Bauhaus - Form Follows Function

"The Bauhaus was the most influential modernist art school of the 20th century, one whose approach to teaching, and understanding art's relationship to society and technology, had a major impact both in Europe and the United States long after it closed. It was shaped by the 19th and early 20th centuries trends such as Arts and Crafts movement, which had sought to level the distinction between fine and applied arts, and to reunite creativity and manufacturing. This is reflected in the romantic medievalism of the school's early years, in which it pictured itself as a kind of medieval crafts guild. But in the mid 1920s the medievalism gave way to a stress on uniting art and industrial design, and it was this which ultimately proved to be its most original and important achievement. The school is also renowned for its faculty, which included artists Wassily Kandinsky, Josef Albers, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee and Johannes Itten, architects Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and designer Marcel Breuer."

Souce: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-bauhaus.htm

This week's lecture is about Bauhaus. This modernism moment was from 1890 to 1940. I learned that the disciplines often focused on expressing ideas and feelings, creating abstractions and fantasies instead of representing the world in a standard way.

A brief history of Bauhaus in Germany
Founded in Weimar, 1919
Relocated in Dessau, 1925
Closed in Berlin, 1933

The Bauhaus school combined art and craft to read a purer form of design without any unnecessary decorations. It was practical, functional and clean. The school taught a range of art and design forms and the ideas and principles were transferred.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4b/c5/38/4bc538e1768bfef9e850cbd387d9e95b.jpg

This is a Bauhaus styled poster and you can immediately tell it's a Bauhaus piece because of the colours, shapes and typography used. It's very simple, clean and yet effective. I like how the lines are used in the poster to draw you in and out. The colours also represent Bauhaus and you begin to see the same style occur through other work. Below is an artwork from Vassily Kandinsky and we have the same colours represented here. This time, we've got the triangles come in and some additional artwork. It's still very clean and it inspires me to create my own principles and have my own style within my work.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Vassily_Kandinsky%2C_1923_-_On_White_II.jpg

Form - Follows - Function

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/491299

This is the Marianne Brandt's Tea Infuser and Strainer made in 1924. During the Bauhaus period, this art movement has inspired the creation of this teapot. Whilst having the usual element of a teapot, this designer has reinvented it as abstract geometric forms in addition to the elements.

Wassily Kandinsky, Triangle Square Circle - A Psychological Test (1923)
In 1923, Wassily has come up with the theory that colours can be assigned to a shape and thinks that the triangle should be yellow, the square red and the circle to be blue. He has distributed a questionnaire around Bauhaus asking everyone to fill in what colours they think associated with the shapes and why. In my opinion, I believe the circle should be red, the triangle to be blue and the square to be yellow. I think red is a strong dominant colour so the circle would represent a full stop to me. I think the blue triangle would mean it's clean and sharp. The yellow square would be nice and equal because it's a bright colour so it contradicts the sharpness in a triangle.

Everyone has their own opinions with what colours should be associated with the shapes, but it's an interesting theory as to how we'd associate them colours and shapes together just based on our own opinions.