Bauhaus

Bauhaus was founded by Walther Gropius in Weimar in the year 1919 as an art, design and architecture school. The goal of Bauhaus was to bring together art, handcrafts and architecture into one single synthesis of the arts. This guideline is rather strongly oriented on the arts and crafts movement – however, Bauhaus opened itself for new technological possibilities, so that the way to industrial design was smoothed. These artistic ambitions affected interpersonal relationships as well, so that no distinction was made any longer between the artist and the craftsman. Gropius’ goal was, "The final goal for all artistic activity is architecture! ... Architects, sculptors, painters, we must all go back to handwork! ... The artist is an intensification of the craftsman", which he proclaimed in the Bauhaus manifesto. This goal was also continued by his successors Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe after Bauhaus moved to Dessau and Berlin, which had to be done because of political reasons. Particularly under the leadership of van der Rohe, Bauhaus became an architectural school with a strong emphasis on the technical. Formally, Bauhaus stood for simple and clear lines. Under the influence of Moholy- Nagy, photography was also taken up into the Bauhaus program. In 1932, Bauhaus was forced to close; Mies van der Rohe opened it again briefly, but disbanded it shortly thereafter in 1933. Moholy- Nagy founded “the new Bauhaus” in Chicago in 1937.
Important representatives of Bauhaus are: Johannes Itten, Gerhard Marcks, Lyonel Feininger, Georg Muche, Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer, Wassily Kandinsky, Josef Albers und Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.

Related artists:  Albers, Josef  |  Baumeister, Willi  |  Bayer, Herbert  |  Bill, Max  |  Campendonk, Heinrich  |  Dexel, Walter  |  Feininger, Lyonel  |  Grossberg, Carl  |  Hennig, Albert  |  Herbin, Auguste  |  Höch, Hannah  |  Itten, Johannes  |  Kandinsky, Wassily  |  Kerkovius, Ida  |  Klee, Paul  |  Le Corbusier  |  Marcks, Gerhard  |  Moholy-Nagy, László  |  Muche, Georg  |  Reichel, Hans  |  Schlemmer, Oskar  |  Schreyer, Lothar  |  Schwitters, Kurt  |  Wauer, William