Bauhous
The Bauhaus was a school whose approach to design and the combination of fine art and arts and crafts proved to be a major influence on the development of graphic design as well as much of 20th century modern art. Founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany in 1919, the school moved to Dessau in 1924 and then was forced to close its doors, under pressure from the Nazi political party, in 1933. The school favoured simplified forms, rationality, functionality and the idea that mass production could live in harmony with the artistic spirit of individuality. Along with Gropius, and many other artists and teachers, both Laszlo Moholy-Nagyand Herbert Bayer made significant contributions to the development of graphic design. Among its many contributions to the development of design, the Bauhaus taught typography as part of its curriculum and was instrumental in the development of sans-serif typography, which they favoured for its simplified geometric forms and as an alternative to the heavily ornate German standard of blackletter typography.
Until the present day, the Bauhaus has been a synonym for brave, rational and functional schemes in art, architecture and design. The "cool" aesthetics still seems tremendously modern and is considered to be beautiful. In contrast, to the people that were faced with modern architecture for the first time in the 1920's, the new houses and Bauhaus items, whose appearance was certainly unusual back then, were often shocking.
Many prototypes of furniture and consumer goods are produced in the practical training, which can go into industrial mass production, when the "Bauhaus GmbH" is founded in 1925. Ideal items are intended to be produced for the future society under the motto of "the needs of the people instead of the need for luxury". With their plain and simple form, the Bauhaus products are a design revolution. Functionality comes first, or in other words: form follows function. Many of the products developed by Bauhaus have become an integral part of modern households, both the original designs and their derivatives, such as the cantilever chair, the Wagenfeld lamp or the Bauhaus wallpaper.
Some people, however, do not like the radical ideas and applications of the Bauhaus artists. From the very beginning, opinions differ strongly with regard to the items and buildings, which are something completely new for the society of the 1920's. Conservative circles have always been annoyed by the leftist and internationalist members of Bauhaus. When the National Socialists seize power in 1933, the Bauhaus is closed immediately. Many of the renowned artists emigrate to France, Great Britain, Switzerland and the US.
Bibliography:
- The Art Story. 2017. Bauhaus Movement, Artists and Major Works | The Art Story. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-bauhaus.htm. [Accessed 18 December 2016].Â
-Â Author: Alexandra Griffith Winton. 2017. The Bauhaus, 1919â1933 | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bauh/hd_bauh.htm. [Accessed 20 December 2016].













