March 20th, 2013

-       Cubo-futurism (combination of cubism and futurism)

-       Kazimir Malevich and the black square. Yes, we could all do that, but we didn’t. Red and Black square.

-       Contructivism from Vladimir Tatlin

-       El Lissitzki

-       Try making something that’s not about the thing, or, the subject of the composition. Just for the sake of trying composition. What has more volume, what has more weight, what has more expression.

-       Kandinsky

-       See what you look at and then see what you read. You look at pictures for the gist, look at the type for information.

-       Constructivism supports function, suprematism rejects it. Suprematism is a really nice idea, but it becomes finite. There’s only so much you can do with it.

-       De Stijl a style basically wrapped around one guy. It’s an art movement in the Netherlands. It was a utopian approach to art. Had a focus on rectilinear planes, and worked on finding the mathematical structures of the universe. Piet Mondrian is the guiding force, publishes the magazine.

o   In 1921 the format changes from rigid architectural structures to asymmetry. Use of negative space and proportions

-       BAUHAUS (1919 – 1933)

o   1919 – 1925 Weimar

§  1923 First Public Exhibition

·      First time public gets to see what’s going on, the first time their ideas see the light of day

§  1924 Letter of Resignation

·      ideas rejected by area

o   1925 – 1932 Dessau

§  1928 Walter Groupius replaced by (left leaning) Meyer who then brought more attention from the Nazis

§  1930 Meyer replaced by van der Rohe

§  Chased out by Nazis

o   1932 – 1933 Berlin

§  Demoralized, working in an old abandoned shoe factory

o   Utopian desire to create a new spiritual society

o   Unity of Artists & Craftsmen to build for the future.

o   Ideas form all of the Advanced Art & design Movements were explored and applied to functional design

o   Paul Klee, Moholy Nagy, Johannas Itten, Herbert Bayer, Kandinsky, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Groupus, Oscar Schlemmer, Joseph Albers

 Thoughts

It was interesting to go through the history of the Bauhaus and see what was popular at the time and to see how much they changed the view of artwork at the time of their existence. It would be interesting to see if something like that existed more recently or a more relevant example.

Questions

What made their work so especially influential at the time? They weren't the only   design school that existed at the time.