Magdalena Droste

Founded in Weimar in 1919, the Bauhaus school developed a revolutionary approach that fused fine art with craftsmanship and engineering in everything from architecture to furniture, typography, and even theater. Originally headed by Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus counted among its members artists and architects such as Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Wassily Kandinsky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Marcel Breuer. In 1930, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe took over as the leader, but soon after, in 1933, the Nazi government shut down the school. During its fourteen years of existence, Bauhaus managed to change the faces of art, architecture, and industrial design forever and is still hugely influential today.

The Bauhaus Archiv/Museum of Design in Berlin holds the most important collection on the Bauhaus today. Documents, workshop products from all areas of design, studies sketches in the classroom, and architectural plans and models are all part of its comprehensive inventory. The Bauhaus Archiv is dedicated to the study and presentation of the history of the Bauhaus, including the new Bauhaus in Chicago and the Hochschule fur Gestaltung (Institute of Design) in Ulm. This book, drawn from the Archiv's extensive collection, traces this monumental movement in art and architecture via the work of its most important proponents, including Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee.

In a fleeting 14-year period between two world wars, Germany's Bauhaus School of Art and Design changed the face of modernity. With utopian ideas for the future, the school developed a pioneering fusion of fine art, craftsmanship, and technology, which they applied across media and practices from film to theater, sculpture to ceramics. This book is made in collaboration with the Bauhaus-Archiv/Museum fur Gestaltung in Berlin, the world's largest collection on the history of the Bauhaus. Some 550 illustrations including architectural plans, studies, photographs, sketches, and models record not only the realized works but also the leading principles and personalities of this idealistic creative community through its three successive locations in Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin. From informal shots of group gymnastics to drawings guided by Paul Klee, from extensive architectural plans to an infinitely sleek ashtray by Marianne Brandt, the collection brims with the colors, materials, and geometries that made up the Bauhaus vision of a "total" work of art. As we approach the Bauhaus centennial, this is a defining account of its energy and rigor, not only as a trailblazing movement in modernism but also as a paradigm of art education, where creative expression and cutting-edge ideas led to simultaneously functional and beautiful creations. Featured artists include Josef Albers, Marianne Brandt, Walter Gropius, Gertrud Grunow, Paul Klee, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Lilly Reich.

In a fleeting 14-year period between two world wars, Germany's Bauhaus school of art and design changed the face of modernity. With utopian ideas for the future, the school developed a pioneering fusion of fine art, craftsmanship, and technology, which they applied across media and practices from film to theater, and sculpture to ceramics. This best-selling reference work is made in collaboration with the Bauhaus-Archiv/Museum fur Gestaltung in Berlin, the world's largest collection on the history of the Bauhaus. Some 575 illustrations including architectural plans, studies, photographs, sketches, and models record not only the realized works but also the leading principles and personalities of this idealistic creative community through its three successive locations in Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin. From informal shots of group gymnastics to drawings guided by Paul Klee, from extensive architectural plans to an infinitely sleek ashtray by Marianne Brandt, the collection brims with the colors, materials, and geometries that made up the Bauhaus vision of a "total" work of art. As we approach the Bauhaus centennial, this is a defining account of its energy and rigor, not only as a trailblazing movement in Modernism but also as a paradigm of art education, where creative expression and cutting-edge ideas led to simultaneously functional and beautiful creations. The handy edition features artists Josef Albers, Marianne Brandt, Walter Gropius, Gertrud Grunow, Paul Klee, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Lilly Reich, and many more.

Výtvarná škola Bauhaus sa zrodila v krátkom medzivojnovom období a pôsobila iba štrnásť rokov. Za ten čas sa jej však podarilo úplne premeniť tvár moderny. Priniesla odvážne umelecké vízie a novátorské prepojenie klasického umenia, remesiel a techniky, naprieč najrôznejšími druhmi umenia, ako je maľba, sochárstvo, dizajn, architektúra, film, fotografia, textil, keramika, divadlo a umelecké inštalácie. Zakladateľ školy Walter Gropius pozval na spoluprácu najvychytenejších umelcov svojej doby. Súčasťou učiteľského kolektívu sa tak stali Josef a Anni Albers, Vasilij Kandinskij, Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer, Gunta Stölzl, Marianne Brandt a Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Škola postupne úspešne pôsobila v troch rôznych mestách: vo Weimare, v Dessau a Berlíne. Rozmanité štýly a prístupy charakterizoval idealizmus a snaha o „totálne“ umelecké dielo, ktoré by prepojilo najrôznejšie techniky a médiá do jedného celku. Sloboda kreatívneho vyjadrenia a smelé idey sa tu spojili, aby viedli k funkčným a krásnym výtvorom. Kniha predstavuje priekopnícku činnosť tejto školy v rámci modernistického hnutia, ako aj na poli vzdelávania.