Class #11 - March 27, 2013

Summary:

Walter Gropius: (1919-1928)

• Mastermind behind the BAUHAUS
• Creation of a school to marry Arts + Crafts
• A lot of utopian ideas -- very reoccurring

Council of Masters

• Grupius
• Johannas Ittan
• Got into the idea of being a monk
• Art supplies: picking up things from trash
• Understanding materials
• What is the nature of these materials?
• What differentiates these materials?
• BAUHAUS Exhibition of 1923
• Nasnsweif Niggy
• A lot of typography
• Graphic typography that is the imagery 
• Very open, lyrical and gesture-like
• Experiments with photograms
• Putting objects on top of paper and exposing them to light
• Photography: new technology, new image, new life
• Photo collages 

City of Weimar:
First Home-

• Become suspicious of the Bauhaus
• Becomes hostile when the city is exposed to their art

Second Home:

• The stairwell was important
• Emphasis of craft and materials
• Had a "made by" store which sold student work
• Bauhaus had their own magazine too
• Magazine cover: everything you need to know about the Bauhaus
• Produced books: experimented with type!
• Painted on glass and made it look 3D
• Kyle Cooper... SE7EN...geh! <3
• Looked at typeface and letter design
• Two alphabets: Aa Bb Cc Dd
• More efficient to combine both

Thoughts:

The Bauhaus has always interested me -- especially for a big fan of the band too! Although the Bauhaus has blossomed into a great movement, it was sad to learn about all of the depression the people apart of the school had to go through. The idea of combining artists and craftsmen was a brilliant idea-- we combine the two today and it works really well. Combining both craftsmen to produce high quality work and artists to make it aesthetically appealing, in my opinion, is what made the Bauhaus so successful.

Questions:

I wonder what it took to be apart of the Bauhaus school and how often students joined and left. Where parents objective towards this lifestyle? How long did it take to establish which classes would be the most successful and how did the idea of abstract form and color theory becoming a course.