The Bauhaus

In week 5 Pauline delivered a presentation titled ‘The Revolution and The Bauhaus’. She began the lecture exploring the past and started with the history of the Russian revolution and the De Stijl movement. Moving on from this period of time we came to the Bauhaus and this section in particular peeked my interest.

What is the Bauhaus ?

The Bauhaus was a German art school that opened its doors in 1919 but closed in 1933 due to government interfernce, it was an art school that focused on fine art and crafts. Bauhaus was an influential art and design movement that began in 1919, Weimar Germany. The Bauhaus’ ideals spreader worldwide and it still influences designers today.

Influential Artists

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian-born American painter, sculptor, designer, theorist, photographer, and art teacher. Moholy-Nagy was known as the genius of all media. His vision was to make art that consisted of pure visual fundamentals that includes – colour, light, texture and forms. He worked in the Bauhaus for 5 years, here he focused on typographic design and experimental film. I have included some painting he made that I was particularly fond of.

The Yellow Circle, 1921

Moholy-Nagy had a great gift of teaching students to enhance and focus on their natural visual gifts, as he once stated-

 “Everybody is talented.”

 

 

Composition from Masters’ Portfolio of the Staatliches Bauhaus (Meistermappe des Staatlichen Bauhauses). (1923)

Personally I find his work modern and straightforward. I respect his vision and method in creating his art pieces and it has reminded me that the simple fundamentals of art and creating art are the the most important aspects and by focusing on those, will result in the production of the best pieces of work.

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist, Kandinsky is known for being a pioneer for abstract art.

Intersecting Lines, 1923

From researching this artist I discovered he believed greatly in the expressiveness of colours and he compared certain colours to various musical instruments. For example he compared yellow to the aggressive earthly sound of a trumpet and the colour blue was compared to the heavenly sound of the pipe organ. I have never heard of an artist use this creative technique before,  and when I look at his paintings I can feel the music somehow.

Composition VIII, 1923

Kandinsky drew great inspiration from music in his art-

“The sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would express bright yellow with base notes or dark lake with the treble.”

Kandinskys’ artworks remind my of a crazy, nonsensical child’s story book, I can invision his shapes and colours in an animated story. Perhaps I will one day use his methods and style for a project like that or something similar that has a lot of colour involved…

Bauhaus Typography

The Bauhaus is responsible for the creation of San Serif and Bauhaus fonts. The Bauhaus font was created in 1969 and to me some characters resemble a stencil effect, which I haven’t yet seen in my typography research journey. Overall this typeface embodies simplicity and straightforwardness, it’s even and easily readable and I feel as though it perfectly resembles the Bauhaus’ vision and characteristics.

Reflection

I thoroughly enjoyed this lecture and looking at of artwork within this movement. From researching the work of The Bauhaus I have discovered the characteristics to be:

• simple and straightforward
• modernity
• material integrity
• practicality

I have also discovered that this movement has a type face which I enjoyed researching as I have never researched a font quite like it. I have learned that the Bauhaus had several of the worlds most influential artists and they promoted the idea of the ‘total work of art’, among many other inspiring important ideals and visions that has shaped the design world today. This particular lecture has reminded me to always focus on the key fundamentals while designing and it is important to remember that this monumental art school and movement still inspires many even today!