Page 31 - Studio International - September 1968

Schlemmer left. In 1930, Meyer himself went, forced out, taking with impersonality is valued because the machine finish is impersonal, an
him many of the staff he had brought. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe embodiment of idea; work with a careless or unfinished look is pre-
succeeded as Director and maintained at least Mayer's architectural ferred since lack of finish is what one is capable of, an embodiment
emphasis. The Great Depression ensued. In 1932, the Bauhaus was of skill. In design, the case is less extreme. But, then, we are preparing
forced out of Dessau by the National Socialists. A year later, Hitler the computer to design.
had come to power, and the school was closed. The Bauhaus was never a school of painting. There wasn't an open
Why, given its brief and chequered history, does the Bauhaus seem painting course there until 1929, and it only lasted a short time. The
a monolith ? It developed no dominating style—though its productions artists on the staff pursued their own work, some of it coincident with
may be said to fall within the style of international modernism. It was the school programme, some not. There was no doubt mutual
perhaps there first, expressing articulately attitudes but dimly felt influence, as there always is when ambitious, serious, and intelligent
elsewhere. Championing the unity of the arts—does it matter whether artists get together. What is important is that the Bauhaus is
this unity was achieved ?—making architecture and industrial design associated with painters, and hence with painting, though its
the focus of its programme, the Bauhaus laid the ghosts of the nine- institutional orientation takes another direction. I say important, but
teenth century. It wasn't the guild-like structure of the School but I mean in a negative way.
the kind of inquiry that went on within it that proved important. The heirs of the 'Art for Art's Sake' posture will not like the Bauhaus.
The Bauhaus influenced design concepts the world over; so to The artist who insists upon his individuality will not care for the
speak, it released energies by example. Still, would the development implications of group effort. Schools are anathema to those who
of twentieth-century architecture or industrial design have been don't need to be reminded of their gifts. And the rationality of the
vastly different without the Bauhaus? Perhaps not significantly so. study—though more apparent than real—will offend some.
The Bauhaus was itself a symptom of things to come—of things that But it is in this very rationality that the Bauhaus made its chief
continue to come ever faster with the necessities of the electronic age. contribution. It penetrated to basic principles in the visual arts; it
Van de Velde, Gropius's predecessor in Weimar and the man who systemized the study of colour and of form; it investigated the
recommended him, said in a lecture at the turn of the century, 'The psychological content of shape; it experimented with light, with
engineers stand at the entrance to the new style.' That observation, movement, and optical phenomena long before any of these concerns
made some twenty years before the advent of the Bauhaus, continues became widely popular, even among avant-garde artists. Itten's and
to work itself out. It would have done so in any event. Architecture Albers's work course, Klee's Pedagogical Sketchbook, Moholy-
by prefrabricated component, championed by Gropius, was not Nagy's writings give some indication of the intensity and profundity
entirely hidden in the machine. of concern. Most of the materials that have provided the significant
Today, the Bauhaus educational method has little currency. innovations of twentieth century art were matters of routine study
Students want to be no one's apprentice. They like to bring their at the Bauhaus.
rough sketches to the factory—finance permitting—for someone else to And the Bauhaus notion that everyday things be attractive, useful,
execute. They are idea men who cannot be bothered with practical and for the many, and that they bear the design mark of the machine
training beyond the minimum allowable to receive a diploma. as clearly as they reveal the substance of their materials is so firmly
Necessarily, this situation is causing an aesthetic shift of interest; a part of our taste there is no need to labour it. q

above left Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Project for a skyscraper in the
Friedrichsstrasse, Berlin 1919

left Marcel Breuer New York University, University Heights 1956-61
Lecture building
above centre Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Seagram Administration
Building, New York
above right Gerhard Weber State opera house, Hamburg 1953-55