3-20-12 Class Notes and Reaction

Notes

 

Bauhaus

14 yrs

33 faculty members

1250 students

1919-1925 in Weinmar – Walter Gropius

1925-1932 in Dessau - Hannes Meyer,

1932-1933 in Berlin - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Dessau is a factory town. School’s art is used in regularly in production.

School in Berlin is an abandoned shoe factory

1923 is the first public exhibition

A utopian desire to create a new spiritual society

Unity of Artists & Craftsmen to build for the future

Ideas from all the Advanced Art and Design Movements were explored and implied to functional design

Walter Gropius-the first director of the Bauhaus(1919-1925). Wanted technology work for society.

Council of Masters: Gerhard Marks-sculpture/pottery. Lionel Feringer-painting. Johannes Itten-preliminary courses(most important).

At the beginning they printed out the manifesto of the Bauhaus. Displayed a woodcut print with stars in a triad symbolizing Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. The idea was that these elements should all work together and overlap.

Itten said there needs to be a core of knowledge that every student should have and then go into specialization.

At the Bauhaus there was an emphasis put on contrast.

Schmidt, a student, produces a poster for the first student exhibition(has elements of cubism and constructivism.

Laszlo Moholy Nagy in a Hungarian constructivist. Experiments with photography, montage, resins, etc. Has incredible influence in the Bauhaus(considered Gropius’ Prime Minister). Looks to unify typography and photography. Typophotography. Essence must be on total clarity. Communication should never be impaired by an aesthetic.

Nagy develops photoplastics

The Bauhaus produced books in where they

Herbert Bayer(a Bauhaus student) creates the universal alphabet, rethinking the communicative property of letters(not successful).

Moderism in a nutshell: Sanserif, asymmetrical, active negative space, implied grid.

1923 young Jan Tschichold goes to the Bauhaus exhibition. It rocks his world. He writes a book explaining the news ways of using typography. In 1928 he writes another typography book with an English translation, which becomes the bible for graphic designers. “The aim of every typographic work to be the delivery of a message in the shortest most efficient manner.”

He furthers modernist typography

The Gestapo kicks in Tschichold’s door and arrests him for subversive activities – his book on typography. Tschichold was considered a “Cultural Bolshevic”. His typography book is confiscated for it’s subversive ideas and promoting communism. He leaves Germany and lives the rest of his life in Switzerland.

Personal Thoughts

Nice to recap on the Bauhaus. It helped to make the information stick. I found it interesting to find out more bout the directors of the school. Also interesting to find out how the Bauhaus inspired Tschichold to write a book on typography. I found it strange how the instructor held it in such high regard and with such enthusiasm. Still blows my mind how the government cracked down on artists such as this typographer and threw them in jail to prevent the spread of their seemingly innocent ideals inspiring new ways of thinking. It really makes me realize how much we take our freedom for granted and that we are even encouraged to constantly find new ways to express any idea we have.

Questions

Even if Ringling started pushing the envelope like the Bauhaus did, do you think it would make a similar mark in the history of art? Has society changed so much that art is now seen as a corporate asset and exploration in art is perhaps not as valued or encouraged in modern day Corporate America? I seems like even though we have some freedom of expression in our classes and independently, we are restricted from exploring new ways of expression in the corporate structure. It seems that as far as projects that make it to the public consciousness, they are just the same things put into a different colored boxes. Has the business world replaced the dictator governments of the past? 

Notes and Reaction 3-13-12

Notes

Suprematists were about pure color and pure emotion.

*Art never evolves without risks.

El Lissitzke questions where art styles and mediums meet and intersect.

Influences De Stijl.

El Lissitzke starts in suprematism but illustrates the shapes in receding planes.

Creates many PROUNs (projects for an establishment for a new art). PROUN-19D and so on were the titles of many of his works. Based in suprematism but uses receding plans.

“Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge” was a propaganda piece against the Bolsheviks.

He wrote a book called “Isms of Art” which used a unique way of titling the sections of German, French, and English with black bars, asymmetrical balances, a new way of using white space, running sanserif, semi opaque images over text, and grids.

*The more clearly you define a problem, the easier it is to solve the problem

Experimentation in photography and film begins to happen at this time. Develops the photomontage and it emerges as a popular filming and photography style. ie Battleship Potemkin

Alexander Rodchenko(1891-1956)

Attends school from 1910-1914 experiments in spatial construction and suprematism

He then moves into constructivism- leading towards modern graphic representation. 1923-1925

Constructivist art is Product-useful design. Creativity has to have a social need

De Stijl 1917-1931

Also known as neoplasticism. Ends abruptly with its Netherlands creator, Theo Van Doesburg.

It is a utopian approach to aesthetics. Based on functionalism.

Two-dimensional rectilinear planes that are void of any decoration aside from flat color.

A mathematical system for the Universe and universal harmony

Best known member was Piet Mondrian (Colored squares, white voids, and black lines)

Theo Van Doesburg went diagonal in many paintings. He also added more planes.

The theory of De Stijl was applied to most everything throughout the decades including the Partridge family bus and contemporary architecture.

Dada movement that comes from the ideal that the world has no meaning and art should reflect that.

“Everything is shit, so let’s reflect that.”

Dadist game – Exquisite Corpse; each person adds and changes the image created before them

Theo Vandosberg ironically embraced Dadism. In order to embrace a new art you had to destroy the old traditions and styles.

Bauhaus (1919-1933) was a school much like RCAD but not as wealthy. 33 faculty members. 2,300 students.

It is after the loss of the First World War; Germany is in ruin.

The school was conceived to gentrify the area and bring in more money to the community.

It’s utopian ideal was to change the world. Looking for a unity of artists and craftsman - to bring them together.

1923 was the school’s first exhibition. There were 3 incarnations of the Bauhaus in very different locations.

It is now during the rise of the Nazis.

The Nazis forced the school from one location to another through fear and violence.

Personal Reaction

I thought that the videos told the story of the artists well. I liked that they showed how the artist of the museum interacted, sometimes in great conflict with each other’s ideas on art. I wonder how close the Russian Revolution came to victory or if it had a chance at all. The video gave a very interesting angle on the Revolution through the aspect of art and how the emerging movements were major casualties in the conflict between freedom and oppression. It was mind-boggling to find out that an artist could get arrested and sent to a concentration camp on the Artic Circle because of his art, which did not seem political or subversive at all. It is terrible how personal expression was wrung out of the people through fear and sometimes violence. I never really knew much about the Russian Revolution before this. Taking history through the angle of art has made it much easier to get interested in these events. The video on the Bauhaus was enlightening. Didn’t know anything about this before – the movement or the school. I felt that I could connect with the students that were depicted. However, it seems that artist back then had much stronger convictions in their art and their ideals than we have today. I suppose it’s because we have had it much easier throughout our lives and haven’t had to fight and struggle, like previous generations did, for our needs and ideologies.

Questions

What influences in art today can be traced back to the school of Bauhaus?

How was art so different from craft before the Bauhaus?

Were there other artists in that movement that have left a lasting impression on the field of art?

Were there other artists that were sent to concentration camps or prison because of their art?

And how many of those were incarcerated for just doing what they loved and not for being political?