The Bauhaus

"A house is a machine for living in" - (Jeanneret, C-E., 1923).

"The details are not the details. They make the design." - (Eames, R. & C.)  

From the first few seconds of watching a clip of Charlie Chaplin in the classic silent movie "Modern Times" it was clear that some sort of "modernisation" or "development" in the art fields would be discussed. Modernism emphasises the connection between industry and man, the use of sequences, cogs and wheels mirroring the motion of life alongside the artwork produced by the human being and was originally used as a hopeful tactic to stir up freedom of a newer and more advanced lifestyle and generation.

What immediately comes to mind is The Bauhaus, the world-famous, groundbreaking minimalist German school. Their focus on minimalism was the heart of their school and teaching traditions and has influenced almost all ways of teaching we see today in the education systems around the world. The interesting

Bauhaus curriculum

approach of the Bauhaus was their rather "unconventional" modes of teaching their students. For example, their emphasis on "unlearning" where students were trained to forget all that they thought they knew about the way they drew, created and designed pieces and almost start from scratch with a fresh and open-minded strategy. Does this create connections with the manifesto of the Futurists who cast aside all reference of the designers and techniques that came before them to create a new era within art? I believe it does and shows that although the Futurists claim to be "innovative" and brand-new with the way they work, it isn't all too dissimilar to the methods of the Bauhaus in the way that they treat the use of past, present and future within their manifesto.

The Bauhaus was an extremely male-dominated school with females being "set" into certain pathways of choice within the school, mostly only being able to study the creation of textiles which was the only "feminine" discipline on offer amongst the much more masculine areas of wood, clay and stone (see curriculum diagram). It wasn't only the students who were segregated into certain choices or paths of art and design but also much higher up within the establishment. The masters of The Bauhaus were also all men except for only one female "master", Gunta Stolzl, alongside the now-renowned male masters such as Johannes Itten, Josef Albers and Kandinsky. Their teaching strategies were unconventional to say the least, with Itten insisting that all of his students start their "working day" with dance, exercise and physical expression in a bid to get them as creative as they could be.

One of Bayer's designs (1924)

One of my favourite masters from The Bauhaus has to be Herbert Bayer and his Newspaper Stand designs (1924) really stood out to me. The almost futuristic designs depicting a 'new age' of what was a monotonous and 'boring' everyday item such a regular newspaper stand were groundbreaking in their day and probably were something that had never been seen before, incorporating (as always with the Bauhaus manifesto) functionality with design. This again leads me to consider the Futurist manifesto of "discarding the old" of art and design and creating a brand new movement. Surely, this was Bayer's intention with his designs many years ago? What he had done had never been seen before and was aimed to create a new, "functional yet attractive" everyday way of life. Surely this is mirroring the motto of the Futurist movement?