The Bauhaus

Walter Gropius

Walter Gropius was named the director of the Bauhaus after gaining international reputation for his factory design using steel and glass in new ways. He fused the already established Weimar Art and Craft school with the Weimar Art academy to establish the Bauhaus.

Paul Klee

Expressionism inspired the Bauhaus design language during its existence in Weimar, with Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky being prominent figures. Paul Klee utilized a crosspollination of ideas to create drawings from painting that are visually charged. Kandinsky had a vast knowledge of colour which helped his painting stand out.

Johannes Itten

Johannes Itten established a preliminary course for students, which helped them understand the nature of material and the fundamental principal of design in all visual art, until he left the Bauhaus in 1923.

Van Doesburg

Apart from expressionism, De Stijl movement, which was introduced by Lyonel Feininger, contributed to the Bauhaus philosophy. In 1920 Van Doesburg became a driving force for the De Stijl movement that was complimented by his insistence in geometric designs.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

The greatest impact at the Bauhaus came from the constructivist, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy .Who advocated the philosophy of form following function. His experimentation with vast number of materials and visual techniques led to him working with the photogram. These experiments with photogram helped him produce photomontages that solidified his view that photography is about painting. A photogram is produced with the usage of light to get a patterned image without using a camera.  

Herbert Bayer

Typography at the Bauhaus was represented by the works of Herbert Bayer. This prominent typographer was encouraged by Gropius to move to Dessau. He had an extensive use for san-serif and designed a universal type that was clear and simple.

Time Line

·      1919- Bauhaus was established.

·      1920-Von Doesburg came through and taught the De Stijl movement.

·      1920 and 1922- The staff of the Bauhaus was joined by painters Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky respectively.

·      1923-Bauhaus launched on exhibition. Bauhaus moved from a concern of the Art and Craft to using new technology by designing for the machine.

·      1923- Bauhaus evolved from medieval, expressionism, handcraft towards more emphasis on rationalism and designing for machine.Laszlo Moholy-Nagy becomes the head of the preliminary Course at the Bauhaus.

·      1924-Directors all signed resignation letters due to tension with government. Two weeks later the students followed.

·      1925- They moved to the new location. Dessau. They moved after Gropius negotiated with the major Dr Fritz.

·      1926- A new building was designed and occupied.The Bauhaus was renamed Hochschue fur Gestaltung (High School for form) and began a magazine publication in the same year

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·      1927-Hennes Meyer was hired to set up or architectural program and became the director in 1928.

·      1928-Gropius resigned Moholy- Nagy and Bayer left for Berlin to pursue Graphic Design and typography.  

ROLE PLAYERS

Walter Gropius- Walter Gropius was named the director of the Bauhaus.

Paul Klee- Wassily Kandinsky- Visually charged (expressionism).

Johannes Itten-   established a preliminary course for students.

Van Doesburg- Introduced the De Stijl movement with geometric design.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy- A constructivist in design.

Herbert Bayer- A typographer.