Page 67 - Studio International - September 1968
P. 67

had the assistance of several pupils, since its complex
                                                                                 construction consisted of several hundred new particles
                                                                                 like plexiglass and synthetic metals, welded together to
                                                                                 produce the 10,000 varieties of reflected light and
                                                                                 texturized shadows. The object must have been the most
                                                                                 successful kinetic construction to date and was filmed in
                                                                                 1927. This film experiment, which he has shown me
                                                                                 several times, had a profound influence on me. Nobody
                                                                                 has quite surpassed its visual variety in conjuring
                                                                                 exciting textures, space and light onto a screen. At least
                                                                                 not until 1968.

                                                                                 Today, with the aid of computers, we are more or less
                                                                                 in a position to create similar abstract shapes and com-
                                                                                 plexity. We could, however, cut down the year-and-a-
                                                                                 half production time of this 26-minute film to two weeks.
                                                                                 How grateful Moholy-Nagy would have been.
                                                                                 My association with Moholy-Nagy was renewed in
                                                                                 London at the end of 1936. During the winter he had
                                                                                 an exhibition in a gallery at Cork Street where we met
                       The 1920                                                  again. He was involved in the interior design of
                       Synthetic Total                                           `Simpsons' of Piccadilly but he had already planned a
                       Theatre.                                                  journey to the States in 1937. The hard resistance to
                       The diagrams                                              basic functional design in this country and the lack of
                       show how by                                               concern towards his frameless constructional painting
                       turning the                                               was a matter he could not understand or tolerate. He
                       deep stage                                                would hardly be happier at present.
                       platform and                                              A few months later I had the experience of meeting
                       orchestra, either                                         another Bauhaus personality, Marcel Breuer, in London.
                       a proscenium                                              His opinion of the English interest in good design was
                       stage or                                                  even poorer than Moholy-Nagy's. Consequently, the
                       a centre stage                                            USA gained another catalyst.
                       are brought                                               It is interesting that today in most of the world's art
                       into being                                                colleges tuition is structured on the basis of the Bauhaus
                                                                                 curriculum. It is even more pleasing to see how many
                                                                                 revolutionary ideas have been put into practice. Some are
                                                                                 still waiting to be released, like Walter Gropius' plan
                                                                                 for a 'Total' theatre, combinging special lighting, film
                                                                                 projection on three-dimensional mobile screens, and
                                                                                 a central proscenium for greater audience participation.
                                                                                 Bauhaus became a symbol of a new attitude to life. Its
                                                                                 historical role was to establish a relationship between
                                                                                 art and technology, to break down barriers between
                                                                                 artist and industrialist, to demolish prejudices between
                                                                                 art and science and put into effective practice the
                                                                                 twentieth-century technological revolution. The closure
                                                                                 of Bauhaus in 1933, and other establishments like ours
                                                                                 later, mattered little. The ideas were firmly established
                       by permission                                             and quickly spread east and west by 1940. Ideas do not
                       Walter Gropius                                            depend on buildings; they know no frontiers.
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