T
he most celebrated art school of the twentieth century is the Bauhaus of Germany. Established in 1919 it was nick-named "The School Of Modernism," which bid to integrate all art practices in an interdisciplinary practice. The Bauhaus movement has had
lasting implications, effecting every artist who studied in an art institution
since the 1920’s. It wasn’t their
beliefs in art but the terms in which art is taught, which we continue to
practice to this present day. The Bauhaus was unique for it’s
time, it was avant-garde and pursed the opportunity which led to modernism, and
through it’s willingness to embrace the mechanical age.
Members of the Bauhaus practiced an “anti-academic education.” They believed
that traditional academies didn’t distinguish between high and applied arts.
Also believing that they dissolved the connection between fine art and
architecture. The Bauhaus believed that traditional academies did not prepare
the artist for the real world and the times in which they were living in. The
founder of the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius vowed to change this.
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| Bauhaus Publishment of Curriculum 1922 |
Gropius felt
that all art disciplines should work together, interdisciplinary. The emphasis
wasn’t on what was taught, but how it was taught. Learning through doing. Students of all ages were accepted into the Bauhaus, people from
different backgrounds, with varying levels of education behind them. Different
nationalities and religions. A wide range of diversity in people would help the
development of the human character. The Bauhaus wanted members to actively
participate in both design and discussion.It
attracted international personalitiesGropius’ visions’ and the Bauhaus teachings are still
practiced today. The development of a new way to teach art was embraced. The ideas
of interdisciplinary courses are still in art colleges. No disciplines are
taught in isolation, no disciplines are deemed more important that the other.
Learning through doing is the bases of art, theories can be taught but putting
them into practice is another matter. Even mainstream schools, at primary and
secondary level have embraced the notion of learning through doing. Also the
establishment of a preliminary course was adopted in a similar way in art
education all over the world and is still used today
The Bauhaus changed the course of art. Many artists
adopted the concept of a studio community, not as a place where art was created
in isolation, but a studio where work and play merged into one. Designs from the Bauhuas are still relevant today, ninty years aftr they were orignally sketched on
paper!
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Bauhaus furniture: Breuer club-chair, 1925 -
1926
"Every work of art is a child of its age”
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Ps. I have a known weakness for the Bauhaus, their design and pedagogy on art education, must be why im frantically writing my thesis on it at the minute!
