my bauhaus essay

1920s Bauhaus

In this essay I’m going to write about the Bauhaus. The school mainly looked into the areas of art that I find interesting, such as architecture, product design, graphic design, and how looks at it more from a design prospect instead of copying other artist or making art just for the aesthetic use. I will include the social history and what was happening at the time to cause what happened to the school. The philosophies of each of the directors will be included, then go on to say what they did as artists. All three of the directors were architects which is why I want to look at them more closely, as they all have different ideas of how they wanted the school to be run, but more importantly, different ways in which they worked and how they responded to what was going off around them. I will mention Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus in Weimar, Hannes Meyer and when the school moved to Dessau then finally go on to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe where the Bauhaus finally shut down for good in Berlin.

Social history

The war ended in 1918, but when Germany was defeated, it changed everything. First of all the government fell apart and then Kaiser Willhelm fled to Holland, the dictator at the time. Rebellion started with the Navy, causing food riots and Germany having to sign the Armistice in November 1918. Germany weren’t a great place to be. Within the political chaos, members of the Reichstag decided to set up a new democratic government in ‘Weimar Republic’. This proved to be a good move as it involved the bill of rights, equality between men and women, including the chance to vote and protecting the people’s freedoms. Fredrick Edbert was elected as the president of the republic, which was then in power to create laws and run the government. This seemed like a good plan in the beginning as the people was voting for what they believed in, but with politicians wanting to be elected the Germans found they felt attacked to vote for them instead of choosing them out of free will. They were two main groups: the communists (left wing Germans) these hated the new government and didn’t want the democracy, whereas nationalists (right wing Germans) believed that it was the governments fault they lost the war and not the army. There were also other parties trying to gain the vote leading to a point where no parties could get a majority vote so the laws they wanted to pass couldn’t be.

Philosophies of Weimar Bauhaus: Walter Gropius

Bauhaus means building house. Walter Gropius was the founder of the Bauhaus. He wanted to create a school which broke the barriers between the three major art forms: craftsmanship, architecture and industrial production and putting students together which wouldn’t normally work together. Instead of sitting at a desk and designing on paper and copying sculptures from other artists, they were given materials to come up with their own designs and working by making 3d sketches, maquettes. Gropius called this ‘fundamental research’. This worked by having a craftsman and an artist working side by side to teach the classes, one teaching the skills and the other with the aesthetics. He wanted the school to take ordinary objects and modernise them, making them more efficient, simpler and cheaper, moving on from the Art Nouveau’s detailed design. They believed in very simplistic design and that beauty came from the object within itself.

Walter Gropius

Gropius was born in berlin into an upper middle class family. He trained as an architect in Munich and Belin for four semesters, following his great uncles footsteps which was also a successful architect. This education set him up to move on to design furniture, wallpapers, objects for mass production, automobiles and even a diesel locomotive for his own company in 1910. I really like the kettle he designed as I like the sleek shape and angles but also how it’s not over detailed in how it’s used, such as the lid. In the same year as opening his own company Gropius also became a member of the Deustscher Werkbund (German Work Federation) and served on the western front in world war one which he experienced as a catastrophe. He later moved on to become the head of the Work Council for Art in 1919, a radical group of artists where he joined in on a chain letter that called for the "dissolution of the previous foundations" of architecture and the "disappearance of the personality" of the artist. By this time he was starting the Bauhaus where he was able to put the ideas from this chain letter into action. Not only that, but he wanted to make art a social concern after the war upheaval and showed great commitment to the Bauhaus. Gropius interests me for these reasons and I liked the idea of the way the he thought art should be taught but also looked upon. I’ve not seen much of his work as an architect but a lot as a product designer and they really inspire my work with the shapes and concepts behind them.

Philosophies of Dessau Bauhaus: Hannes Meyer

When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau it was moved into a new purpose built home which reflected the core Bauhaus values. Meyer didn’t believe in the artistic approach and moved away from this to a more scientific approach, by separating how it was taught. To do this he brought in new subjects such as architecture, natural sciences, technology and humanities. Which to me makes sense in a way as what the students were doing would be then be taken in more a contextual ways and have more meaning. He wanted them to meet requirements of industry and also fit in socially. By doing this it expanded what kind of people came out of the Bauhaus, not only artists but also production or construction engineers as well. Meyer scrapped the original idea of the Bauhaus, Gropius’s  ‘’exploration of the principle of design’’ and changed it to the up and coming approach of ‘’life processes’’ of the future users. He was all for the mass production side of things which were becoming an overwhelming priority. Other subjects were added to co-inside with this idea, such as photography, this became part of the advertising departments and urban planning. By changing the principles from the founder’s ideas, it caused problems as Gropius was still as much a part of the Bauhaus still even with this resignation and with the communists parties growing more popular the students became more of a problem, becoming more concerned with the political views. This was when Gropius had had enough as Meyer weren’t doing anything about it and ended up having Meyers fired in order to try and keep the Bauhaus from getting shut down due to political reasons. Gropius recommended Mies van der Rohe and in the end Meyer was dismissed by the city of Dessau. Their reasoning behind this was for bringing politics into the house and creating a haven for communism and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became the director.

Hannes Meyer

Hannes came from a family of architects and started his own career in 1905. He was trained in Basel as a mason and a construction draughtsman. He later worked for architect Georg Metzendorf as the office manager and worked on the planning of the Krupp Margarethenhöhe housing estate in Essen. Meyer also worked as a team with Hans Wittwer to design the school of ADGB (Federation of German Trade Unions) near berlin. I really like how the constructivist style shines through. In 1927 he moved on to become the director of the Bauhaus at the new building where he really got his ideas across. He believed that building, as a design of the human environment was based on society. This is what he wanted to get across and to do it was ‘’harmonious organization of out society’’ was therefore achieved through ‘’life supporting design’’. He didn’t like the fact that the Bauhaus were creating products that were expensive and only aimed at a certain type of buyer and not making it more affordable for the everyday people. This was then the Meyers slogan appeared as ‘‘the people’s needs instead of the need for luxury!” I thought his ideas were very strong and can understand what he was trying to do. He was known as the unknown Bauhaus director and I think its because of the communist and political views he accepted while he was at the school and I also don’t think Gropius liked the influence he created either. He returned to Europe after, hoping to help with the cities that had been destroyed during the war but wasn’t accepted so he returned home to Switzerland.

Philosophies of Berlin Bauhaus: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

With the school in uproar with the radicalised student body, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was appointed the director in 1930 to help calm things down and keep the school in Dessau. The Nazis more and more controlled Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was being pressured by closure, his short time at the Bauhaus was. They made the curriculum more conventional, experimental work was reduced, tuition fees rose and studies were shortened. The whole Bauhaus purpose was being taken away piece by piece. A main difference was the workshops being combined and the preliminary course was completely got rid of. The problem was that Dessau was now being over run with National Socialists and with the student body committing to the communist beliefs; Ludwig Mies van der Rohe struggled to keep the Bauhaus in Dessau. It closed in 1932 with the newly elected city council (majority being national socialists) being behind it. The Bauhaus ended up having to move to Berlin as a private institute, based in an empty telephone factory. Where contracts such as Kandem Lamp Company and the rasch wallpaper factory had to follow. This move didn’t last very long as the whole of Germany was being dominated by the national socialists and ended up having to close the Bauhaus for good in 1932 due to the Nazis acclaiming them t be communists. The Bauhaus only lasted a short fourteen years but in them years created a big difference for artists and engineers alike.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German born architect. A lot of his early work was mainly housing and residential buildings. By only the age of 20 years old he got his first independent commission, the Riehl house, which was intended as a house to visit during the weekends and holidays in Neubabelsberg. The house is simple and but practical and you can see the influences of the early nineteen century. I like the slopes of the topside windows as they slope into the roof. Once established in the architect world however, he moved on to education. This was where, in 1930, he became director of the Bauhaus and led it for 3 years. He didn’t just stop there, in 1938 he moved to Chicago, where he taught at the Armour institute. Here he insisted you must learn to draw, and then move on to getting to know materials and gaining full knowledge and then finally master the fundamental principles of design and construction. A different way than what the Bauhaus was doing, where Gropius believed in learning with materials first.

hannes meyer

-Hannes Meyer, the son of an architect, began his architectural career in 1905 with training as a mason and construction draughtsman in Basel. He also attended construction courses at the vocational school there.

-n 1916, he became the office manager for the Munich architect Georg Metzendorf, for whom he worked on the planning of the Krupp Margarethenhöhe housing estate in Essen.

-Designed by Hannes Meyer and Hans Wittwer, the school of the ADGB (Federation of German Trade Unions) in Bernau near Berlin is still considered to be a paradigmatic example of functional architecture. The architectural style of the school, built in 1930 for union functionaries, corresponds with that of an industrial facility in that it dispenses entirely with extraneous details.e experimented in 1926/27 with constructivist forms and functionalist methods

-In 1927, Hannes Meyer arrived at the Bauhaus Dessau with his business partner Hans Wittwer and assumed a post as director of the newly established building department. 

-For Hannes Meyer, building, as the design of the human environment, was “based on society”. The goal, the “harmonious organisation of our society”, was therefore to be achieved through “life-supporting design”. Meyer represented the standpoint that the Bauhaus had abandoned its idea of designing “for the people”: most of the Bauhaus products were already expensive and therefore reserved for an exclusive group of buyers. As a result, Meyer‘s new slogan was: “The people’s needs instead of the need for luxury!”

In 1949, he returned to Europe. His hopes of participating in the reconstruction of the war-torn cities were dashed, and he returned to his homeland of Switzerland, where he was unable to realise any further projects.

Hannes Meyer, who is also referred to as the “unknown Bauhaus director”, was always too Communist for some and too bourgeois for others. Only in retrospect does it become clear that he probably had a stronger influence on the Bauhaus than Gropius may have wanted to believe.

brutalist buildings 1950s

Brutalist architecture is a movement in architecture that flourished from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, descended from the modernist architectural movement of the early 20th century. The term does not derive from the word "brutal", but originates from the French béton brut, or "raw concrete", a term used by Le Corbusier to describe his choice of material. British architectural critic Reyner Banham adapted the term into "brutalism" (originally "New Brutalism") to identify the emerging style.
Brutalism became popular for educational buildings (especially university buildings), but was relatively rare for corporate projects. Brutalism became favoured for many government projects, high-rise housing, and shopping centres to create an architectural image that communicated strength, functionality, and frank expression of materiality.
More recently, "brutalism" has become used in popular discourse to refer to buildings of the late twentieth century that are large or unpopular – as a synonym for "brutal" – making its effective use in architectural historical discourse problematic.

habitat 67

experimental modular housing presented by Moshe Safdie at the 1967 World Expo in Montreal as a vision for the future of cities. a three-dimensional landscape of 354 stacked concrete "boxes", Habitat 67 pioneered the combination of two major housing typologies – the urban garden residence and the modular high-rise apartment building.
The original masterplan involved over 1,000 residences, alongside shops and a school. This was scaled down to just 158 homes, forming a 12-storey complex located beside the Saint Lawrence River in the centre of the city.
The public recognised in Habitat the possibility that high-rise living could be more like living in a village and have the quality of life of a house than what they associated with the negatives of apartment housing. While there were many theoretical proposals floating in the air at the time, the fact that we had the opportunity to realise Habitat, and for 50 million people to experience it during Expo as a real and living environment, suggested that this was a possible future reality."
To allow the prefabricated construction process to take place on site, a factory was built beside the site to produce the concrete modules, which were to be connected by high-tension rods, steel cables and welding.
Safdie believed this to be the most cost-efficient solution – a decision that ultimately backfired with costs spiralling to CAD$22 million, which represented about CAD$140,000 per home.

park hill Sheffield



Designed by Ivor Smith and Jack Lynn, a pair of young architects working at that time for Sheffield City Council, Park Hill was one of the most ambitious inner-city housing projects of its era.When the estate opened in 1961, it was credited as being the first successful community-wide slum clearance since the end of the Second World War. But by the 1980s it had a reputation as one of Britain's most notorious "sink estates", with high levels of crime, anti-social behaviour and poverty.
The complex is made up of a series of interconnected blocks constructed using concrete frames, which were left exposed and infilled with yellow, orange and red brick
To foster a sense of community spirit, families re-housed in Park Hill were put next to their original neighbours, and the streets around the site were named after the original roads the project was built over.
As well as homes, the complex accommodated pubs, schools, doctor and dental clinics, plus an assortment of shops that included a butcher, baker, pharmacy, newsagent, and fish and chip shop.
Unfortunately, the collapse of the steel industry – Sheffield's biggest income provider and employer – in the 1980s brought the radical ideals of Park Hill to an end. As money ran out, pubs were boarded up and the labyrinth of passages and decks became the perfect place for antisocial behaviour, vandalism and crime.
The fortunes of the complex changed in 1997 when Park Hill was granted a Grade II listing by English Heritage, making it the largest listed building in Europe.

http://www.dezeen.com/2014/03/12/channel-4-to-broadcast-alternative-to-insulting-brutalist-housing-estate-ident/

nancy holt - land artist

sun tunnels

1973–76, is built on forty acres, which I bought in 1974 specifically as a site for the work. The land is in the Great Basin Desert in northwestern Utah, about four miles southeast of Lucan (pop. ten) and nine miles east of the Nevada border.

Sun Tunnels marks the yearly extreme positions of the sun on the horizon—the tunnels being aligned with the angles of the rising and setting of the sun on the days of the solstices, around June 21st and December 21st. On those days the sun is centered through the tunnels, and is nearly center for about ten days before and after the solstices.

During the day, the sun shines through the holes, casting a changing pattern of pointed ellipses and circles of light on the bottom half of each tunnel. On nights when the moon is more than a quarter full, moonlight shines through the holes casting its own paler pattern. The shapes and positions of the cast light differ from hour to hour, day to day, and season to season, relative to the positions of the sun and moon in the sky.

https://artforum.com/inprintarchive/id=35992

1970s architecture

1970s interiors

very wooden, natural, browns and reds

doesn't look that much different from ikea and modern day products

lowered living rooms 

60s video

1950s presentations

illustration (matt)
- short animations
- advertising
-50% increase in salary and introducing the credit card
- propaganda due to cold war
- movie posters and billboard
- children illustrations
- dr seuss

feedback
 - should try and not read off the board
- go into more detail on areas that interest him more
- looked into different areas in him subject area



fashion (kim)
-big skirts/ pattern/ colour
- trousers still fashionable
- wandering waistlines
-1920s influenced
- housewives targeted - baby boom
- shapely women
- mass produced fashion
- teenage fashion

feedback
- your opinions
- artists?
- area of you like



animation ( jordan)
- golden age of animation
- disney, warner brothers
- popular characters
- first oscar for animation
- racism was a huge issue in looney tunes

feedback
- speak to audience
- more detail
- interest
- other types of animation -links with illustration?



architecture (me)
feedback
- face the front
- speak clearer
- very detailed
- bullet point so people can take notes
- didn't read off the screen



abstract expressionism (emma)
- jackson pollack - dripping paint with sticks, changed his style from the 30s
- influences from around the world
- mark tobey - influences from around the work with text in

feedback
- stop spinning, a little distracting
- look at artist we haven't looked at before
- opinion on it
- say what other artist do and not just the names
- a lot of pauses



costume and special fx ( stacey)
- creature from the black lagoon video
- ben chapman played the man
- found interview on what was used etc
- makeup artists used was bud west more, jack kevan, chris mueller

feedback
- other films
-dont read of the board (just tell us what the interview was about)
- explain the film
- liked the use of the video in (nobody else has used it)
- change colours background - blog style



illustration (mel)
- popular - no rationing
- bright colours, positive, new
- sexism, obvious
- merchandise
- propaganda for cold war - bright colours
- motion picture - new tbs and drive in

feedback
- interesting
-had opinions about it
- compare to english illustration
- speak slower



photography (becky)
- new/ fashion photo's
- sexism
- posed pictures

feedback
- clear but repetitive
- could have broadened her research
- could have played the videos
- linked how she linked a website so we knew where she got her information from

1950s architects

le corbusier  notre dame du haut

Le Corbusier was a Swiss modernist architect whose Unite d’Habitation in Marseilles used raw concrete and is seen as an early example of Brutalism. He was a major influence on many of the architects that helped define the brutalist movement

Sir Basil Spence Coventry cathedral

Sir Basil Spence was a Scottish architect whose later work was categorised as Brutalist when he shifted to making social housing in the late 1950s. He is perhaps best known for Coventry Cathedral.

commission painting - jackson pollack inspired 1950s

we were asked to do a piece of art as a group for the deputy principles office as it were quite bland and boring seen as it was a hospital green. he was into art so decided to go wild. as we were looking into abstract expressionism in contextual studies we came up with doing a jackson pollack idea as it was bright bold quick and effective, especially against that green! 

first of all we mixed up a series of colours which i really enjoyed doing 

we then went on to choose the size of the canvas and then made up the size with paper to do  some trail runs with different colours

we then just went for it each grabbing a colour and walking round which worked - isn

we then decide that the dark colour would probably work better going on first and then the lighter colours on top finishing with the black and white. this system worked well and we weren't bumbling into each other

we did four upscale trails as we'd been doing this style in a different project so we had an idea of what colours worked and what didn't

this is the last one which we rushed just to quickly see what would happen if we changed the colours slightly

i think we all struggled to like this one to begin with, it just didn't seem to be working but we built it up and it ended up looking ok.

this was our second one we did, i really liked this one as it was really bright and did what we set out to do, it was bold and bright and stood out

our first attempt was dull and although all together we liked the colours it just would work for the task we had been given so we used these colours but added others in the end

canvas time! starting off with the darker colours first it was looking good from the offset

the end product worked out really well, it reminded me of a cartoon cover with the colours we chose, i think also we worked well as a team as i think we all bring something different and we aren't all too competitive .

1940s degenerative art

- 1937 where a lot of artists had to flee Germany before the war
- weimar show where artists were thrown together so nazis nazis making fun of the abstract art
- aimed at expressionists
- 70 paintings gone from exhibition in weimar revealing  ' cosmopolitan and bolshevik aspects' ( communist and jewish)
- only national socialism arts - new exhibitions
- forbidden artists to paint or exhibit  fled
- today news- bob and roberta smith - art against go

verment

bauhaus philosophies

The Bauhaus:
started in Weimar, Germany in 1919 - Director: Walter Gropius
moved to Dessau, Germany in 1925 - Director: Hannes Meyer
moved to Berlin, Germany in 1932 - Director: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
closed in 1933
(each move had a different director and each director had a different philosophy)

The Bauhaus was an Art, Design and Architecture School.

1. Philosophies of Weimar Bauhaus: The Bauhaus founder, Walter Gropius, devised the curriculum. He wanted to break down the barriers between craftsmanship, architecture and industrial production. he brought people together that wouldn't normally work together and removed all boundaries between their disciplines. All students learned together and learned from each other. They were exposed to a vast range of materials and skills and were encouraged to find new and improved ways of designing everyday items.

"The Bauhaus became the centre of new thinking. Functionality and simplicity were combined with aesthetics, to produce a purer form of design. Previously, Art Nouveau had been about creating ornate, complicated, decorative products. The Bauhaus reduced the complexity of design to simplicity, functionality and an pure form of aesthetics."http://www.technologystudent.com/prddes1/bauhaus1.html

History
- WW1 ended in 1918
- Previously it had been a dictatorship under Kaiser Wilhelm II. The Reichstag (Parliament) could not make laws and could not appoint the Government, that was the Kaiser's job.
- However, WW1 changed everything when Germany was defeated. The Government fell apart, the Navy rebelled causing food riots and Germany had to sign the Armistice in November 1918. Kaiser Wilhelm II fled to Holland.
- Soon after, during the political chaos, the members of the Reichstag met in the small town of Weimar, near Berlin. They decided to set up a new democratic government in February 1919, which was a Republic, meaning it didn't have a King. This is why we refer to it as the "Weimar Republic".
- The Weimar Republic was a good democracy because it had a Bill of Rights to protect the freedoms of the people and it gave the vote to all men and women over the age of 21 (equality). They elected MPs in line with the wishes of the people and let the people elect the Reichstag, which appointed the government and made the laws. Frederick Ebert was the President of the Republic, and he was also elected by the people.
- Lots of German people didn't like the new Democracy and they found themselves being attacked from both sides, left wing and right woing politicians.
- Communists (left-wing) hayted the new government, they didn't waqnt demcracy
- Many right wing germans (Nationalists) refused to belive that they had lost the war, it was the governemtn tbhat surrendered, not the army.
- Proportional representation turned out to be a disaster too. It led to the election of many tiny parties, all of whom squabbled amongst each other, so no government could get a majority in the Reichstag – so it could never pass the laws it wanted. http://www.johndclare.net/Basics_Germany.htm

2. Philosophies of Dessau Bauhaus: Hannes Meyer
"Hannes Meyer moved away from artistic intuition towards building theory. He separated the sciences from the arts and introduced new subjects related to technology, natural science and the humanities. He also reorganised the workshops to meet the requirements of industry and an equal social ideal. The Bauhaus now aspired to two educational objectives: to educate the production or construction engineer and the artist. Instead of Gropius’s “exploration of the principles of design”, Meyer called on the students to base their designs strictly on the given requirements and to study the “life processes” of the future users. He promoted the expansion of the workshops on a cooperative basis and set up vertical brigades that united the students of various academic years in the implementation of projects such as the ADGB school building. The curriculum now included photography (in a photography workshop which was part of the advertising department) and lessons in urban planning.
Meyer’s continued critique of the direction in which the Bauhaus had developed caused increasing tensions with Walter Gropius, who had lost nothing of his power base even after his resignation. In addition, the Bauhaus’s students became increasingly politicised and radicalised as the communist influence grew. Because Meyer did not prohibit these tendencies in his role as director, Gropius ultimately pleaded to have Meyers fired in order to protect the school from political repercussions. On 1st August 1930, Meyer was dismissed summarily by the city of Dessau due to “Communist machinations”. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who had also been recommended by Gropius, became his successor as director."http://bauhaus-online.de/en/atlas/personen/hannes-meyer

3. Philosophies of Berlin Bauhaus: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
"Both the school and the city of Dessau had hoped that Mies van der Rohe’s authority would have a calming influence on the school’s radicalised student body. However, because of the balance of power in Dessau, which was dominated by the National Socialists, even Mies van der Rohe was unable to maintain the school’s location. He attempted to continue the school’s teaching activities in Berlin until its enforced closure in 1932.
In 1930, Mies van der Rohe became the director of the Bauhaus Dessau and began his academic teaching activities. In his brief period at the Bauhaus, Mies van der Rohe was compelled to make more and more concessions to the political circumstances: Pressured by the risk of closure, the curriculum became more conventional, the experimental work was reduced, the workshops were combined and the preliminary course was eliminated. The duration of the studies was shortened and the tuition fees increased. The students’ studios remained closed and the Bauhaus GmbH was dissolved.
The Bauhaus Dessau was closed in 1932 by a newly elected city council with a National Socialist majority. After complex negotiations in relation to the dissolution of the city of Dessau’s financial obligations towards the Bauhaus and its personnel – including the accrued revenues for licensing contracts such as those with the Kandem lamp company and the Rasch wallpaper factory – Mies van der Rohe attempted to continue to lead the school as a private institute, based in an empty telephone factory in Berlin-Steglitz."http://bauhaus-online.de/en/atlas/personen/ludwig-mies-van-der-rohe

bauhaus history

German Bauhaus:
Bauen=build
Haus=house

They believed in very simplistic design and believed that beauty comes from within the object itself.

1919- Founded by Walter Gropius in Weimer, Germany

1922- Van Doesberg taught a course at Bauhaus & clearly reflected the stark simplicity and functionalism of much of the bauhaus output after that.

1925- Moved to Dessau, Germany. Into a new purpose built home which reflected the core Bauhaus values
Marcel Breuer's 'Wassily' chair. Great marriage between Art, Design and Machine Production

1926- Bauhaus Building completed

1927- Architecture department opens

1928- Gropius resigned and Hanneys Meyer took over

1929- Photography department is opened

1930- Hanneys dismissed in 1930 for bringing politics into the house and creating a haven for communism

1932- Bauhaus Dessau closed & migrated to Berlin

1933- Bauhaus disbands for good, due to Nazi's acclaiming them to be Communists 

Https://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/

Political pressure and constant scrutiny by the Nazi movement continued to cast a shadow over the school and in 1928 Gropius resigned and was succeeded by Hannes Meyer. 

A socialist, he was dismissed in 1930 for bringing politics into the Bauhaus and creating a haven for communism. 

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) took his place at the helm and attempted to eliminate the politics and get back to the basic principles of the movement but by 1932 the Dessau parliament had decided to dissolve the Bauhaus and although it found a temporary home in Berlin for a period, it was effectively at an end. 

Despite the fact that it lasted for only fourteen years,

art nouveau

1880 to 1910
looked at the natural world - looking forward
charles rene mackingtosh chair

buildings - metro in paris 

video  - bbc documentart allure of art of nouveau won't find it!

arts and crafts

-1880 in England then went on to go word-wide,
-john ruskin supported the Pre-Raphaelites theories for arts and crafts (influenced) was a very goof draftsman
-morris was influenced by rosseti, he put rusk ins theories into work - Japanese influenced  e.g. Laura ashley

1950s housing

Style

• open plan
• fitted kitchens
• primary colours
• stacking furniture
• new materials - PVC, Formica, fibreglass, rubber, melamine, aluminium, vinyl, plastics
• abstract, geometric patterns
• animal prints 

Influences

• America - diners, jukeboxes, huge fridges
• the 1930s and modernism
• surrealism - for example, the famous Salvador Dali 'lips' sofa
• scientific research - the structure of DNA was discovered in 1953.   

The names

• Charles and Ray Eames - husband and wife team producing sleek, leather, plywood and plastic furniture
• Robin Day - furniture
• Lucienne Day - fabrics that were originally sold in Heal's
• Arne Jacobsen - furniture such as Egg, Swan and Ant chairs

 

constructivism

Constructivism is very much a Russian movement which started in the Soviet Union with the Russian avant-garde. It was not strictly an art movement, rather a trend in the arts that was closely linked to industry and manufacturing, architecture and the applied arts.
The influential ideas of Constructivism, however, spread much further than the borders of Russia, into major artistic centres such as Paris, London and even as far as the USA. One particular centre of the movement outside Russia was at the Bauhaus art and design school in Germany.
Many of the most prominent artists of the Constructivist movement came from a very wide range of countries. There were the Russian artists who took Constructivism to the west, such as Naum Gabo, El Lissitzky and Antoine Pevsner, then Englishman Ben Nicholson, Germans Josef Albers and Hans Richter, Dutch Theo van Doesburg and Hungarian Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.
Constructivist art was in part a progression from Russian Futurism, with stylistic signs of the earlier movement being evident in some of the angular industrial sculptures and reliefs of artists like Vladimir Tatlin and Naum Gabo. Vladimir Tatlin saw the work of Picasso and Braque in Paris in 1913 and this influenced his own constructions when he returned to Russia. These works marked the first beginnings of Constructivist art.
As with Futurism, one of the main characteristics of Constructivism was a total commitment to and acceptance of modernity. The art was typically totally abstract, with the emphasis on geometric shapes and experimentation. Constructivist art was optimistic, but would not tend to be emotional in any way
The term Constructivism was first coined by two of the movements leading artists, Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner. The Constructivist art movement was very much intertwined with the political situation in Russia at that time. The Bolshevic Government’s Commissariat of Enlightenment effectively set out the basis for teaching of the new movement. Naum Gabo commented that the teaching at the Institute of Artistic Culture in Moscow at that time was more concerned with political ideas than creating art.Some of the main Constructivist artists include Naum Gabo, Vladimir Tatlin, El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko, Antoine Pevsner, Alexander Vesnin, Liubov Popova, Olga Rozanova, Alexandra Exter and Kasimir Malevich.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - bauhaus

-Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), a German-born architect and educator
- His early work was mainly residential, and he received his first independent commission, the Riehl House, when he was only 20 years old.
- In 1930, he was named director of the Bauhaus, the renowned German school of experimental art and design, which he led until 1933 when he closed the school under pressure from the Nazi Regime.
-When Mies arrived in 1938, he insisted on a back-to-basics approach to education: Architecture students must first learn to draw, then gain thorough knowledge of the features and use of the builder's materials, and finally master the fundamental principles of design and construction in Chicago, Armour Institute
- In 1956, famed architect Eero Saarinen spoke at the dedication of Mies' masterwork, S.R. Crown Hall, and lauded him as Chicago's third great artist, placing Mies in the prestigious lineage of Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.