The Bauhaus Movement During The World War 1

Abstract art and design that was functional were compared to bigger ideas and new purposes, mostly in West Germany. Then came Socialist Realism . Social Realism was started as the

Bauhaus reformed design culture by presenting a cross-disciplinary curriculum and incorporated the juncture of modernization and vision. The Bauhaus movement arose in 1919 when Walter Gropius established a school with a concept of bridging the gap amongst art and industry by joining crafts and fine arts. Preceding the Bauhaus movement, fine arts like architecture and design were viewed in more regard than craftsmanship, but Gropius stressed that all trades, involving art, architecture and geometric design, could be jointed and manufactured. The Bauhaus movement stresses “truth to materials” as the main idea, which means that material ought to be used in its most suitable and “honest” form, and its nature mustn’t be changed. While Bauhaus has influences in art, commerce and technology, it has been most instrumental in modern-day furniture design. Overall, the Bauhaus movement bridged the gap amid art, industry, design and functionality.

At the Bauhaus for example some of the most popular workshops included textile, and metalworking which taught individuals how to create things such as home utensils and many other crafts. Through these workshops students were educated on the theory of design, and weaving, which allowed for them to create modern pieces. During the chaotic and threatening years of world war two many individuals who participated in these workshops, relocated in the United states influencing many architects through there philosophies. In Art deco on the other hand art represented luxurious life styles. There was a demand for ornaments, jewelry, and modern interior looks in the home during the movement of the Art deco. People desired a luxurious lifestyle unlike any they had ever had before. This art style abandoned traditional styles of art and incorporated exotic cultural forms never seen in art before. Art deco forms were not only seen through art sculptures and paintings, but also in the structure of buildings and cars.The school of Bauhaus influenced structures which consisted of basic clean forms as appose to luxurious looks.

The Bauhaus was established in Weimar in 1919, with the architect Walter Gropius as its founder and first director (Harrison and Wood 1993, p. 338). The school was founded on Gropius’s principle of the importance of combining and unifying all the artistic and technical realms; a separation, which had been to the detriment of existing art schooling (Girard 2003, p. 6-­‐7). Gropius wanted to combine art and technology or “culture and civilisation” (Droste 2012, p. 15). The Bauhaus consisted of workshops with two distinct instructors, a “craft master” who was a

About 1909 the implications of Cézanne's highly organized yet revolutionary spatial structures were expanded by Picasso and Braque, who invented an abstract art of still lives converted into shifting volumes and planes. Cubism, developed by the artists of the school of Paris, went through several stages and had an enormous influence on European and American painting and sculpture. In sculpture its notable exponents included Picasso, Duchamp-Villon, Lipchitz, González, and Archipenko, who began to realize the possibilities of convex and concave volumes. Cubism was absorbed in Italy by the exponents of futurism and in Germany by the Blaue Reiter group; both these movements were cut short by the advent of World War I. Fauvism and cubism were introduced by members of the Eight to a generally shocked American audience in

Great artists of the world were also creating some of their most brilliant work during this decade. Henri Matisse fought to find the artistic freedom he needed by creating the Fauvist movement in the early 1900’s(Pioch 2). Fauvism led to the larger movement called Expressionism, a term used to describe any art that raises subjective feelings above objective observations (Pioch 4). Georges Rouault was another pioneer of the Expressionist movement; he was a Frenchman who linked the decorative effects of Fauvism in France with the symbolic color of German Expressionism (Pioch 6). Another leading artist of the time period was Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a German who wanted his art to be a bridge to the future (Pioch 6). These men were very important artists, but

Modernism was in effect expelled from Germany and many of its champions emigrated overseas as Hitler described modern art as “Bolshevist art”” in his autobiography “Mein Kampf” and “criticized the Weimar Republic for its alleged cultural weaknesses”.(Architecture and Politics in Germany )

As science was evolving, art and architecture were too forming new ideas and styles. Starting with Einstein, Newton, and Heisenberg- in regard to quantum physics and leaping into architectural advances, it is agreed that this was a revolutionary time for all who lived in this era. That being said, Cubism, Futurism, and Fauvism are important styles in modernistic art. Whether it is literature, poetry, song, or dance, these principles helped to shape the future and individual approach to create our own perspective. The abstract styles discussed, paved the way for Nonobjective art to make its mark on humanity and to make us feel and see uniquely. Not to mention, architecture and the International style that later developed, teaching us modern design. The international style gave us unique structures, distinctly showcasing new synthetic materials, floor plans, and roofs. As one can see, modernistic art provides just as an important part of our everyday life as

World War I, the isolation Germans experienced and the demand for films after the cutoff of foreign film imports was an opening for a new movement of cinema, the German expressionist cinema. It is the movement of cinema that started during Weimar Germany. The German expressionist cinema is where the horror genre grew and where it influenced Film Noir as German Expressionism cinema is a collection of silent horror films. Just like any other cinema, it incorporates the use of mise-en-scène to convey meaning, which is a French word for all what is in a scene; the set, lighting costumes and actors and all the little details in it. Mise-en-scène was evident in expressing the post-war German reality and psychological trauma.

When Cubism reached its glorious grasp around 1907–1914, the World was in a wild place. With the Ottoman Empire losing power; European influences were becoming avaricious for more, eventually leading to the start of World War I. On the other side of the world we had America rising as a global supremacy, creating its way to a worldly control. Because of these chaotic matters, society was shifting towards a new direction. The Art World with its artists and writers also responded to this conversion as well. The destruction and cruelty of War altered the lives of several European artists, brought an end to several art movements, and gave light to other movements and brought them to importance. Obviously the artists effected by the war had their work influenced by it but the early decades of the twentieth century gave birth to groundbreaking movements and styles, out of which Cubism (1908-12) was the most rational of all the Avant- Grade movements. It excluded the idea of linear perspective in favor of grander prominence on the two dimensional picture plane, scandalizing the arts academics of Europe along the visitors of Parisian Salon des Independants and the New York Armory Show (1913) in the process

Between 1877 where William Morris wrote “The Lesser Art”, till 1919 when Walter Gropius came up with his program for artists in training, the world has witnessed not only waves of art movements. But also, one of the most devastating events in the modern history, WWI. However, for one to look at what Arts and Crafts movement have brought to the world of art, and compare it to Bauhaus, would not believe how similar the ideas of both men were. As a result of the industrial revolution, Morris wrote about unifying artists and producers, in hope to fight what he described as “vulgarity” (Gorman, 37). On the other hand, Gropius talked about the need for unifying artists with industry, in order to bring back art which became isolated in the “salons”

development in visual artwork and writing, thriving in Europe between World Wars I and II. Surrealism became essentially was the next step up from the dada movement, which before World War I delivered works of against artwork that defied all reasoning; yet Surrealism's accentuation was not on invalidation but rather on positive expression. The development spoke to a response against what its individuals saw as the devastation created by the "logic" that had guided European society and governmental issues in the past and that had finished in the detestations of World War I.

“Design is for living”. The adage fashioned a widespread shift in design during the 1940s and 1950s. It revolutionized the form by creating an electrifying visual language that signaled a new age and a fresh start- two of the powerhouses were Charles and Ray Eames. The Eameses were a husband and wife team whose unique synergy led to a whole new expression in furniture and architecture. The couple advocated the principles of Modernism through the adaptation of innova¬tion from wartime technology .Their design style can be branded as “California Modernism,” a term that is often used interchangeably with “Mid-Century Modernism.” This distinct style embodied an approach to design that opposed the “social conscience” of the Bauhaus in order to embrace looser, warmer design which was both more expressive of local character and in touch with the realities of commerce and salesmanship. With the west-coast coming-of-age, economy shift from making goods to producing information and the global expansion of American culture; their lives and work embodied some of America’s defining movements. They contributed to architecture, film, industrial and graphic design. They were known as pioneers of affordable mass production and residential constructions. The evolution from furniture designers to cultural ambassadors validated their bents and overlaps with country’s interest and projected how design can enhance the lives and practical needs of ordinary people and not just the elite.

The Bauhaus school was founded in 1919 in Weimar by German architect Walter Gropius (1883 - 1969). In 1923, Walter Gropius introduced the agreement between “creative artists and the industrial world”. The Bauhaus is most famous for the idea of combining forms and functions. They combined both fine arts and design elements to create a curriculum that trained artists and designers to be capable of producing both functional and aesthetic work. One of the main goals was to bring design and technology together. During the Bauhaus period, Fine art and craft were combined together and aimed toward problem solving for an innovative, modern and industrial society. Nowadays, the Bauhaus legacy continues in modern designs, such as minimalism, or design brands like IKEA. In this essay, I will analyze Bauhaus’s influence on modern design, including architecture and furniture design by exploring different examples from different periods of time.

The Bauhaus was created by Walter Gropius in the city of Weimar. He was a German architect