patyzane's Journal

1105 words about the Bauhaus school and Herbert Bayer / Assignment
History of the Bauhaus
Rapid social and technological changes during the early 20th century gave the design industry a number of very distinctive styles. One of the most influential styles was the German school, the Bauhaus. Closely tied with Russian Constructivism and the British Art and Crafts movement, they are were part of the Modernist movement formed the Modernism – the group of styles with common principles. Art and design created for utility were the ideology of the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius in the German town of Weimar in 1919. Literally the word “Bauhaus” means “House of Building” or “Building School”, however the Bauhaus did not have an architecture department during the first years of existence. In 1925 under economic and public pressure, the school relocated to Dessau (Germany) (Forgacs, Batki 1995, p. 35).

Bauhaus wasn't just a style, it was a solid philosophy of design. Many talented painters, sculptors, architects and graphic designers from Germany and border countries had become fellows of the school. They were intensively forming a new environment, a utopian world where new objects served citizens. The Bauhaus included almost every aspect of visual matter: furniture, architecture, home appliances, print-design and pieces of art. Photography wasn't an exception from it. Under the direction of Hannes Meyer in 1929 a photography class was founded at the Bauhaus under the leadership of Walter Peterhans. The most famous Bauhaus individuals who worked with photography were: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Erich Consemuller, Andreas Feininger and T. Lux Feininger, Lucia Moholy, Marianne Brandt, Florence Henri, and Herbert Bayer (Warren 2006, p 103-104).

Since 1924, the school was under political and, financial pressure. Receiving the governmental funds, the members of the Bauhaus were keen to socialistic views. The city of Weimar is located in Eastern Germany where right-wing parties were especially powerful during that time. Changing political situation left the school with no sufficient funding and it was an in-avoidable stimulus to commercialise further design and products. However, it did not change the perception of the school as non-German by German majority. Later, in 1933, Bauhaus school ended its existence when Nazi Germany finally came to political power. Conception and ideology of the Bauhaus school were incompatible with Hitler regime. Many German based artists and designers independently relocated to the US where they got a chance to continue their work.

Herbert Bayer, his style
Photography at the Bauhaus had found a very wide implementation: from documenting the everyday life of the Bauhaus school, teachers and students, to objects and architecture, abstract photography, conceptual emotionless graphics and experimental images. One of the brightest talents involved in forming the Bauhaus style was Herbert Bayer, who considered himself a painter, but he is recognised as successful artist in variety of media including sculpture, typography, graphic design, and photography (Weibel 2005, p. 589-590). His early professional experience of working for the artist Georg Schmidthammer of Linz, Austria, included design of letterheads, posters, and advertisements. He left Schmidthammer’s workshop and settled in Darmstadt, Germany, where he worked an architect and was trained in the very popular style Art Nouveau. The breakpoint in career and life of Bayer happened after reading the book “Bauhaus-Manifesto” written by Walter Gropius. After an interview with Gropius, Bayer was admitted to the Bauhaus school in 1921. He left Darmstadt moving to Weimar, and for the next four years studied with the school’s great professors concentrating on design and typography. When Bayer finished his studies, he was appointed by Gropius to lead the printing and advertising workshops for the school. He moved to Dessau, where the school had relocated in 1925 (Warner Marien 2006, p. 248).
In his photographic practice Bayer was influenced by his instructor Moholy-Nagy and his works.

The works of Bayer were defined and shaped by Modernism, as well as the Bauhaus print style was defined by Bayer. Visually straightforward with simplified design, his works were the pure example of the Bauhaus. Minimum elements, colour accents, and one dominant idea are were innovative in press design for that time.

In my opinion, the poster for an exhibition of Wassily Kandinsky is the most closest by style to the Bauhaus conception. Accentuated on the Photography of Wassily, his name and the date, the design cleared of additional, non-informative elements. Like the furniture and architecture of the Bauhaus, Bayer’s posters and covers have the only necessary elements and functionality - photograph and text, for which the name "Typofoto" was created. Later, in development of the Bauhaus conception, Bayer founded “universal”, a geometric sans-serif font, which contains no capital letters. In idea of Bayer this new system of typography should simplify and universalise the process of typing and writing.

In addition, the consideration of economic factors led to the usage of normed formats and a partly simplified spelling (Weibel 2005, p. 589-590).

Why I've chosen this photographer
The style of Bauhaus is very original and has attracted me for a very long time with its purity of lines and forms, uniqueness and significance in history of art. Beginning from childhood I was surrounded by books about art and different styles of it. My parents have had a number of West-German magazines about press-design. The lay-out of those magazines was based on Bauhaus. I remember it clearly, because visually it was very different from the Soviet press style of the 1980s. In my opinion, most of modern press-design is based on Bauhaus style and particularly on the work of Herbert Bayer. I never new the story of the Bauhaus, but now I give my sympathy to the founders of this school. They tried to avoid a political dependence, concentrated on design, simplicity, technologies and availability to the masses. But, the reality is different. Politics, regimes and money are rule the world and destinies of people. Finally, one of the regimes has terminated the school in Germany, where it was based. However the movement of Bauhaus was too significant and self-consistent to fade down under pressure of the reality. Relocated overseas the artists, architects and designers continued to develop and transform the style of the Bauhaus (Nadin 1997, p. 245).

Photography as a part of printed or digital visual materials always played a very significant role in typography. Knowledge of basics and history of art styles are essential for future self-development. Since 1998 I am working in pre-press design industry. My works were based on my own intuition and past experience. Beginning from this course I will pay special attention to established styles and traditions in visual arts to apply them in my practice.

Bibliography
Weibel P (2005). Beyond Art, A Third Culture. Austria: Springer Verlag GmbH.
Warren L (2006). Encyclopedia of twentieth-century photography, Volume 1. New York: Taylor & Francis Inc.
Warner Marien, M (2006). Photography: a cultural history. London: Laurence King Publisher.
Forgacs E, Batki J (1995). The Bauhaus idea and Bauhaus politics. Hungary: Central European University Press.
James-Chakraborty, K (2006). Bauhaus culture: from Weimar to the Cold War. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
Raizman D (2004). History of modern design: graphics and products since the Industrial Revolution. London: Laurence King Publishing.
Nadin M (1997). The civilization of illiteracy. Dresden: Dresden University Press.

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