Our lecture on the Bauhaus was very interesting to me, I had never looked that much into it before the lecture and I’m glad I got to learn all about it.

What did I learn:

The Bauhaus was one of the most influential modernist art schools in the 20th century. Its approach to art and deign and the relationship between the arts and technology and society itself had a major impact in art and design in Europe and in America, whenever this school had to close due to the Nazi persecution.

The Bauhaus aimed to reunite fine art and functional design, creating practical objects with the soul of artworks. It was founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius, and  although the Bauhaus abandoned many aspects of traditional fine-arts education, it was deeply concerned with intellectual and theoretical approaches to its subject. Various aspects of artistic and design pedagogy were fused, and the hierarchy of the arts which had stood in place during the Renaissance was levelled out: the practical crafts – architecture and interior design, textiles and woodwork – were placed on a par with fine arts such as sculpture and painting.

The Bauhaus movement itself favoured a geometric style of art and in turn this was intertwined in all aspects including architecture, furniture etc.

The Bauhaus was home to many famous artists and is known for its infamous faculty such as Paul Klee, Walter Gropius, Josef Albers and many more who went on to change the face of art and design forever.

I also learned that De Stijl originated from the Bauhaus and was known as the inter war period. Piet Mondrian was an artist that really stuck out to me because of his revolutionary work in De Stijl, he was one ion the founders and his iconic geometric work is still used and is so relevant today.

The Russian Revolution – 1917

The lecture was also about Kasimir Malevich, El Lissitzy who were both known for their artwork inspired by Russian Constructivism. Some of the most famous artwork that a derived from the Russian Revolution are the posters such as this;

This poster was made by Aleskei Gan with the message “WE DECLARE UNCOMPROMISING WAR ON ART!”.

Gan and his artistic compatriots—including Alexander Rodchenko, considered the founders of the movement known as constructivism, as well as ,Liubov Popova and El Lissitzky, and others—sought new art forms and modes of making art to serve the masses. Art, they believed, had no place in the hermetic space of the artist’s studio. Instead, it should reflect the modern, industrial world; be formulated in laboratories and factories; and be deployed as an active agent in the broader Communist revolution.

I found these communist posters very interring because I love the bold layout and typography that was used to provoke change and a revolution. This showed me how powerful art is and was, and how these artists changed art as they knew it, which was figurative and traditional into constructed pieces used for propaganda.

Paula also gave us lots of examples of artists during this era to look at and create pocket profiles for such as:

Oscar Schlemmer

Wassily Kandinsky

Herbert Bayer

Josef Albers

Jan Tschichold

Laszlo Moholy

Alexander Rodchenko

and I plan to do so because this era of art and revolution and change both in society and the world of art and design is inspiring.