Swiss painter and graphic artist Paul Klee was born on December 18, 1879 in Münchenbuchsee / Bern. His father was a German music teacher, his mother a Swiss singer. Besides music, his had a strong interest in drawing and poetry. In 1898 he applied at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. There he studied, after previous graphic studies at a private school, from 1900 to 1901 in the painting class of Franz von Stuck. Klee was friends with many famous painters of his time and made numerous study trips. In 1920 he was appointed by Walter Gropius as a teacher at the Bauhaus in Weimar, where he taught until 1931 - first as master of form, then in a painting class. In 1931 he joined as a professor at the Dusseldorf Art Academy, but was fired in 1933 under pressure from the Nazis, who set many of his works on the list of "degenerate art". After Klee returned to Switzerland, he got ill in 1935 and died on 29 June 1940 at Ticino.
DESIGNS
Numerous prototypes of furniture and utility items were created with the goal of "People's necessities, not luxuries". Many of these prototypes went into mass production in 1925 and the “Bauhaus GmbH” was established. With plain and simple form, the products of the Bauhaus was an artistic revolution. The shape was all about functionality or "form follows function" (Louis Sullivan) and “less is more” (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe). Many of the products are still an integral part of many households today, such as the cantilever chair, the Wagenfeld lamp, or the Wassily chair.
The Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer, designed in 1926, was groundbreaking for the fame of the Bauhaus. It had a sleek design and an innovative use of materials. The design resembled bicycle handlebars. It was light in weight, easy moved, easy produced and built with a new material, seamless-steel that could endure physical tension without faltering, all of what The Bauhaus design stands for.
The Barcelona Pavilion, designed by Mies van der Rohe, was the display of architecture’s modern movement to the world. Originally named the German Pavilion, the pavilion was the face of Germany after WWI, emulating the nation’s progressively modern culture that was still rooted in its classical history. Its elegant and sleek design combined with rich natural material presented Mies’ Barcelona Pavilion as a bridge into his future career, as well as architectural modernism.
As a leader of the Bauhaus, Marcel Breuer used the technological advances of his day in the service of better living. His 1928 Cesca chair married traditional craftsmanship to industrial materials and methods.
Villa Tugendhat is a historical building in the wealthy neighbourhood of Cerna Pole in Brno, Czech Republic. It is one of the pioneering prototypes of modern architecture in Europe, and was designed by the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Built of reinforced concrete between 1928 and 1930 for Fritz Tugendhat and his wife Greta, the villa soon became an icon of modernism.
The student building designed by Walter Gropius is painted in mainly light colors in order to create an attractive contrast to the window frames, which are painted dark. Gropius divided the different parts of the Bauhaus according to their functions and designed at of them differently. Therefore, the wings are arranged asymmetrically, in relation to todays Bauhausstrasse and the Gropiusallee. To observe the full design of the complex, one must move around the whole building as there is no central viewpoint.
The Famous Lounge Chair designed by Charles & Ray Eames in 1956, is arguably one of most aesthetically appealing design pieces in History.
Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand, designed this chair in 1928. The three designers took the idea that form and function should be at service of relaxation, creating a prefect balance between its geometry and comfort.
Cassina LC3 designed in 1928 by, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier.
gallery
Less is more
-Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe