Page 64 - Studio International - March 1970

This image was of course that of the func­ Bauhaus, of course: programmes, time-tables,
Georgian Furniture tionalist Bauhaus: the Bauhaus without style c Bauhaus
An indispensable guide to the English furniture at the but with industrial know-how, whose pro­ E between
Victoria and Albert Museum from the Early Georgian ducts had plain surfaces, simple shapes and Gropius h successors and the loca1 and
to the Regency period, this new and enlarged edition
provides a fully illustrated survey of the collection. colours, were aimed at the man in the street w Con­
Also included are period rooms and the interiors and and embodied a . clear understanding of his mostly
furniture of Osterley Park and Ham House are
discussed. ' ... a delightful record of a totally enthralling social situation. I came across an illustration sha criti Le of all so intimate
collection' MONICA FOOT in a BBC BROADCAST in a later Museum of Modern Art book that M Feininger, much
105s. (by post 109s. 6d.) did the job superbly. It showed a display set forma l Klee
European Firearms up in the museum to represent the Bauhaus. a Gropius Meyer's
open letter to the Lord Mayor ofDessau upon
by J. F. Hayward This consisted of a photo of the Dessau being dismissed from the Much
school, some posters, a square of chequer­
A guide to the collection of firearms at the Victoria
and Albert Museum. The examples described and board weaving, the famous chess set, a lamp else of it bearin the
illustrated have bet:n selected for discussion on grounds and other metal or glass products done under g of
of artistic merit and technical or historical interest.
This new and enlarged edition has been completely Moholy, and Breuer steel tube furniture. All of peo a work,
revised and many illustrations added. these dated from between 1924 and 1928; almost all contemporary.
20s. (by post 21s. 2d.) they all demonstrated, or could be taken to All this is excellent and could be bettered only
Women's Costume demonstrate, the functionalist ethos of the b a Bauhaus
exhibition that we had at the Royal Academy
1600- 17S4) Bauhaus. Selected items from four or five contained material t would make a useful
years of the Bauhaus's activity to represent
by Zillah Halls fourteen years of history. docu­
The first in a new series covering the imponant of the
costume collection in the London Museum. This well One could try to read between the lines. One
illustrated account includes many specimens of could guess at things on the basis of one's Bauhaus-Archi all the ti through
costume acquired since 1935 when a previous catalogue t awareness the
■ articles that gave weight to one's doubts. But la c pro­
was published. It will appeal both to the general understanding of the better known of the
reader and specialist in historical costume. 'An personalities involved. Here and there, The a about
endearing little booklet ... ' GUARDIAN mostly in architectural magazines, were the Bauhaus that still await answers, particu­
6s. 6d. (by post 7s.)
grammes ye Schlem­
behind the brave facade of the 1938 book
FreP lists of titles (please specify subject/s) are
ava,lablefrom Her Majesty's Stationery
mer's letters and diaries have been published
(republished in 1952 and 1959) lay a jungle
Office, P6A (SI), Atlantic House, Ho/born
Viaduct, London ECI
the Government Bookshops in London (post
illumina
tentative account to that Bristol audience,

comment.

orden to PO Box 569, SEl), Edinburgh,
HMSO Government publications can be bought from of question marks. I remember saying, in my in Germany and they contain a great deal of
Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester, Birmi
that the story would remain obscure while the
the hi jottings
and Bristol, or through any bookseller
protagonists were alive. I was wrong. a witt ma he
In 1962 Dr Wingler's volume first appeared. an the a
Two years earlier the Bauhaus-Archiv had m ex­
been founded in Darmstadt and this book it c of
gave armchair access to what it had collected. any future collec of documents.
A second edition, in 1968, added a few more de the been
Doreen Yarwood items. Now we have the whole thing in to c b th A publisher.
The new book is massive where the other was
efficient English, with one major addition and
The Architecture redesigned (of which more below), but for the large and it has a regrettable 1960s pomposity
about it where the other had a nice Bauhaus
greater part a word for word translation of
of Italy Wingler's book. period flavour. The massiveness, and perhaps
Today it probably needs stressing that the also some of the loss of flavour is occasioned by
1962 book was a new sort of book among the major to I referred.
publications on modern art and architecture. This is the section on the Bauhaus which
It looked like other fat books on the outside, Chic \\-hich
those portentous monographs made of ten was reconstituted as the School of Design and
per cent facts, seventy per cent 'interpreta­ became the Institute of Design in 1944. After
tion' and 'criticism' (i.e. praise), and twenty M i Chermayeff
per cent bibliography, chronology and index. and then by Jay Doblin. The inclusion of this
Inside it one found, and finds today, a concise s appears an mis­
historical introduction by Wingler, followed l The Ba ex con­
by masses of verbal and visual documentation ceived on the extraordinary notion that any­
and only the briefest explanatory editorial did,
matter. It reflected, of course, the Bauha\lS­ was s material it,
Archiv's role and Dr Wingler's own role in it and so it inclu l ve and
as organizer (then secretary, now director), some interesting but irrelevant photographs of
A survey ofltalian architecture from but it demonstrated an objectivity that shone architecture If e it
Greek and Roman times to the present
day, which demonstrates a deep brilliantly after the fog of evasions and w the con of
understanding of its evolution. The text omissions. Only Wingler himself can know be then
is brilliantly illustrated with numerous how easy or difficult it was to act so coolly Itten's sch Berlin what
line drawings and photographs.
30s amid so many interested parties; only time a th 'Buda t Bortnik
will show whether objectivity could have founded in 1928, what about Albers' teaching­
CHA TTO & WINDUS gone much further. a Mou College an elsewhere,
It is worth stressing the range of the docu­ nic ha the
mentation. Mostly stuff from inside the Chica l the
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