Bauhaus
The
Bauhaus was an experimental art and design school in Germany that lived only a
short life, however its legacy lives on. Its short fourteen year life began in Weimar
in 1919, where it remained for only six years before relocating to Dessau in
1925. Its final location was in Berlin where it closed in 1933, as things were
changing in Germany in the lead up to World War II.
The
Bauhaus wanted to combine art, design and crafts to produce practical,
functional and clean looking pieces. They wanted to take a step away from
traditional forms of expression and the late 19th Century to early 20th
Century styles. Bauhaus were pioneers in Modernism and the roots of many things
we see today began in the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus used simple shapes and colours,
they believed the shapes triangle, circle, square to be primary shapes, just as
the colours red, yellow, blue are primary colours. One
of the most iconic Bauhaus creations in this style, is the Bauhaus cradle, as
pictured below. The style ‘Avant Garde’ also
has its roots in the Bauhaus. Avant Garde is a style and a font inspired by the
Bauhaus, the font was created by Herb Lubalin with geometric shapes and a set
square. Avant Garde is also a military metaphor, which when applied to art
suggests a social and political struggle alongside forward movement and
progress.
The
philosophies of the Bauhaus include the absence of ornamentation, that form
should follow function. To harmonise craftmanship with the ability to be mass
produced. Bauhaus believe art is craft and craft is art; Bauhaus wanted to harmonise
the two. Finally, that the Bauhaus is both a school and a philosophy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p029bf2g
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