This week we crossed over the history of the bauhaus and its design/ artistic revolution to propaganda, Nazism and WW2. I learned about some key figures that were featured as part of the Bauhaus such as:
Theo Van Doesburg was a Dutch artist who was best known as a founding member of the DeStijl art movement in 1917. De Stijl influenced the school of design of Bauhaus due to the use of strict color pallet horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. The reason this had such an influence on the Bauhaus at the time is due to the use of basics within the Bauhaus designs such as limitation to geometric shapes (squares, triangles, circles) and primary colours (Red, Blue, Yellow). I learned that one of Doesburg’s most noticeable pieces of work that in my opinion could relate to the Bauhaus was ‘the cow.’ This painting featured the deconstruction of a cow into just geometric shapes.
Upon going through a lot I learned a lot about the Bauhau, its influence of modern design and the impact it had during WW1 and WW2. Starting with it being founded in 1919 in the city of Weimar by German architect Walter Gropius. The Bauhaus combined elements of both fine arts and design education, they seemed to be very open in terms of art and design aspects yet usually wanted to relate back to the basics from produced artists in their stay such as:
Josef Albers
Josef Albers - Artworks & Biography | David Zwirner
Herbert Bayer
.jpg)
Herbert Bayer | Artnet | Page 2
Sadly in 1933 the Bauhaus was pushed under so much pressure by the Nazi party during ww2 due to them viewing the schools art as ‘degenerate’ and with this many of the famous artists had a target on their back, engaging them to flee the country to western countries. However, with the sudden closure of the Bauhaus it’s impact it had back then was so strong it and its artists would go on to revolutionise the artists, design and creative industries especially as it leaned towards the modern era.
Following this, the influence would go on to bring on a new movement within the industry, Modernism. The reason the Bauhaus was known to influence this movement was all to do with the style it created. Sleek, streamlined style, use of modern materials, and keeping with the geometric shapes.