Bauhaus, 1919-1928

by Herbert Bayer (Editor)

A study of the artists, theories, and achievements of the German school which exerted a strong influence on all facets of modern art and architecture

Genres: Art, Design, Architecture, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1938

Reviews

[Tom Bantle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a reproduction of the Museum of Modern Art book accompanying its 1938 exhibition: Bauhaus 1919-1928. The exhibition was organized and installed by Herbert Bayer, with assistance of four former Bauhaus masters: Walter Gropius, Ise Gropius, Alexander Schawinsky, and Josef Albers. It is limited to the time when Walter Gropius was the director of the Bauhaus.

After a brief history of the Bauhaus and Gropius's "Theory and Organization of the Bauhaus," the book is primarily a compilation of pictures and graphics of Bauhaus designs created by the masters and the students for their course work and extracurricular activities. It demonstrates the breadth of the Bauhaus curriculum: a preliminary course to "liberate the student's creativity," and then more specialized workshops on carpentry, stained glass, pottery, metals, weaving, stage, wall-painting, display design, architecture, typography, photography.

The hundreds of photographs are all in black and white, some smaller than one would hope. But because of their number they give a broader view of Bauhaus projects than other books, such as the much more recent The Story of the Bauhaus.

Because of its date (1938) and the participation of central Bauhaus figures, it gives a different perspective from more recent literature on the Bauhaus. One chilling feature of the book is that because of Nazi persecution of Bauhaus masters and students some of the names of the creators (those still in Germany) have been blacked out with this explanation: "The work of many artists in this book is being shown without their consent. When the book was at the point of going to press it was considered advisable to delete the names of several of these artists."

I am reading this in preparation for my upcoming Martin & Randall tour: "Bauhaus - The birth of modern architecture and design."

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a required reading for my After the Bauhaus: Design from the Interwar Period to the Age of Climate Crisis class at uni. Gropius's view of ornamentation was that it was like dressing a corpse. This is a fascinating view as many Bauhaus designs seem SO stimulating and very decorated in very different ways, with colour, for example.

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

there arent enough rating stars