auhaus - A very influential German school of art and design. Underlying the Bauhaus aesthetic was a fervent utopianism, based upon ideals of simplified forms and unadorned functionalism, and a belief that the machine economy could deliver elegantly designed items for the masses, using techniques and materials employed especially in industrial fabrication and manufacture — steel, concrete, chrome, glass, etc. All students took a preliminary course before moving on to specialist workshops, including carpentry, weaving, pottery, stagecraft, graphic arts, and graphic design.

It was founded in 1919, and closed by the Nazis in 1933.

Walter Gropius (German-American, 1883-1969), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (German-American, 1886-1969), Wassily Kandinsky (Russian-German, 1866-1944), Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871-1956), Paul Klee (Swiss-German, 1879-1940), Oskar Schlemmer (German, 1888-1943), László Moholy-Nagy (German, born Hungary, 1895-1946, active in the US), Josef Albers (German-American, 1899-1976), his wife Anni Fleischman Albers (German-American, 1899-1994), and other important artists were teachers there. Even though their styles were often quite varied, the artists of the Bauhaus had such a strong effect on art and art education that this school is often considered an art movement in itself.

Once the school was closed, many Bauhaus teachers emigrated to the U.S.A.

(pr. bou-house)

Examples of works by artists at the Bauhaus:

Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866-1944), In the Gray, 1919, oil on canvas, 129 x 176 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris

Wassily Kandinsky, Kleine Welten, IV, 1922, color lithograph, 10 1/4 x 10 inches (26.6 x 25.5 cm), Cincinnati Art Museum, OH.

Paul Klee, They're Biting, 1920, drawing and oil on paper, 31.1 x 23.5 cm, Tate Gallery, London.

Paul Klee, Rhythmisches (In Rhythm), 1930, oil on woven jute, 69.6 x 50.5 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris. See rhythm.

Josef Hartwig (German, 1880-1955), manufactured by Bauhaus, Weimar, Chess Set, 1924, pear wood, natural and stained black, smallest: 7/8 x 7/8 x 7/8 inches (2.2 x 2.2 x 2.2 cm), largest: 1 7/8 x 1 1/8 x 1 1/8 inches (4.8 x 2.9 x 2.9 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY. See chess and wood.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (German, 1886-1969), Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper, Berlin-Mitte, Germany, a project in 1921, this is a perspective drawing from the north, charcoal and pencil on tracing paper mounted on board, 68 1/4 x 48 inches (173.4 x 121.9 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY. This design for a twenty-story tower was based on the then-untried curtain wall idea: that a supporting steel skeleton would be able to free the exterior walls from their load-bearing function, allowing a building to have a surface that is more translucent than solid. Mies van der Rohe was the last director of the Bauhaus design school in Dessau, from 1930 until its closing in 1932.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, designer, "MR" Armchair, 1927, chrome-plated steel and painted caning, 31 1/2 x 22 x 37 inches (80 x 55.9 x 94 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. This was developed from a 1924 design for a cantilevered chair by Mart Stam. It was introduced by Mies van der Rohe at the 1927 Stuttgart exhibition and has remained in production ever since.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona Chair, 1929, chrome-plated steel and black leather, manufactured by Knoll International. See furniture.

Marianne Brandt (German, 1893-1983), manufactured by Bauhaus Metal Workshop, Germany, Ashtray, 1924, brass and nickel-plated metal, height 2 3/4 (7 cm), diameter 3 1/8 inches (7.9 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.

László Moholy-Nagy, Untitled (Positive), c. 1922-1924, gelatin silver print from photogram negative, 23.7 x 17.8 cm (9 5/16 x 7 inches), National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

László Moholy-Nagy, Q 1 Suprematistic, 1923, oil on canvas, 37 1/2 x 37 1/2 inches (95.2 x 95.2 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Herbert Bayer (American, born Germany, 1900-1985), Bauhaus Dessau, 1926, letterpress, 8 1/2 x 5 7/8 inches (21.6 x 14.9 cm), Printer: Bauhausdruck, Museum of Modern Art, NY. See graphic design.

Wilhelm Wagenfeld (German, 1900-1990) and Carl J. Jucker (German), manufactured by Bauhaus Metal Workshop, Germany, Table Lamp, 1923-24, glass and chrome-plated metal, height 18 (45.7 cm), diameter of globe 8 inches (20.3 cm), diameter at base 5 1/2 inches (14 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Lux Feininger (American, born Germany, 1910-), Clemens Röseler, c. 1928, gelatin silver print, 11.3 x 8.9 cm (4 7/16 x 3 1/2 inches), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Describe aspects of Bauhaus.

Look at the above images and explain what makes them Bauhaus.