Saturday 30 September 2023

I've just been through a birthday, and this is one of the books I purchased with my birthday money.
It has inspired me!

Das Bauhaus was one of the most influential and famous design schools that ever existed in the western world. 
It was first established in Weimar, Germany,
at the end of WW1, by Walter Gropius,
whose vision for the school was one where the people involved would be united in a common purpose of constructive achievement, by combining artists and artisans together. He based his idea on the medieval concept of Bauhutte (building hut), which brought all craftsmen together to manage large building projects, like those required for the glorious cathedrals found throughout Europe.
Gropius's vision for Bauhaus (building house) was the designing of living spaces for people (the wallpaper, the furniture, the utensils) designed for mass production, yet uniting economy, beauty and functionality.

The Weimar Bauhaus experience shut down in April, 1925, and relocated to Dessau. This was to be its most highly creative period.
Hannes Meyer took over as director, after Walter Gropius resigned in 1928. The institution experienced a number of divisions during this period, much of it of a political nature. Meyer, a communist, was let go in 1930, and Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe became the last director. 
During Van der Rohe's time the Bauhaus was renowned as a school of architecture. 
In 1931 the National Socialist party gained influence in Germany's regional elections. 
The Bauhaus did not appeal to the aims and aspirations of the Nazis. In September 1932, it was once again closed and this time, moved to Berlin.
This period of the Bauhaus lasted only a year, as it was a struggle to keep Nazi politics out of the school. Certain instructors were to be removed, while all the other members had to join the National Socialist party. Van Der Rohe chose to permanently close the school.

Over the school's 14 years, many fascinating artists were employed as instructors.

Painter Johannes Itten, 
taught experimentation with colour, texture and form, using materials like glass, textiles, paper and clay. All about primary shapes and primary colours, which were two of the most distinct elements of the Bauhaus. 
Red feels like a square and blue feels like a circle, or vice versa.

Paul Klee,

told his students,"that art is not the reproduction of that which we see, but the revealing of that which is invisible."
This principle was the basic component of his teaching at the Bauhaus.

Theo Van Doesburg,

worked with horizontal and vertical lines and the use of primary colours.


Wassily Kandinsky,
again with a distinctive form and colour theory. The Bauhaus's application of the 3 primary colours, red, yellow and blue to the square, triangle and circle, was based on a survey that Kandinsky carried out at the Bauhaus Weimar.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy,
was influenced by constructivism and the integration of technology and industry into the arts.

Josef Albers, considered one of the most influential abstract painters of the 20th century, was known for his experimental approach to spatial relationships, colour theory and glasswork.


Oskar Schlemmer,
painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer. He was interested in "geometric forms represent the rationality that dehumanises and merely stages physicality." Human movement in space.

Although the Bauhaus was seen as highly innovative and enlightened, it was not necessarily so when it came to its female students, even though many of them displayed tremendous talents and skills. They were often put into the textiles and pottery department, simply because the men viewed it as more "women's work".

In 1925, one woman did make it as an instructor, 

Gunta Stolzl.

Gunta played a fundamental role in the development of the Bauhaus weaving workshop, so much so that it became one of its most successful facilities. (Yay, high fives the women's weaving workshop!) 
At the time when Gunta started at the Bauhaus, the women's weaving department didn't actually offer much for the students to learn technically, so they took various courses outside of the school, then returned with their attained knowledge to the school. 
That lack of technical guidelines did allow Gunta and her students to question and experiment with different materials and techniques, which enabled them to make the step from traditional techniques to new and exciting methods.

Gunta applied ideas acquired in the classes run by Itten, Klee and Kandinsky in much of her own textiles work. I think you can see the result in these fabulous works she made in 1927 and 28 respectively.


This is a wonderful presentation by Gunta Stolzl's daughter, which she delivered as part of the programme for the Barbican's 2012 exhibition about the Bauhaus. So much knowledge is imparted about Gunta, her artistic talent, her spirit and her humanity.

I am taken by that aspect of the students lack of technical guidelines and knowledge, enabling them to experiment with different materials and techniques, thus producing highly innovative and exciting results.
It is a similar story with Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garcons. 
Kawakubo had no formal training in the field of fashion, consequently she was unafraid to take an unorthodox approach to her work in the industry. Without reserve, Rei Kawakubo was confident to skew seams and closures of garments, so sides didn't match. It didn't upset her that a torso might have more than 2 sleeves, a dress could be worn upside down inside out, and ragged edges might show. Mind bending stuff in the 80s world of fashion.
In 1993 she said, "I wasn't limited to the confines of a pattern. Not being educated, not being taught how to design, I was able to visualize in a completely different context. And I still seem able to draw upon the unconventional."
And in 2016, "I have always pursued a new way of thinking about design, by denying established values, conventions and what is generally accepted as the norm. And the modes of expression that have always been most important to me are unfinished, imbalance, fusion, elimination and absence of intent."

Back to the wonderful Bauhaus weaving workshop.
Annelise Fleischman was always intrigued by art and the visual world. In 1922 she undertook studies at the Bauhaus Weimar. As she was barred from entering certain disciplines, Annelise struggled to find her particular niche. She reluctantly enrolled in the weaving workshop, as initially thought it was a bit of a sissy craft, but under Gunta Stolzl's guidance Annelise flourished, as she learned to appreciate the challenges of tactile construction and found her own design and form.
She became a very successful textile artist, known as Anni Albers, as in 1925 she married Josef Albers.

One of her famous Bauhaus pieces is the 1926, 'Black, White, Yellow', woven in cotton and silk.

'Knot', 1947, gouache on paper. Is there a bit of Paul Klee's 'Take a line for a walk' in there?

'Six Prayers', 1966, cotton, linen bast and silver thread, commissioned by the New York Jewish Museum to memorialise the victims of the Holocaust.

If you would like to know more about this beautifully contemplative work, check this link.   https://thejewishmuseum.org/collection/16696-six-prayers

This is a great account of New Zealander, Kate Smith's visit to the 2019 Anni Albers Tate Modern exhibition. It is the next best thing to being there.  I like Anni's quote "threads caught my imagination...I have learnt to listen to threads and to speak their language. I learned the process of handling them." 
I understand.

In 1933, Josef and Anni Albers moved to the USA, where they were offered teaching positions at the Bauhaus inspired Black Mountain College in North Carolina. 
It was here that Anni began designing 'hardware jewellery' with friend and student, Alex Reed. The work was inspired by various treasures she discovered on her travels to Mexico. It was also seen as a challenge to traditional notions of value.

Horseshoe-shaped necklace out of 38 aluminium washers and grosgrain ribbon

Pendent from a metal plug chain, a sink strainer and paper clips

Necklace made from bottle caps, beads and a metal chain

Necklace made from pencil-top erasers, beads and wire

Take this site and purchase your own kit to create an Anni Albers necklace, or get your own ideas.
https://albersdesignshop.bigcartel.com/product/anni-albers-jewelry-make-your-own-necklace-kit-1

A connection with CdG...Christian Astuguevieille, the creative director for Comme des Garcons Parfum, since 1994 and still seemed to be, in an article written in 2020, but do not know about 2023. 
He  creates jewellery constructed from metal chains, vividly coloured plastic links and broken-down costume jewels. 

This one is rather cool.
Necklace made from polyester rope, garden hose, wooden beads, felt balls.


Berlin's Bauhaus Archive Museum, founded in 1960, houses the world's largest Bauhaus collection. They have a great website, and if you are a nerd like me, who enjoys doing worksheet projects, this is the place to go for some Anni Albers hardware jewellery inspired work. (Worksheet no. 5)
https://www.bauhaus.de/en/programm/1922_bauhaus_werkblaetter/

Just one more connection with a Bauhaus woman.
Alma Siedhoff-Buscher.

In 1922 Alma began studying at the Bauhaus, and like most of the other female students she was put into the Weaving Workshop. The following year, Alma was able to switch to the Wood Sculpture Workshop, where she really found her form.
Alma is most known for "Little ship-building game' building blocks,
and her bendy string dolls with wooden heads.

This will tell you more, especially in the videos. I love how she works with both hard materials, and soft materials.

Here's a cool wee book about Alma and her work.
Bauhaus Women
This is Gunta and her weaving facility students

Isn't this a great image of cool art/craft creatively inspired Bauhaus women. They have that wonderful aura of experimental youth and activity. Is it the hair!?

Celebrate six of the Bauhaus women's stories in this article

I read somewhere in my research that Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, he of one of the male instructors mentioned above, was described as "relentlessly experimental'' and often worked collaboratively with other artists. This could be describing Rei Kawakubo.
Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons avant-garde philosophy of attention to materials and construction is in a similar vein as the Bauhaus ethos. She has provided an excellent education for several notable designers, Junya Watanabe, Tao and Chitose Abe, to name just a few. They started work at Comme des Garcons as pattern-makers, which enabled them to achieve mastery over their craft through the years of working on garments for CdG collections. It is a type of apprentice/master relationship between junior and senior employees, echoing the Bauhaus style of guild system, as does the focus on working with the material rather than being preoccupied with the early stages of design by simply focusing on fashion sketches. 

A 2019 Guardian article

The Bauhaus movement entered into fashion in many different ways, like in the lines, geometry and colour of the clothes. 

Think 60s pioneer Mary Quant, who paired shift dresses with geometric patterns and brightly-coloured tights.


Junya Watanabe's fabulous Spring/Summer 2015 collection demonstrated the influence of Bauhaus, through its use of colours and geometry reflecting the constructivism art form, that Laszlo Maholy-Nagy brought to the school.

The theory behind Constructivism was that the learners construct knowledge rather than just passively take in information. There was a gaining of new understanding and knowledge through experience. Constructivists considered their art a product of an industrial order, a precursor to the factory-made, mass-produced object rather than a unique commodity often. They often explored collective ways of working. Art is built and the artist is an engineer wielding tools. It was considered that their art should reflect the industrial world and was used as a tool in the Communist revolution.

Some of Moholy-Nagy's works.
A19, 1927
Abstract composition, 1925
Abstract composition

A11 (Construction A11), 1924


E IV (Konstruktion VIII), 1922

Some of Junya Watanabe's glorious creations from his S/S 2015 collection.




This provides some interesting information regarding Constructivism in 1920s Russia, the textile designs in particular.
https://www.russianfashionblog.com/index.php/2013/06/constructivism-russia-1920s/#axzz2ivtvBMZ1


Paul Smith also presented a 2015 collection, which had a Bauhaus influence. He was inspired by the work of Anni and Josef Albers. Smith did say his check and plaid patterns in the collection were influenced by the Albers travels to Mexico, so it probably is post-Bauhaus. Style.


Smith also presented an Anni Albers influence in his Fall 2018 Knitwear capsule collection. It was Smith's personal homage to the Albers in connection with the Tate Modern's retrospective to Anni Albers. He always found inspiration in the abstract woven works of Anni Albers.


Paul Smith appreciates the value of craft. "I am a very old-fashioned analog person. I love the element of risk and of the unknown that arises when you work with your hands. I believe that technological progress can make many fantastic things happen, but it is crucial that we support and foster the crafts in the digital age. I encourage all the designers working in my studio to use their hands."

Mary Katrantzou had a Bauhaus influence in her Fall 2018 collection. She said she was "looking at the beginnings of modernism - its roots in William Morris, up to the Bauhaus."
Posters for the 1923 Bauhaus Exhibition in Weimar informed the first knitwear outfits in the collection.
I think it could be this poster, which was designed by Oskar Schlemmer.



Oskar Schlemmer, was the Master of Form at the Bauhaus theatre workshop. 
His most famous work, Triadisches Ballett (Triadic Ballet), had costumed actors/dancers transformed into geometrical representations of the human body in an expression of form and colour.
Schlemmer placed the proportions and measurements of the human body at the centre of his designs for the Triadic Ballet costumes. The swing of the limbs and the angle of the joints provided the basic principles for his ideas.

The Triadic Ballet
3 acts - each act a different colour and mood (1st - yellow, festive, 2nd - pink, solemn, 3rd - black, mystical)
3 basic shapes - sphere, cube, pyramid
3 performers, 2 male and 1 female
12 dances
18 costumes - exaggerated headdresses, masks, bulbous padded torsos, outfits built with wiring and concentric hoops

Watch a 30-minute 1970 reconstruction of the ballet via this link, it's great!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHQmnumnNgo

Want to know a bit more about Schlemmer's ballet..this article is worth reading https://www.seeingdance.com/the-triadic-ballet-220928/

Now, this is a great site, as it's got heaps of historic information, plus some cool activities you can engage in, especially in the Body and Spirit section, where you can create your own take on various aspects of Schlemmer's 'The Triadic Ballet'. 
https://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/bauhaus/new_artist/history/


In 2019 the Elmhurst Art Museum Teen Art Council re-staged Schlemmer's work. The costumes reflect the triadic components of the original: cube, pyramid and sphere. I read that EAM Teen Art Council is, "A place where you can be yourself and express your ideas." I want to be a part of it!

Watch the video of the their re-staged Triadic work. Most intriguing.
https://vimeo.com/410311598


Schlemmer's design concepts are reflected in many of CdG Rei Kawakubo's wonderful collections, which feature padded/bulbous/extreme garments.






Just a couple more things to share before I close with my Bauhaus blog. 
This is a classic icon of the Bauhaus, the Wassily Chair, created by Marcel Breuer, in 1925.
Interesting reading,
https://www.bhg.com/news/wassily-chair-history/

Four years earlier, Breuer had worked with Gunta Stolzl in the creation of this chair, which got called 'African Chair'. Such a beautiful collaboration between soft and hard materials.

It leads me to this juxtaposed image. 
Anni Albers piece placed beside a photo of Minganji Masqueraders from Congo (Democratic Republic). The photo was taken in 1970, by Eliot Elisofon.

Finally, my homage to Anni Albers.

3 cords on 11 count Aida fabric.

sltsltbsigning off from Bauhaus inspiration.




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