i have just had a lecture on the bauhaus and rather than inspire me as i believe it was intended, it has made me slightly depressed. this is because i fell that a college setup over 80 years ago managed to be superior to many present school’s in numerous ways. i fell that design education has regressed since the bauhaus. and that a new school that follows similar principles is required just as much today as it was in 1919
just a thought
if you have a kid, its montessori…
bauhaus was and is alive in many ways, we just don’t call it that.
The Bauhaus lives on in Chicago… Sort of.
http://archives.iit.edu/exhibits/id/
Moholy-Nagy
The Institute of Design owes its existence to the creative genius of one man. A talented visionary, a gifted artist, a dedicated teacher - Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was one of the early masters of The Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau, Germany. Banned by the Nazis in 1933, The Bauhaus philosophy lived on in the professional work of a few core members who emigrated, leaving behind their homelands and native cultures, but not their convictions and allegiance to Bauhaus principles.
From the venue of The New Bauhaus in Chicago, Moholy-Nagy championed Bauhaus methods even as he adapted them in his creative output of paintings, photographs, sculptures, photograms, and films as well as in professional design assignments undertaken for private industry and government, and in developing course curricula for the school’s classes.
The New Bauhaus >
A group of Chicago business people representing the Association of Arts and Industries enticed Moholy-Nagy to come to Chicago from London with their offer to establish a school here to carry on the work of the original Bauhaus. When the association withdrew its support at the end of the first academic year leaving the school without funding, Moholy was able to garner the support of faculty and key associates to continue the school program in 1939, this time under the name of School of Design.
I don’t agree that we must “bring back the bauhaus†as many of the goals set out in there manifesto have come into existance (modernity is everywhere). But I do believe that most modern schools are too compromised and that this must change.
The Bauhaus had: a singular vision, a manifesto, and a true belief in what they where doing. These are the things that we must bring back into modern education.
p.s I also think that the copious amounts of drugs and mass orgies they had also helped.
Hey, guess what…they also had full-time teachers! Not a bunch of part-timers who dropped in to teach a class once a week. Nothing against them specifically, it’s the schools who have set themselves up this way to avoid tenure…which has it’s own downfalls.
year i think that did all teach full time, but thay were proper designers, i think thay all liked there as well, it was a real comunity
year i think thay did all teach full time, but thay were proper designers, i think thay all lived there as well, it was a real comunity
wasn’t it more of a lifestyle choice, rather than a choice of study.
If you chose the bauhaus route then you lived, ate and breathed form follows function…