Everything Sucks Club: A Lesson On The Bauhaus Movement
The importance of the Bauhaus style and a focus on the women behind the art movement.
The Bauhaus was more that just a movement - but first a school started in Germany in 1919 by Walter Gropius, a German-American architect. Gropius left the school in 1928 and moved to Berlin to work on projects like the Olympics would eventually move to the United States as the conflict in Europe escalated and the Nazi forced the closure of the Bauhaus School in 1933. Gropius ultimately made the choice to leave Germany due to his left leaning ideas being consistently being rejected for government projects. The Nazi party had condemned modern art and architecture as “un-German” and degenerative. With the help of another architect and friend in England, Gropius and his family moved to London in 1934 and a few years later relocated to the United States in 1938 (and the family would become naturalized citizens in 1944).
Architects, sculptors, painters, we all must return to the crafts! For there is no such thing as ‘art by profession.’ There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. Merciful heaven, in rare moments of illumination beyond man’s will, may allow art to unconsciously blossom from the work of his hand, but the foundations of craft are indispensable to every artist. This is the original source of creative design. - Walter Gropius
The Bauhaus School
The premise of the school was that it was to be centered around a “craft-based” curriculum - with studies in traditional art (like painting), ceramics & sculpture and design were paired with offerings in architecture and interior design, textiles and woodworking - fields that were usually seen as not on the same level as fine arts mediums. The school gave equal importance to both the functional and the fine art styles.
Elements & Characteristics of Bauhaus Design:
“Form Follows Function” is the main rule behind all designs.
Use of Minimalist, Functional and Abstract Shapes
No floral patterns or curvilinear shapes.
Simple Color Schemes
Holistic Design, meaning to approach a design from the perspective of the entire user experience in terms of the visual elements, the functionality, the content, and context of the end use of the design, the product, or the space.
In Architecture: heavy use of industrial materials like concrete, steel, and glass.
Emphasis on artists embracing and leaning new modern technology for developing prototypes. Folks in the Bauhaus movement should always be at the forefront of innovating new styles or techniques.
Simplicity over everything else - the ideology encouraged no need for additional ornamentation just for the sake of “making things more pleasing” to look at. This also led to an economic way of thinking - with regards to material and space usage, time, and finances.
The Germany-based school spent the first couple years in Weimar until 1925, then it moved to Dessau through 1932, and Berlin in its final months before the forced closure. The iconic budling in Dessau is now a place that can be visited by the public as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Well Known Women of The Bauhaus Movement:
Something that Gropius did right from the start was proclaim that the Bauhaus would be open to 'any person of good repute, regardless of age or sex'. However, what he didn’t anticipate was his idea being so well received. A record number of women applied for the first, more than the number of men, and in the early 1900’s this was quite controversial. It also raised concern that high proportion of female students would reduce the credibility of the school (HELLO SEXISM *EYE ROLL*). Even though Gropius set out with the intention to create an equal environment you can probably already guess how it went - IT WASN’T EQUAL. Especially in the early years, the women were basically confined to the areas deemed “proper for their gender” at the time and were discouraged from participating in areas like architecture, woodworking, metalsmithing, etc. They were rather placed in the weaving and textiles programs. This also was reflected in the staffing with an average of only 6 female staff members at the school’s opening with the number only reportedly improving slightly over time.
Because of the initial high applicant amounts of women, the enrollment policy was also modified to accept 'only women of extraordinary talents' which obviously led to a decline in the number of female students. And with another strike against them - of course where the school placed the majority of the women, the weaving program, The Bauhaus School did not offer apprenticeship certificates in weaving. This meant that these women could never register with the Chamber of Trade and never acquire a master’s diploma.
Gunta Stölzl
Under the guidance of Gunta Stölzl, the weaving department of the Bauhaus would become one of the most successful fields from the school and she would elevate the field from something seen as just a simple craft to a true art form. As the only female full master ever hired onto the staff, she convinced Gropius that the weaving department could be more than just pictorial works and instead could be large scale industrial projects which completely transformed the department. She would stay on staff until 1931 when she was dismissed for ‘political differences’ as the school became under constant Nazi attack. Stölzl relocated to Switzerland shortly after and would live out the rest of her life there.
Anni Albers
Anni Albers started at the school as a student when her husband took a role as a ‘Junior Master’ role. Focusing in the weaving/textile department, she experimented a lot with not only color and texture but also form and materials. This led her to develop many unique, yet functional textiles that were aesthetic but also could absorb light and sound. She would eventually become the department head of the weaving workshop at Bauhaus - becoming one of few women at the school to get a senior role. When the school closed in 1933, as a Jewish woman, Albers and her husband fled to the United States where she was invited to teach at a college in North Carolina. They both received their citizenship in 1937.
Otti Berger
Otti Berger was first a student and then a later a teacher in the weaving department was known for her intricate and bold patterns. They were often complex, which multiple textures and she was know to be very experimental in her process. She was known for just sitting down and letting her creative process flow in the moment, instead of pre-planning what the weave was going to look like (which was the more common practice).
“I have not made any preparatory drawings – nor followed a pattern. In this way I am not restricted, and besides, working from drawings is not my thing… I simply know what I want, and sometimes I dictate and sometimes the rug does”
In 1936, Germany passed legislation which banned Jewish people from having business in the country, so she took refuge in London where she worked for a while designing textiles. However, she would fail to gain passage to the United States via an America Visa and then after failing to secure more work in London and with her mother falling ill, she returned home to Croatia and she alongside her family would be sent to Auschwitz in April 1944 where she would be murdered. It’s believed by many that she would have also gone on to have a very successful career if she was able to leave for the United States like her close friend, Anni Albers.
Alma Siedhoff-Buscher
Alma Siedhoff-Buscher was unique to the women who attended the Bauhaus because she actually transferred out of the weaving program to the wood sculpture department - a primarily male field of study. While in the program she found success in creating several toy and furniture designs - her most recognized being the “Little Ship-Building Game” - a wood block game in primary colors made of 22 building blocks that allowed for free form building. She was killed in an air raid in Frankfurt Germany in 1944 and never commercially produced any of her toys or furniture designs.
Lilly Reich
Lilly Reich was known for textiles, furniture, and innovative interior spaces. Often collaborating with well-known designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the two co-created several iconic designs in furniture. At the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition, she as 'artistic director' of the German section, sharing the position with her design partner Mies van der Rohe, they designed the pavilion that was built from steel, glass and 4 types of stone & marble. She was sent to a forced labor camp in 1943 after her studio in Berlin was bombed. She remained there until 1945 with her release at the end of the war. She would be important with the revival of “Deutsche Werkbund” which is an association of German artists, architects, designers and industrialists that was originally started in 1907 but would she would die in 1947 due to poor health before they were able to relaunch officially in 1950.
Marianne Brandt
Unlike many of the other women at Bauhaus, Marianne Brandt was not in the weaving department - but instead was in the metal workshop. As the first woman accepted into the program in 1924, she quickly demonstrated her capacity for design and became known for her metalsmithing of household objects like coffee & tea sets, ashtrays, serving trays and lamps. She would later become the first female department head of the metal department in 1929. Brandt attempted to find work outside of Germany during WW2 but was unsuccessful - and instead returned to her family when they called her back to Eastern Germany. She remained there for the rest of her life, which the exception of a couple short teaching and lecture positions around Germany after the war.
November’s Club Designs:
For November, I went with a fall theme of emojis - Owl (sticker), Coffee (magnet), Umbrella (button), Pumpkin & Pie Slice (mini stickers).
I have to say, I would have been 180 degrees turned around on what Bauhaus meant as an artistic movement. I thought it was tied to art deco and like... extravagance? Also the Chicago tie in to Mies van der Rohe was unexpected and I did a double take when I saw his name.