Bauhaus: Second Edition: 0 (World of Art)

Well researched and informative.

This is an excellent, well-illustrated, book. It provides a clear straightforward description of the founding of the Bauhaus movement and its development until the forced closure on 11th April 1933.The somewhat chaotic foundation of the school and the unlikely appointment of the architect Walter Gropius as the first director in 1919 to oversee the amalgamation of the school of arts and crafts with the Weimar Academy of Fine Arts was not an easy beginning. In the early years the Bauhaus evinced aims of combining arts and crafts and fine art somewhat in the spirit of William Morris but with free student association and participation in the management. Many of the artists first appointed brought with them strong Expressionist influences which were widespread in Germany at the time. The early establishment was almost devoid of facilities apart from a canteen. The appointment of Johannes Itten took the students off into the realms of unconventional beliefs and mysticism. The addition of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky with their odd pseudo-science of form and colour did not help.The influence of the Dutch painter Theo van Doesburg and the De Stijl art movement was considerable although van Doesburg was never a member of staff. This complete change of direction towards what is now universally perceived as the ‘Bauhaus’ style was cemented by the appointment of Lazlo Moholy-Nagy in 1923.The school was forced to leave Weimar by the local nationalist politicians and relocated in Dessau, closer to Berlin, in 1926. Again changes were made that contributed to the modern perception of Bauhaus with the opening of the department of architecture and the appointment of Hannes Meyer to run it in 1927. With new buildings and much improved facilities there followed the flowering of all the young talent with names such as Herbert Bayer (poster and advertising design), Marcel Breuer (furniture and tubular steel chairs) and Gunta Stolzl (weaving) and others.Social architecture and interior design became supreme in the school when Hannes Meyer took over the directorship from Gropius in 1928. Meyer took the Bauhaus in an uncompromisingly left wing direction. With the rise of nationalism it was inevitable that the Dessau Bauhaus would be closed and the move to berlin under the final director Mies van der Rohe was short-lived.All the changes and the interesting personalities and products of the school are described with great lucidity and verve by the author Frank Whitford. An enervating read and an excellent resume of the movement.

1. Poor quality reduced size black & white photocopy of full size original in color reproduction 2. Impossible to read given poor editing of text & images 3. Images & references to color meaningless in b&w!