Bauhaus

During World War One, Germany was suffering due to social changes, with their economy in peril; unemployed people were increasing in the streets and began to experience poverty and starvation.

Bauhaus was created by Walter Gropius in 1919 and it was considered the early model of the modern art school. This style emerged because artists were worried that art was to be forever lost.

It formed due to the Arts and Crafts Movement which attempted to combine applied and fine arts. Gropius aim was for his students to design everyday objects as works of art combining function with design. The aim was to combine machinery and other material objects into something artistic and beautiful.

At this school we had Kandinsky join in order to teach his students about the importance of mood that can be set by using only colour and form. This Russian painter also believed that shapes had colours associated to them and that colour would have a different significance depending on the area of the canvas it is placed.

Another teacher was Paul Klee; he was obsessed with experimenting with colour and drew as if from a child’s perspective.

Johannes Itten wished to understand how colours could affect us, through his studies, he believed that the tonalities of colours could alter our mood either from positive to negative. His experiments about colour and the effects it had on the human brain helped the Bauhaus realize colours’ significance. He is also developed a colour wheel which helped his students create works that complimented each other.

After Johannes Itten’s departure from Bauhaus due to lack of agreement in teachings he was replaced by Moholy- Nagy. This Hungarian painter brought techniques such as photogram and photomontage.

If Moholy – Nagy were still alive, he would be surprised as too how much we’ve incorporated and given so much significance to photography in our daily lives. I believe he knew that eventually photography would further develop and become a huge part of our future.

Later on we meet Herbert Bayer, a young Austrian- American painter who was initially a student under these great artists. Years later after he graduated, he was appointed by Gropius to become a director of printing and advertising.

Bayer created the ‘Universal Typeface’ which abolished the capitals and made us of 45 degree angles. It was simple and clear typography, lacked ‘serifs’ which made it so modern and unique.