Bauhaus - Metodo ed educazione by Claudia Quagliarini

Claudia Quagliarini 869788 A.A. 2017/2018 Politecnico di Milano, Scuola del Design Laurea Triennale in Design della Comunicazione Corso di Storia delle Comunicazioni visive Docente: L. Gunetti; Assistente: W. Mattana

STORIA DELLE COMUNICAZIONI VISIVE: QUADERNO DI RICERCA STORICA Cento anni di comunicazione visiva Il Bauhaus: origine, sviluppo e apporto alla comunicazione visiva, con particolare attenzione al metodo, alla ricerca e allâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;istruzione

INDICE TIMELINE

INTRODUZIONE

PRIMA SEZIONE

SECONDA SEZIONE

TERZA SEZIONE

BIBLIOGRAFIA

The Arts and Crafts of To-day About the Jugendstil Role of the machine Art and Workmanship About the current situation Artefatti comunicativi

Bauhaus Manifesto and Porgramme Preliminary course, Weimar Differences of opinion Building the Master builder New typography and photography Historical or contemporary Typophoto Pedagogical sketchbook Research method Teaching form through practice Artefatti comunicativi

Spread of the Bauhaus idea Postwar graphic art education Quarterly bulletin Is the Bauhaus still relevant today? Education for visual design Artefatti comunicativi

TIMELINE

WILLIAM MORRIS W. R. LETHABY HERMANN MUTHESIUS WALTER GROPIUS H. G. SCHEFFAUER LASZLO MOHOLY-NAGI JOSEF ALBERS WASSILJ KANDINSKY SIBYL MOHOLY-NAGI HERBERT BAYER

TOMAS MALDONADO GUI BONSIEPE

INTRODUZIONE «The Bauhaus was not an institution with clear program – it was an idea, and Gropius formulated this idea with great precision. . . . The fact that it was an idea, I think, is the cause of this enormous influence the Bauhaus had on every progressive school around the globe. You cannot do that with organization, you cannot do that with propaganda. Only an idea spreads so far. . . .»

L.M. van der Rohe, The Bauhaus was an idea… (quoted from S. Giedion, “Walter Gropius”, Reinhold Publishing Corp., New York, 1954)

«Fin dal 1910, stendendo con Behrens un Memorandum sulla prefabbricazione industriale in rapporto all’edilizia, [Walter Gropius] tracciava i primi lineamenti di una riforma della produzione artistica. Durante la guerra quel primo disegno si trasforma in un progetto di riforma dell’insegnamento artistico. Appena smobilitato, ottiene al suo progetto l’appoggio del Granduca di Sassonia-Weimar ed assume la direzione della Sächsische Hochschule für bildende Kunst e della Sächsische Kunstgewerbeschule di Weimar. La Bauhaus nasce dalla fusione di due istituti, con un programma non dissimile da quello del Werkbund, ma con un rigore di metodo che elimina anche le tracce del vago estetismo che il Werkbund aveva ereditato dal movimento Arts and Crafts.»

Con questa citazione si intende illustrare, in maniera condensata, la linea guida adottata per la redazione di questo quaderno di ricerca storica: il Bauhaus di Gropius, analizzato nelle sue premesse, nella sua nascita e nel suo sviluppo, dal punto di vista prettamente didattico e metodologico. Le radici della scuola, analizzate nel corso della prima sezione, affondano in primo luogo nel movimento inglese delle Arts and Crafts, di cui Morris risulta il principale (ma non unico esponente). All’interno del contesto della rivoluzione industriale, questo movimento per primo innesca la riflessione sul ruolo dell’arte in relazione alla produzione industriale, sulla distinzione – necessaria o meno – fra le cosiddette “arti applicate” e tutti gli altri settori dell’arte tradizionale. La conclusione a cui giunge Morris è che il lavoro, rigorosamente manuale e artigianale, risulta e risulterà sempre necessario, in quanto non solo unico mezzo per raggiungere il “bello”, ma anche in quanto in grado di rendere piacevole all’uomo il compito che sta svolgendo, riprendendo l’idea di Ruskin della “joy in labour”. Il passo successivo viene compiuto da Hermann Muthesius, il quale, distanziandosi e criticando aspramente lo Jugendstil tedesco, individua invece nella macchina una componente necessaria, non tanto a replicare l’apporto umano al proget-

(G.C. Argan, “Walter Gropius e la Bauhaus”, Giulio Einaudi Editore, Torino, 1974)

to, quanto piuttosto a supportarlo, aprendo nuove frontiere che prima, in termini di tecniche, processi e materiali, erano precluse. È questo desiderio di unire la cultura progettuale umana con le possibilità offerte dalla macchina che porta alla fondazione nel 1907 del Deutscher Werkbund, di cui anche Gropius era un convinto sostenitore. La seconda sezione di questa ricerca riguarda la nascita e lo sviluppo del Bauhaus, seguendone le vicissitudini nel corso delle sue fasi: la dichiarazione d’intenti esposta nel Manifesto, la costituzione del corso propedeutico, il divario di opinioni con Itten, la strutturazione di un programma didattico innovativo basato su un metodo di ricerca e di insegnamento che valorizza l’apprendimento tramite l’esperienza diretta, piuttosto che attraverso la sola conoscenza. Questo ebbe come diretta conseguenza il ritorno alla scuola di molti studenti in qualità di insegnanti, come fu per Herbert Bayer, direttore del corso di “Laboratorio per la stampa” dal 1925 al 1928, luogo di sperimentazione e riflessione costante sull’utilizzo della tipografia e fotografia all’interno delle comunicazioni visive. La terza e ultima sezione infine riguarda l’esodo dei progettisti europei verso gli Stati Uniti a causa del regime nazista prima e della guerra poi. Ciò, unito alle numerose mostre organizzate dal MoMA di New York e da altri enti locali, ha permesso la diffusione degli ideali del Bauhaus negli Stati Uniti, portando anche all’apertura di nuove scuole e in generale ad una riflessione riguardo l’istruzione in ambito di comunicazione visiva. Questo percorso viene poi coronato, nuovamente in Europa, con l’esperienza della scuola di Ulm (1955-1969), progettata e diretta da Max Bill, ex studente del Bauhaus. La selezione dei testi è stata effettuata cercando di includere quanto più possibile testimonianze dirette dei progettisti, concentrandosi sia sul versante più accademico del manifesto, della pubblicazione, della conferenza, sia sul versante più personale delle lettere e della comunicazione interna alla scuola. Questo in modo da valorizzare allo stesso tempo la comunicazione esterna, illustrativa e accessibile a tutti, e le riflessioni più personali e articolate presenti all’interno della corrispondenza o dei diari. Il quadro finale che emerge è quindi quello di una scuola formata da personalità molto diverse fra di loro, spesso lontane nei modi di fare e nella visione del mondo, ma con qualcosa in comune: il desiderio di dare alle nuove generazioni la possibilità di imparare in maniera diversa, formandosi sul campo, mettendosi in gioco e superando il mero nozionismo accademico, in modo da valorizzare i propri punti di forza e arrivare ad una progettualità in grado di guardare al quadro complessivo dell’artefatto, e non solamente alle singole parti. Solo in questo modo, per Gropius e i suoi colleghi, sarebbe stato realmente possibile raggiungere il buon design.

PRIMA SEZIONE Dibattito sulle arti applicate, utilizzo della macchina come strumento utile al progetto, presa di distanza dai modelli del passato

William Morris

"Applied Art" is the title which the Society has chosen for that portion of the arts which I have to speak to you about. What are we to understand by that title? I should answer that what the Society means by applied art is the ornamental quality which men choose to add to articles of utility. Theoretically this ornament can be done without, and art would then cease to be "applied" - would exist as a kind of abstraction, I suppose. But though this ornament to articles of utility may be done without, man up to the present time has never done without it, and perhaps never will; at any rate he does not propose to do so at present, although, as we shall see presently, he has got himself into somewhat of a mess in regard to his application of art. Is it worthwhile for a moment or two considering why man has never thought of giving up work which adds to the labour necessary to provide him with food and shelter, and to satisfy his craving for some exercise of his intellect? I think it is, and that such consideration will help us in dealing with the important question which one more I must attempt to answer, "What is our position towards the applied arts in the present, and what have we to hope for them and from them in the future?" Now I say without hesitation that the purpose of applying art to articles of utility is twofold: first, to add beauty to the results of the work of man, which would otherwise be ugly; and secondly, to add pleasure to the work itself, which would otherwise be painful and disgustful. [â&#x20AC;Ś] The active injury of non-artistic human work I want especially to fix in your minds; so I repeat again, if you dispense with applying art to articles of utility, you will not have unnoticeable utilities, but utilities which will bear with them the same sort of harm as blankets infected with the small-pox or the scarlet-fever, and every step in your material life and its "progress" will tend towards the intellectual death of the human race. [â&#x20AC;Ś] But if these applied arts are necessary, as I believe they are, to prevent mankind from being a mere ugly and degraded blotch on the surface of the earth, which without him would certainly be beautiful, their other function of giving pleasure to labour is at least as necessary, and, if the two functions can be separated, even more beneficent and indispensable. For if it be true, as I know it is, that the function of art is to make labour

1890

THE ARTS AND CRAFTS OF TO-DAY

pleasurable, what is the position in which we must find ourselves without it? One of two miseries must happen to us: either the necessary work of our lives must be carried on by a miserable set of helots for the benefit of a few lofty intellects; or if, as we ought to do, we determine to spread fairly the burden of the curse of labour over the whole community, yet there the burden will be, spoiling for each one of us a large part of that sacred gift of life, every fragment of which, if we were wise, we should treasure up and make the most of (and allow other to do so) by using it for the pleasurable exercise of our energies, which is the only true source of happiness. [â&#x20AC;Ś] Now let us see in somewhat more detail what applied art deals with. I take it that it is only as a matter of convenience that we separate painting and sculpture from applied art: for in effect the synonym for applied art is architecture, and I should say that painting is of little use, and sculpture of less, except where their works form a part of architecture. [â&#x20AC;Ś] In short, the complete work of applied art, the true unit of the art, is a building with all its due ornament and furniture; and I must say from experience that it is impossible to ornament duly an ugly or base building. And on the other hand I am forced to say that the glorious art of good building is in itself so satisfying, that I have seen many a building that needed little ornament, wherein all that seemed needed for its complete enjoyment was some signs of sympathetic and happy use by human beings: a stout table, a few old-fashioned chairs, a pot of flowers will ornament the parlour of an old English yeoman's house far better than a wagon-load of Rubens will ornament a gallery in Blenheim Park.

1881, Lisa Stillman, ritratto di William Morris

Hermann Muthesius

[…] Even this narrower Arts and Crafts Movement itself obviously cannot be seen with absolute clarity. The movement in Germany presents itself still today as a bubbling brew of often antagonistic ingredients, which is far from presenting a united image. This German movement, in the final analysis, is a descendant of the movement that arose under the leadership of William Morris in England in the 1860s, and yet it is nevertheless fundamentally different. Superficially, what most distinguishes the new Continental art from the English movement up to now is the luxuriant extravagance of form and the rage for sensational designs. In Germany, the whole movement arose from the effort to seek so-called new forms— that is, forms that basically should have nothing in common with traditional forms. If one now acknowledges this yearning, this discontent stored up for years in reeling off the old styles, to be the immediate cause for change, one should not forget that this change expresses a conception that, in essence, does not reach down to the true artistic questions of the time. Once again it is simply a matter of forms, thus once again basically the old miseries of style and ornament. What good does it do us if the old acanthus tendril is replaced by a linear squiggle? Does anyone really believe that such a superficial change will bring the artistic solution that we so much desire today? In the meantime, someone who observes the matter more deeply, someone who does not allow himself to be misled by the violent way in which such superficialities are stretched here and there, such a person will discover in the contemporary movement a more profound basis. And perhaps he will then come to expect that this position concerning form—that which is still so generally prevalent in the so-called new art of today—represents only a transitional stage; it is only in a teething period through which an ascending, truly new conception of art is about to unfold. Compared with the earlier artistic practice that took place under the spell of historical styles, the new movement, when we consider the best achievements of its leaders, is better in many respects. Instead of the merely pedantic forms of earlier times, we now have a free and unfettered shaping of form, which takes account of every special circumstance, which fluently adapts to every need,

1903

ABOUT THE JUGENDSTIL

1900, Paul Burk, Manifesto

tacks down the inner essence of the problem, and seeks to express everything outwardly. Instead of a pedantic, academic approach to design, we have individualized it, and here in is already expressed a victory of the contemporary spirit that the movement embodies. […] It appears that the masses are incapable of grasping the fundamental nature of human problems. Somewhere an idea is born that contains an entire program for the future, that is capable of deeply influencing and advancing culture. […] Under its dominance people of fashion rejoice, the philistine frets, and the friend of art sighs. For a moment the world opened itself to a welcome liberation; the style-machine of the last twenty years had been driven to the absurd and the clockwork of stylistic imitation stood still. But this was true for only a moment. Immediately this opportunity closed upon itself as the whiplash curve and the little flower ornament emerged and worked with redoubled energy. Again there was a style, and now one that was indubitably the very latest. […] The new ornament that was to develop through a study of plants (which had been extolled as a solution) remained, in the hands of lesser artists, just as poor, insipid, and helpless as the art of the leader, when reduced by generalization to a watery soup. Thus with the so-called Jugendstil we have been led into a worse channel than that in which we sailedin the time of stylistic imitation. The Jugendstil fashion demonstrates what an artist's art can become when it is broadcast to the multitude. In the realm of the applied arts, it demonstrates at the same time how little the greater part of the public is served by a strongly personal artist's art—at least directly served. A longer time is required for the particular qualities of an artistic personality to be fused in a tradition. The fusion will seemingly first be achieved by the next generation, by those who stand on the threshold of their lifeworks. We await from this generation both a generalization and a clarification of the numerous currently conflicting personal tendencies: we hope that this generation will shape a broader stratum with a more unified will and that it will do away with the Jugendstil, which only proved that incompetents had picked the fruit of the new movement too early from the tree. The Jugendstil was invented by those still pandering to the sensibility of a parvenu society that desired pretentious and heavily decorated ornamental art—and for whom the understanding of the true modernity, which lies in an appropriate straightforwardness rather than in applied ornament, had not yet dawned.

Hermann Muthesius

1903

ROLE OF THE MACHINE

The machine, however, has been misused not only to produce false works of art, it has also introduced a mode of production that aims at mass operation and thus evoked a series of further evilsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;above all a reciprocal undercutting of prices. Once this principle was in place, it soon became a battle of life and death. Extensive operating equipment consumes interest whenever it is not in operation. Thus it must produce whether the world needs the wares or not. The buyer who has no particular need for them is enticed by their unprecedented cheapness. The necessary condition is only too often the worst quality; this is the result of the pressure on the worker to work ever faster and faster. The buyer purchases in ignorance of the minimal value, about which he is deceived by a pleasing presentation; indeed, he believes by the low price to have obtained an economic advantage. Not only does the lack of durability soon spoil this delusion but defects soon give cause for constant dissatisfactionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;if the thing has not already fallen apart. Soon it is thrown away or finds its natural ruin, and a new one must be bought. What then is the result of this supply of cheap factory goods? The factory worker is forced to earn less in order that the factory can meet the competition; he loses interest in his work and is spiritually injured because he must deliver bad work. An entire classis thus demoralized because the natural human instinct to take pleasure in excellent work is repressed. The buyer is prompted to a false economy in that in a short span of timehe must acquire a series of flimsy articles; and the irritating quality of the wares holds him, like the worker, in constant discontent. The national wealth is greatly injured by this, for raw materials, which in part must be imported, are continuously used up in un-satisfactory forms and thus are squandered. It is thus evident what deep harm today preys upon our trades. The new conditions are not yet understood, not to speak of being controlled. The machine must be, like every improved tool, a blessing rather than a curse for mankind. Its productions need not be inartistic nor without quality. If the human mind simply conceives forms that the machine can produce, then these, as soon as they logically evolve from the conditions of the machine, will also be those that we will without hesitation call artistic. They will satisfy completely

so long as they are not fakes of handwork but rather typical machine forms. [â&#x20AC;Ś] That the machine need not work without distinction, as until now it has done in part, should be apparent. Demand of it only what it can produce; do not ask it to perform work that must be reserved for the human hand; do not direct it to disgorge cheap, mass trash. It is a tool, not a goddess of production. Obviously it will require the insight and then also the watchful eye of the public to counter the factory owners' tendency to bless the world with their machine-produced trash. Previously the guilds upheld the level of work. With today's altered conditions, the public must be on its guard against the factory owners. This requires a fundamental public education in the appreciation of quality, which today has not even begun.

1907, Peter Behrens, pagina di catalogo per AEG

The advancement of genuineness in craft comes before the advancement of art. Indeed, if the many house-hold artifacts that fill our dwellings were simply genuine and of excellent handwork, if all fakery were thoroughly avoided, then we would not need to speak of art at all in order to arrive at a tolerable situation; a certain natural taste would then suffice. And with limitation to simple middle-class motifs and the exclusion of all false pretension, the most primitive claims of taste would suffice. Why do the old rooms of farmers always appear so comfortable? Because for better or worse they embody an unfalsified culture. The new movement of the arts and crafts will mean nothing for the world if it is not united with a more open, honest public sensibility. Where it would otherwise lead has been shown by the Jugendstil. [â&#x20AC;Ś]

William Richard Lethaby

We have been in the habit of writing so lyrically of art and of the temperament of the artist that the average man who lives in the street, sometimes a very mean street, is likely to think of it as remote and luxurious, not "for the likes of him." There is the danger in habitual excess of language that the plain man is likely to be frightened by it. It may be feared that much current exposition of the place and purpose of art only widens the gap between it and common lives. A proper function of criticism should be to foster our national arts and not to frighten timid people off with high-pitched definitions and far-fetched metaphors mixed with a flood of (as Morris said) "sham technical twaddle." It is a pity to make a mystery of what should most easily be understood. There is nothing occult about the thought that all things may be made well or made ill. A work of art is a well-made thing, that is all. It may be a well-made statue or a well-made chair, or a well-made book. Art is not a special sauce applied to ordinary cooking; it is the cooking itself if it is good. Most simply and generally art may be thought of as THE WELL-DOING OF WHAT NEEDS DOING. If the thing is not worth doing it can hardly be a work of art, however well it may be done. A thing worth doing which is ill done is hardly a thing at all. [â&#x20AC;Ś] During the last thirty years many English designers have set themselves to learn the crafts as artists; that is, so that they may have complete mastery of both design and workmanship. I may remark here that a characteristic of a work of art is that the design inter-penetrates workmanship as in a painting, so that one may hardly know where one ends and the other begins. The master-workman, further, must have complete control from first to last to shape and finish as he will. We have now many highly trained men among us who might make books as notable as those of the finest presses if there were a steady demand for fine modern work. If I were asked for some simple test by which we might hope to know a work of art when we saw one I should suggest something like this: EVERY WORK OF ART SHOWS THAT IT WAS MADE BY A HUMAN BEING FOR A HUMAN BEING. Art is the humanity put into workmanship, the rest is slavery. The difference between a man-made work and a commercially-made work is like the

1913

ART AND WORKMANSHIP

difference between a gem and paste. We may not be able to tell the difference at first, but, when we find out, the intrinsic worth of the one is self-evident. Still it is highly important that commercial work shall be properly done after its own kind. […] Of many problems this one of bringing back art to workmanship is not the least serious, or the most hopeful. It is a tremendous thing that whereas a century or so ago the great mass of the people exercised arts, such as boot-making, book-binding, chair-making, smiting, and the rest, now a great wedge has been driven in between the craftsman of every kind and his customers by the method of large production by machinery. "We cannot go back" - true; and it is as true that we cannot stay where we are. Once more let me try to make it clear that by art, instructed thinkers don't only mean pictures or quaint and curious things, or necessarily costly ones, certainly not luxurious ones. They mean worthy and complete workmanship by competent workmen.

1884, WIlliam Morris, copertina per “Una sintesti dei principi del Socialismo”

Walter Gropius

The dominant spirit of our epoch is already recognizable although its form is not yet clearly defined. The old dualistic world-concept which envisaged the ego in opposition to the universe is rapidly losing ground. In its place is rising the idea of a universal unity in which all opposing forces exist in a state of absolute balance. This dawning recognition of the essential oneness of all things and their appearances endows creative effort with a fundamental inner meaning. No longer can anything exist in isolation. We perceive every form as the embodiment of an idea, every piece of work as a manifestation of our innermost selves. Only work which is the product of inner compulsion can have spiritual meaning. Mechanized work is lifeless, proper only to the lifeless machine. So long, however, as machine-economy remains an end in itself rather than a means of freeing the intellect from the burden of mechanical labor, the individual will remain enslaved and society will remain disordered. The solution depends on a change in the individual's attitude toward his work, not on the betterment of his outward circumstances, and the acceptance of this new principle is of decisive mportance for new creative work. The â&#x20AC;&#x153;academyâ&#x20AC;? The tool of the spirit of yesterday was the `academy.' It shut off the artist from the world of industry and handicraft, and thus brought about his complete isolation from the community. In vital epochs, on the other hand, the artist enriched all the arts and crafts of a community because he had a part in its vocational life, and because he acquired through actual practice as much adeptness and understanding as any other worker who began at the bottom and worked his way up. But lately the artist has been misled by the fatal and arrogant fallacy, fostered by the state, that art is a profession which can be mastered by study. Schooling alone can never produce art! Whether the finished product is an exercise in ingenuity or a work of art depends on the talent of the individual who creates it. This quality cannot be taught and cannot be learned. On the other hand, manual dexterity and the thorough knowledge which is a necessary foundation for all creative effort, whether the workman's or the artist's, can be taught and learned.

1923

ABOUT THE CURRENT SITUATION

1917, Peter Behrens, Deutscher Werkbund, Ausstellung auf dem Kirchenfeldplatz Bern, Manifesto

Isolation of the artist Academic training, however, brought about the development of a great art-proletariat destined to social misery. For this art-proletariat, lulled into a dream of genius and enmeshed in artistic conceit, was being prepared for the `profession' of architecture, painting, sculpture or graphic art, without being given the equipment of a real education - which alone could have assured it of economic and esthetic independence. Its abilities, in the final analysis, were confined to a sort of drawing and painting that had no relation to the realities of materials, techniques or economics. Lack of all vital connection with the life of the community led inevitably to barren esthetic speculation. The fundamental pedagogic mistake of the academy arose from its preoccupation with the idea of the individual genius and its discounting the value of commendable achievement on a less exalted level. Since the academy trained a myriad of minor talents in drawing and painting, of whom scarcely one in a thousand became a genuine architect or painter, the great mass of these individuals, fed upon false hopes and trained as one-sided academicians, was condemned to a life of fruitless artistic activity. Unequipped to function successfully in the struggle for existence, they found themselves numbered among the social drones, useless, by virtue of their schooling, in the productive life of the nation. With the development of the academies genuine folk art died away. What remained was a drawing-room art detached from life. In the 19th century this dwindled to the production of individual paintings totally divorced from any relation to an architectural entity. The second half of the 19th century saw the beginning of a protest against the devitalizing influence of the academies. Ruskin and Morris in England, van de Velde in Belgium, Olbrich, Behrens and others in Germany, and, finally, the Deutsche Werkbund, all sought, and in the end discovered, the basis of a reunion between creative artists and the industrial world. In Germany, arts and crafts (Kunstgewerbe) schools were founded for the purpose of developing, in a new generation, talented individuals trained in industry and handicraft. But the academy was too firmly established: practical training never advanced beyond dilettantism, and draughted and rendered `design' remained in the foreground. The foundations of this attempt were laid neither wide enough nor deep enough to avail much against the old l’art pour l’art [art for art’s sake] attitude, so alien to, and so far removed from life. […]

PRIMA SEZIONE Artefatti comunicativi

1856, Owen Jones, studi per “La gramamtica dell’ornamento”

1874, Christopher Dresser, copertina per “Studi di design”

1894, William Morris e Walter Crane. The story of Glittering Plain

Sotto: 1892, William Morris, Colophon per la Kelmscott Press A destra: Charles Ricketts, stampa per Copeland & Day, LXIX, Cornhill, Boston

1896, Aubrey Beardsley, progetto di copertina per Verses

1910, Peter Behrens, manifesto per il settore lampade della AEG

Peter Behrens, pagina per un catalogo AEG

1915, Joseph Maria Olbricht, “Darmstadt Poster”

1911, poster per la Deutscher Werkbund Exhibition al Wilhelm Museum

SECONDA SEZIONE Nascita e sviluppo del Bauhaus, strutturazione del metodo didattico e progettuale

Walter Gropius

1919

BAUHAUS MANIFESTO AND PROGRAM

The ultimate aim of all visual arts is the complete building! To embellish buildings was once the noblest function of the fine arts; they were the indispensable components of great architecture. Today the arts exist in isolation, from which they can be rescued only through the conscious, cooperative effort of all craftsmen. Architects, painters, and sculptors must recognize anew and learn to grasp the composite character of a building both as an entity and in its separate parts. Only then will their work be imbued with the architectonic spirit which it has lost as “salon art.” The old schools of art were unable to produce this unity; how could they, since art cannot be taught. They must be merged once more with the workshop. The mere drawing and painting world of the pattern designer and the applied artist must become a world that builds again. When young people who take a joy in artistic creation once more begin their life's work by learning a trade, then the unproductive “artist” will no longer be condemned to deficient artistry, for their skill will now be preserved for the crafts, in which they will be able to achieve excellence. Architects, sculptors, painters, we all must return to the crafts! For art is not a “profession.” There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. In rare moments of inspiration, transcending the consciousness of his will, the grace of heaven may cause his work to blossom into art. But proficiency in a craft is essential to every artist. Therein lies the prime source of creative imagination. Let us then create a new guild of craftsmen without the class distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist! Together let us desire, conceive, and create the new structure of the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one unity and which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like thecrystal symbol of a new faith. Walter Gropius [...] 1919, Lyonel Feninger, Cattedrale (illustrazione per il manifesto del Bauhaus)

Aims of the Bauhaus The Bauhaus strives to bring together all creative effort into one whole, to reunify all the disciplines of practical art-sculpture, painting, handicrafts, and the crafts-as inseparable components of a new architecture. The ultimate, if distant, aim of the Bauhaus is the unified work of art-the great structure-in which there is no distinction between monumental and decorative art. The Bauhaus wants to educate architects, painters, and sculptors of all levels, according to their capabilities, to become competent craftsmen or independent creative artists and to form a working community of leading and future artist-craftsmen. These men, of kindred spirit, will know how to design buildings harmoniously in their entirety-structure, finishing, ornamentation, and furnishing. Principles of the Bauhaus Art rises above all methods; in itself it cannot be taught, but the crafts certainly can be. Architects, painters, and sculptors are craftsmen in the true sense of the word; hence, a thorough training in the crafts, acquired in workshops and in experimental and practical sites, is required of all students as the indispensable basis for all artistic production. Our own workshops are to be gradually built up, and apprenticeship agreements with outside workshops will be concluded. The school is the servant of the workshop, and will one day be absorbed in it. Therefore there will be no teachers or pupils in the Bauhaus but masters, journeymen, and apprentices. The manner of teaching arises from the character of the workshop: Organic forms developed from manual skills. Avoidance of all rigidity; priority of creativity; freedom of individuality, but strict study discipline. Master and journeyman examinations, according to the Guild Statutes, held before the Council of Masters of the Bauhaus or before outside masters. Collaboration by the students in the work of the masters. Securing of commissions, also for students. Mutual planning of extensive, Utopian structural designs-public buildings and buildings for worship-aimed at the future. Collaboration of all masters and students-architects, painters, sculptors-on these designs with the object of gradually achieving a harmony of all the component elements and parts that make up architecture. Constant contact with the leaders of the crafts and industries of the country. Contact with public life, with the people, through exhibitions and other activities. New research into the nature of the exhibitions, to solve the problem of displaying visual work and sculpture within the framework of architecture.

Encouragement of friendly relations between masters and students outside of work; therefore plays. lectures, poetry, music, costume parties. Establishment of a cheerful ceremonial at these gatherings. [...] Divisions of Instruction The training is divided into three courses of instruction: I. course for apprentices, II. course for journeymen, III. course for junior masters. The instruction of the individual is left to the discretion of each master within the framework of the general program and the work schedule, which is revised every semester. In order to give the students as versatile and comprehensive a technical and artistic training as possible, the work schedule will be so arranged that every architect, painter, and sculptor-to-be is able to participate in part of the other courses. Admission Any person of good repute, without regard to age or sex, whose previous education is deemed adequate by the Council of Masters, will be admitted, as far as space permits. The tuition fee is 180 marks per year (It will gradually disappear entirely with increasing earnings of the Bauhaus). A nonrecurring admission fee of 20 marks is also to be paid. Foreign students pay double fees. Address inquiries to the Secretariat of the Staatliche Bauhaus in Weimar. April 1919. The administration of the Staatliche Bauhaus in Weimar: Walter Gropius.

Anonimo

Each Bauhaus student is at first admitted for a trial period of six months to work in the preliminary course. This course is intended to liberate the student's creative power, to give him an understanding of nature's materials, and to acquaint him with the basic principles which underly all creative activity in the visual arts. Every new student arrives encumbered with a mass of accumulated information which he must abandon be fore he can achieve perception and knowledge that are really his own. If he is to work in wood, for example, he must know his material thoroughly; he must have a "feeling" for wood. He must also understand its relation to other materials, to stone and glass and wool. Consequently, he works with these materials as well, combining and composing them to make their relationships fully apparent. Preparatory work also involves exact depiction of actual materials. If a student draws or paints a piece of wood true to nature in every detail, it will help him to understand the material. The work of old masters, such as Bosch, Master Franke or Griinewald also offers instruction in the study of form, which is an essential part of the preliminary course. This instruction is intended to enable the student to perceive the harmonious relationship of different rhythms and to express such harmony through the use of one or several materials. The preliminary course concerns the student's whole personality, since fit seeks to liberate him, to make him stand on his own feet, and makes it possible for him to gain a knowledge of both material and form through direct experience. A student is tentatively admitted into a workshop after a six months' trial period if he has sufficiently mastered form and materials to specialize in work with one material only. If he has a talent for wood, he goes into the carpentry shop; if his preference is for woven materials, he goes into the weaving workshop. At the conclusion of a second successful trial period of six months he is definitely admitted to the workshop as an apprentice. Three years as an apprentice make him eligible for examinations to become a journeyman.

1922

PRELIMINARY COURSE, WEIMAR

As a matter of principle, each apprentice has to do his own designing. No outside designs, not even designs made by Bauhaus masters, may be executed in the workshops. [â&#x20AC;Ś]

1922, schema del corso propedeutico del Bauhaus

Walter Gropius

Those differences of opinion about crucial problems at the Bauhaus which have recently been exercising the Masters have given me cause, as founder of the Bauhaus, to review, primarily for myself, the theoretical and practical principles on which the school is based […]. We are all clear that the old idea of l’art pour l’art is out of date and that all those things which concern us today do not exist in isolation but are anchored in our developing philosophy. […] Master Itten recently asked us to decide either to make individual, single pieces of work in complete contrast to the economically-oriented world outside or to seek contact with industry. I believe it is in this formulation of the question that the big ‘factor X’ lies, the factor that needs to be resolved. To come right out with it: I look for unity in the fusion of these forms of life, not in their separation. […] For some time industry has been attempting to attract creative talents to improve the form of their products (the Deutscher Werkbund and better). Meanwhile young artists have begun to concern themselves with the phenomena of industry and the machine. […] The Bauhaus has begun to break with the previous conventional kind of academic training which taught students how to become little Raphaels and pattern-designer. […] The Bauhaus has quite consciously aimed to replace the principle of the division of labour by returning to collaborative work in which the creative process is perceived to be an indivisible whole. To do this it has been necessary to rebuild from the ground up, in order to have any prospect of giving back to the present generation a prosper sense of the way craftmanship and design interwoven. […] If it were to lose contact with work and the manner of working of the outside world the Bauhaus could become a heaven for eccentrics. The school has a responsibility to train people who clearly perceive the essential nature of the world in which they live and who have the ability to create out of their combined knowledge and imagination typical forms which symbolize that world. Everything therefore depends on the combination of individual creative activity and the wider practical work of the world! If we reject the outside world entirely then our only escape would be to the Romantic island. I see a danger for our youth in the signs of a wild Romanticism which has grown out

1922

DIFFERENCES OF OPINION

of an understandable reaction against the dominant mental attitude -numbers and powers- and the fiasco of nation states. [â&#x20AC;Ś] There is still an enormous gulf between the activity of our Workshops and the present state of industry and the crafts in the outside world. How that gulf will eventually be bridged is the unknown X factor which clearly none of us is able to resolve. Contact with industry and the practical work of the word can only be achieved gradually. [â&#x20AC;Ś]

1922-23, Luis Held, ritratto di Gropius

Herman George Scheffauer

A new world is revealed to us here; a new conception of work and methods of work, and the teaching of these methods. A synthesis between the mediaeval conception of the trade-guild, the modern polytechnicum and intensified future methods of production and manufacture, has been striven for and to a great extent realized. The fundamental thought of the Bauhaus school, the inspiration that guides its masters, journeymen and apprentices, is a new harmony between the social, industrial and aesthetic needs of modern man. It is the idea of a new unity, the aggregation of the many “arts,” “tendencies,” and “phenomena” into an indivisible whole, into that entity which is established in human nature itself and which attains significance only through the function of life. Architecture is once more to be raised to the regal dignity of the art inclusive of arts, to become the epitome, the visible expression of the spiritual and material capacities of the time. The living spirit of building, the essential soul of an active architecture, embraces all the activities, all the art and technique of a people, a period or a world. Architecture today has been degraded to a mere study; as a mirror of civilization it reflects the disintegration and chaos of the modern soul.

1923

BUILDING THE MASTER BUILDER

1922, i Maestri sul tetto dell’edificio scolastico a Dessau

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

1923

NEW TYPOGRAPHY AND POTOGRAPHY

Typography is a tool of communication. It must be communication in its most intense form. The emphasis must be on absolute clarity since this distinguishes the character of our own writing from that of ancient pictographic forms. [â&#x20AC;Ś] Therefore priority: unequivocal clarity in all typographical compositions. Legibility-communication must never be impaired by an a priori esthetics. Letters may never be forced into a preconceived framework, for instance a square. The printed image corresponds to the contents through its specific optical and psychological laws, demanding their typical form. The essence and purpose of printing demand an uninhibited use of all linear directions (therefore not only horizontal articulation). We use all typefaces, type sizes, geometric forms, colors, etc. We want to create a new language of typography whose elasticity, variability; and freshness of typographical composition is exclusively dictated by the inner law of expression and the optical effect. The most important aspect of contemporary typography is the use of zincographic techniques, meaning the mechanical production of photoprints in all sizes. What the Egyptians started in their inexact hieroglyphs whose interpretation rested on tradition and personal imagination, has become the most precise expression through the inclusion of photography into the typographic method. Already today we have books (mostly scientific ones) with precise photographic reproductions; but these photographs are only secondary explanations of the text. The latest development supersedes this phase, and small or large photos are placed in the text where formerly we used inexact, individually interpreted concepts and expressions. The objectivity of photography liberates the receptive reader from the crutches of the authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal idiosyncrasies and forces him into the formation of his own opinion. It is safe to predict that this increasing documentation through photography will lead in the near future to a replacement of literature by film. The indications of this development are apparent already in the increased use of the telephone which makes letterwriting obsolete. It is no valid objection that the production of films demands too intricate and costly an apparatus. Soon the making of a film will be as simple and available as now printing books.

An equally decisive change in the typographical image will occur in the making of posters, as soon as photography has replaced posterpainting. The effective poster must act with immediate impact on all psychological receptacles. Through an expert use of the camera, and of all photographic techniques, such as retouching, blocking, superimposition, distortion, enlargement, etc., in combination with the liberated typographical line, the effectiveness of posters can be immensely enlarged. The new poster relies on photography, which is the new storytelling device of civilization, combined with the shock effect of new typefaces and brilliant color effects, depending on the desired intensity of the message. The new typography is a simultaneous experience of vision and communication. 1923, cover design: Herbert Bayer; tipografia: Lรกszlรณ Moholy-Nagy, copertina di catalogo

Josef Albers

1919, Karl Peter Rohl, primo sigillo del Bauhaus 1922, Oskar Schlemmer, sigillo ufficiale del Bauhaus

1924

HISTORICAL OR CONTEMPORARY

[…] We are on the way to improving the attitude to life through the extremely economical manufacture of utility objects that work well. In order to encourage this, school should allow a lot to be learned, which is to say that it should teach little. (Let everyone test out his possibilities in many different directions, so that he may find his proper place in active life). The Bauhaus wants to take a path in that direction. It has arisen out of the merger of a school of graphic arts and a school of arts and crafts. Its task was recently formulated in these terms: The ai of the Bauhaus is to harmonise art education, hitherto isolated from practical life, with the demands of work in contemporary life. To this end it has introduced into its education programme the unity of the theoretical training and workshop work, which is to be cultivated in reference to the technical industrial working method of the present day. From the point of view that many isolated specialist professions o creative services, standing side by side, are finally directed towards building. Thus the goal of the individual Bauhaus workshops is ‘building’ as a synthesis. We believe our attempts are not misguided when it comes to educating designers, and that our will to the simplest, clearest form will make human beings more united and life more real, which is to say more essential.

Lazslo Moholy-Nagy

1925

TYPOPHOTO

Neither curiosity nor economic considerations alone but a deep human interest in what happens in the world have brought about the enormous expansion of the news-service: typography, the film and the radio. The creative work of the artist, the scientist's experiments, the calculations of the business-man or the present-day politician, all that moves, all that shapes, is bound up in the collectivity of interacting events. The individual's immediate action of the moment always has the effect of simultaneity in the long term. [â&#x20AC;Ś] The printer's work, for example, to which we still pay too little attention has just such a long-term effect: international understanding and its consequences. The printer's work is part of the foundation on which the new world will be built. Concentrated work of organisation is the spiritual result which brings all elements of human creativity into a synthesis: the play instinct, sympathy, inventions, economic necessities. [â&#x20AC;Ś] â&#x20AC;˘ What is typophoto? Typography is communication composed in type. Photography is the visual presentation of what can be optically apprehended. Typophoto is the visually most exact rendering of communication. Every period has its own optical focus. Our age: that of the film; the electric sign, simultaneity of sensorily perceptible events. It has given us a new, progressively developing creative basis for typography too. Gutenberg's typography, which has endured almost to our own day, moves exclusively in the linear dimension. The intervention of the photographic process has extended it to a new dimensionality, recognised today as total. The preliminary work in this field was done by the illustrated papers, posters and by display printing. Until recently type face and type setting rigidly preserved a technique which admittedly guaranteed the purity of the linear effect but ignored the new dimensions of life. Only quite recently has there been typographic work which uses the contrasts of typographic material (letters, signs, positive and negative values of the plane) in an attempt to establish a correspondence with modern life. These efforts have, however, done little to relax the inflexibility 1925, Moholy-Nagy, pagine da

that has hitherto existed in typographic practice. An effective loosening-up can be achieved only by the most sweeping and all-embracing use of the techniques of photography, zincography, the electrotype, etc. The flexibility and elasticity of these techniques bring with them a new reciprocity between economy and beauty. […] The form of these new typographic works will, of course, be quite different typographically, optically, and synoptically from the linear typography of today. Linear typography communicating ideas is merely a mediating makeshift link between the content of the communication and the person receiving it. […] Instead of using typography- as hitherto -merely as an objective means, the attempt is now being made to incorporate it and the potential effects of its subjective existence creatively into the contents. The typographical materials themselves contain strongly optical tangibilities by means of which they can render the content of the communication in a directly visible - not only in an indirectly intellectual - fashion. Photography is highly effective when used as typographical material. It may appear as illustration beside the words, or in the form of ‘phototext' in place of words, as a precise form of representation so objective as to permit of no individual interpretation. The form, the rendering is constructed out of the optical and associative relationships: into a visual, associative, conceptual, synthetic continuity: into the typophoto as an unambiguous rendering in an optically valid form. […] The typophoto governs the new tempo of the new visual literature.

Introduction: Sibyl Moholy-Nagy

A mind so in flux, so sensitive to intuitive insights, could never write an academic textbook. All he could retain on paper were indications, hints, allusions, like the delicate color dots and line plays on his pictures. The PEDAGOGICAL SKETCHBOOK is the abstract of Paul Klee's inductive vision. In it the natural object is not merely rendered two-dimensionally, it becomes "räumlich," related to physical and intellectual space concepts, through four main approaches that form the four divisions of the Sketchbook: Proportionate Line and Structure Dimension and Balance Gravitational Curve Kinetic and Chromatic Energy The first part of the Sketchbook (Sections 1.1-1.13) introduces the transformation of the static dot into linear dynamics. The line, being successive dot progression, walks, circumscribes, creates passive-blank and active-filled planes. Line rhythm is measured like a musical score or an arithmetical problem. […] Each of the four divisions of the Sketchbook has one key-sentence, strewn almost casually-without the pompousness of a theorem among specific observations. This one sentence in each chapter points the path from the particular to the universal. The first part on "Proportionate Line and Structure" is condensed into one laconic statement: "purely repetitive and therefore structural" (1.6), explaining in five words the nature of vertical structure as the repetitive accumulation of like units. The second part of the Sketchbook (11.14-11.25) deals with "Dimension and Balance." Here the object, rendered by line, is related to the subjective power of the human eye. Man uses his ability to move freely in space to create for himself optical adventures. […] Man, precariously balanced on two unstable legs, uses optical illusion as a safety device. Horizon as concrete fact, and horizon as an imaginary safety belt that has to be believed in, are exemplified on the graceful example of the tightrope walker and his bamboo pole (11.21). […] The key word to this section reads: "non-symmetrical balance" (11.23). It asserts that "the bilateral conformity of two parts" which is the old definition of symmetry, has been superseded

1925

PEDAGOGICAL SKETCHBOOK

by "the equalization of unequal but equivalent parts”. Dimension is in itself nothing but an arbitrary expansion of form into height, width, depth and time. It is the balancing and proportioning power of eye and brain that regulate this expansion of the object toward equilibrium and harmony. The third aspect of the study of nature in the Sketchbook (111.26-111.32) deals with the tension existing between man's ability to project himself and the object into space, and the limitations imposed upon this urge by the gravitational pull. The linear extension of the first section of the book, and the balance of dimensional form in the second section, is here followed up with the projection of motion above and below the horizon of the human eye. […] "But," Klee concludes, "there are regions with different laws and new symbols, signifying freer movement and more dynamical position”. […] The core of this third section, which is a transition from observation to intuition, is defined in the axiom that is perhaps Klee's deepest wisdom: TO STAND DESPITE ALL POSSIBILITIES TO FALL!

1925, Pauk Klee, copertina per il suo sketchbook

The concluding chapter (1111.33.43) allows the student a glimpse at the forces that create optical sensation, forces that are either kinetic-mobile, or chromatic-caloric. […] True to his inductive creed, Paul Klee demonstrates inner essence and form-giving cause on the most insignificant objects. […] "To be impelled toward motion, and not to be the motor!" […] Energy, the Sketchbook concludes, is without termination only in the chromatic and thermo-dynamic field. Motion that may be called infinite in the sense of unending self-transformation, exists only in the activation of color, moving between the fervid contrasts of utter black and utter white (1111.40) with the thermo-dynamic implications of intense heat and extreme cold. The last six diagrams complete the cycle that had started on page one when the dot was stirred from its static existence into line progression. On its way through the Sketchbook it has been transformed by the counter forces of earth and world, of mechanical law and imaginative vision, and it has found equilibrium in a centrality that no longer points away but rests within a unified diversity (1111.43). The sum is what Paul Klee calls "Resonanzverhältnis," meaning a reverberation of the finite in the infinite, of outer perception and inner vista. The experience of this dual reality of the SEEN and the FELT essence of nature, impels the student toward "a free creation of abstracted forms which supersede didactic principles with a new naturalness, the naturalness of the work. He produces or participates in the production of works which are indications of the work of God."

Wassily Kandinsky

1926

RESEARCH METHOD

The researches which must become the cornerstone of the new science — the science of art—have two goals and proceed out of two necessities: I. the need for science in general which grows spontaneously out of a non- or extra-utilitarian urge to know: the "pure" science, and 2. the need of balance in the creative powers which can be grouped under two schematic heads—intuition and calculation: the "practical" science. Standing at present at the very beginning of this research, it appears to us today as a labyrinth going off to all sides and disappearing into a distant fog. Since we are absolutely unable to predict its further development, it must be started very systematically, for which a clear plan is necessary. The first unavoidable question is, naturally, the question of the art elements, which are the building materials of works of art and which, as such, must be different in every art. We must at the outset distinguish basic elements from other elements, viz.—elements without which a work in any particular art cannot even come into existence. The other type of elements must be termed secondary elements. In both cases it is necessary to carry through an organic gradation of the elements. This book will deal with two basic elements which are the very beginning of every work of painting, and without which this beginning is not possible. At the same time, they constitute the conclusive material for an independent kind of painting—graphic. We must, therefore, start here with the proto-element of painting—the Point. The ideal of all research is: 1. precise investigation of each individual phenomenon—in isolation, 2. the reciprocal effect of phenomena upon each other—in combinations, 3. general conclusions which are to be drawn from the above two divisions.

My objective in this book extends only to the first two parts. The material in this book does not suffice to cover the third part which, in any case, cannot be rushed. The investigation should proceed in a meticulously exact and pedantically precise manner. Step by step, this "tedious" road must be traversed—not the smallest alteration in the nature, in the characteristics, in the effects of the individual elements should escape the watchful eye. Only by means of a microscopic analysis can the science of art lead to a comprehensive synthesis, which will extend far beyond the confines of art into the realm of the "oneness" of the "human" and the "divine." This, after all, is the perceptible goal, though it nevertheless lies far in the future. Concerning this special task, I not only lack the strength to carry the initial work through with sufficient exactitude, but lack space, as well. The aim of this small book is merely to point out, in a general and fundamental way, the "graphic" basic elements viewed: 1. "abstractly," i.e. isolated from the objective environment of the material form of the material plane, and 2. on the material plane—the effect of the fundamental characteristics of this plane. But even this must be restricted to a rather superficial investigation—as an attempt to find a standard method in this scientific research of art and to test it in its use.

1926, Wassily Kandinsky, copertina per il “Punto, linea e superficie”

Josef Albers

1928

TEACHING FORM THROUGH PRACTICE

In the experimental results supposed innovations in application or treatment are often recognized in retrospect as already existing procedures. But the result is experienced and owned, because learned and not taught. Learning is better, because more intensive, than teaching: the more that is taught, the less can be learned. We know that education through learning travels further along the path it takes, including detours and false turnings. But the beginning of everything does not lead straight on. And errors acknowledged encourage progress. Deliberate detours and controlled errors sharpen criticism, point the way to more intelligent directions through mistakes, and produce the will to achieve things that are better and more correct. Experiences from handicraft are often more easily passed on from pupil to fellow-pupil than by older, more remote teacher. For that reason the results are examined in shared discussion and responsibly communicated. This gives rise to the adoption of separate, but neighbouring and simultaneously related experiences. The more different relationships arise and the more intense they are, the more the elements increase, the more valuable is the result, and the more generous the work. This emphasizes one chief element of education: economy. Economy in the sense of thrift in relation to expense (material and labour) and the most effective of exploitation. The activation of negatives (residual, intermediate and minus values) is perhaps the only entirely new, perhaps the most important element in contemporary formal innovation, but this has gone unnoticed by many – it hasn’t benn much discussed – because the sociological parallels are not noticed. […] taking the positives and negatives equally into account and assessing them evenly leaves nothing ‘over’. We no longer significantly distinguish between bearing and borne, we no longer divide between serving and served, decorating and decorated. Each element or structural member must be effective both as helper and help, supporting and supported. Thus pedestal and frame fade away, and with them the monument that bears, on and abundance of substructure, a dearth of substance borne.

Individualism is not primarily a school matter. Because individualism stresses isolation; while the school’s task is to align the individual with contemporary events, with society (state, profession, economy). The nurturing of the individual is the task of the individual, not of collective enterprises such as the school. The school should nurture the individual passively, without disturbing personal development. Let us ask how many personalities exist! We must number types in the majority. Sociological economy must reject the personality cult of existing educational practice: productive individuality asserts itself without and against education. In short, the inductive educational method propagated here seeks to achieve responsibility and discipline – with regard to itself, to material and labour – and to pass on to the learner the knowledge required for his choice of profession about the areas of labour and material that most closely reflects his requirements. […] Is strives towards training in movement on the broadest possible foundation, which will not leave later professional specialization isolated. It leads to economic form. This practical form of study is deliberately set against the idea of apprenticeship in an industrial school, in which craftsman-like skill is supposed to be ‘taught’. Where a bit of carpentry, a bit of book-building, a bit of dressmaking goes on, and sawing and planning (the most difficult aspect of carpentry) and filming and hammering, and gluing and sticking, remains unproductive because it only satisfies the drive towards occupation, not the need for design. As pupils and teachers we must learn together, with and from each other, as pupils and teachers (in competition, which elevates), otherwise education is both a thankless task and bad business.

1925, Josef Albers, studio di font con stencil

SECONDA SEZIONE Artefatti comunicativi

A sinistra: 1919, Lyonel Feininger, Kirche Gelmeroda A sinistra, in basso: 1925, Paul Klee, taccuino per gli appunti A destra: 1923, Herbert Bayer, pagina di catalogo A destra, in basso: 1923, Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, cartolina

A sinistra: 1923, Joost Schmidt, manifesto per lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;esposizione del Bauhaus A destra: 1923, Rudolf Baschant, poster per una mostra In basso: 1923, Wassilj Kandinsky, cartolina per una mostra

A sinistra: 1924, Herbert Bayer, progetto per unâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;edicola In alto: 1925, Herbert Bayer, progetto per un alfabeto universale In basso: 1926, Herbert Bayer, cartolina di invito allâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;inaugurazione del nuovo edificio del Bauhaus a Dessau

TERZA SEZIONE Influenze del Bauhaus nella cultura progettuale americana e europea

Herbert Bayer, Walter Gropius

Problems raised by the Bauhaus were soon eagerly debated by the public at large. Numerous lectures by the staff in Germany and abroad, Bauhaus books and exhibitions and, later, the magazine Bauhaus kept the discussion of these problems alive and safe from the perils of academicism. Bauhaus methods began to influence those responsible for other public art schools n Germany and trained Bauhaus students easily found teaching positions. The Academy of Fine Arts at Breslau, the Arts and Crafts schools in Halle, Stettin, Hamburg and other cities adopted the pedagogical principles of the Bauhaus. Johannes Itten founded a successful textile school at Krefeld, and former Bauhaus members started centers of fresh activity in Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Estonia and Japan. The Bauhaus painters, especially Feininger, Klee and Kandinsky, participated in many American exhibitions during the I920's, notably those organized by the societĂŠtĂŠ anonyme of New York, under the direction of miss Katherine Dreier, and the blue four exhibitions arranged in New York and on the west coast by mrs. Galka Scheyer. Schlemmer and others of the Bauhaus theater exhibited at the international theater exposition, New York, 1926. The Bauhaus was represented in the machine age exhibition, New York, 1927, and in an exhibition of modern printers and typography, Wellesley college, 1928. Small exhibitions entirely devoted to the Bauhaus were given by the Harvard society for contemporary art, under the direction of Lincoln Kirstein, Cambridge, December,1930-January, 193 I ; at the John Becker Gallery, New York, January-February, 1931; and at the Arts Club of Chicago, March, 1931.

1938, foto di un allestimento al MoMA

1938

SPREAD OF THE BAUHAUS IDEA

E. J. Frey

1943

POSTWAR GRAPHIC ART EDUCATION

If America is destined again to lead in general world rehabilitation and reconstruction after this second “World War”, and if we, of the graphic arts, entertain any inspirations toward world leadership in our particular field, our industrial and graphic arts leaders should at once concern themselves with the question of a proper basic education and training in creative design for our craftsmen and for the buyers of our product as well. […] We know that attempts have been made, with more or less success, by some of our more progressive schools and universities and by individual instructors, to inculcate into their curricula creative types of teaching. They are the exception rather than the rule. We need more liberal, less literal interpretation of the word “design”. We must recognize its grater implications and potentialities by making it a creative force. A new, dynamic, creative order must of necessity supplant one that has been based largely on tradition and imitation. There will be a demand for creative thinking, creative planning, and creative craftmanship in all the industrial and graphic arts. […] With the ranks of European designers diminished, as a result of the war, we shall have our day, but it will certainly mean a fresh approach to new methods, with functional and creative concepts predominating. It will mean “on your own” creative designing. Original in conception, functionally different, esthetically pleasing in line, form and color – in the best of taste, and modern to the core. With few notable exceptions, our designs lack of the spontaneity recognizable in European work. Much of our work seems to follow definite stylized patterns, created originally by exceptionally clever designers, who knew exactly what they were doing. Then a horde of admiring imitators appropriate the style or even steal the form. They invariably fail to include the substance. […] If we find that the reason for excellence in European designed products can be traced to the fact that basic design plays a very important role in the education and training of their craftsmen, let us profit by their example in this respect. Let use begin here and now to train thoroughly in the basics of

art and design, both from the production and the application standpoints. But may we never exclude creative thinking and planning. […] The European deisgners were able to attain recognition at home and acclamation abroad because they were creative designers. They did not need to copy. They did not need to reproduce. They approached they problems with confidence and assurance knowing the possibilities and the limitations of their media. Their thorough training in the general fundamentals of art and design, coupled with an experimental understanding of the material and tools serving them, be they papers, canvas, wood, or metal, enabled them to express their ideas creatively and acceptably in more than one form of the industrial or graphic arts. They were as adept at planning a book, a type face, a title page, a package, a cabinet, or even the automobile which finally delivered all of them. In other words, their basic training in the fundamentals of good design gave them the ability to plan any or all of these and many more items with equal facility, because there is a certain kinship pf design in all the arts which construction is involved. In considering the groundwork and contributing factors in the preparation of European craftsmen, for their jobs, we find that drawing and design were taught generally in the lower grades, as a foundation for future specialized activities. The schools of France, England, Germany and Austria […] had restrictions as to the number and quality of students admitted. Often a preliminary probationary period and, in many cases, entrance examinations were required. All of this insures a high type of craftsman to the industry. Perhaps the most prominent of all European schools of art and design was the one known as “Bauhaus”. From an announcement of Mills College of Oakland, California, we glean the following facts: […] The Bauhaus has exerted an important influence on modern living. To the Bauhaus, we are indebted for a new philosophy of design, which enabled it to accept the machine as a means of production worthy of the artist, to face the problem of design for mass production, to bridge the gap between the artist and the industrial world, to break down the hierarchy which divided the “fine” and the “applied” arts, to differentiate between technique and creative invention, to stimulate the latter and discard outworn habits of design, and finally to liberate the artistic spirit in the development of a modern form of beauty. […] American High School entrance examinations (when required) are not as rigid as those in the higher schools of applied art in Europe. With but very few exceptions, students over sixteen years of age are permitted to enter the day art schools and no appreciable emphasis is placed on selectivity. As a rule, classed are large, and little guidance or supervision is offered by Industry or by craft organizations. […]

1950, Josef Albers a lezione

Our plea is for a more liberal, more inclusive training. Nor merely “layout and typographical design” in the restrictive sense that customary practices give it but in the larger sense of functional creational and creative design. The word “layout” acquires new significance when viewed from the standpoint of creative design. Creative designing frees the designer from hide-bound practices and from forms that do not follow functional consideration. […] The artificer should know design. He is often called upon to interstate the artist’s layout or plan, and at times he is permitted to digress from the original plan, when it is up to him to exercise discretion and good judgment. How wisely and how effectively he will be able to do this will depend entirely on his background and experience, for where design is involved, it obviously becomes important to know the “how and why” of design. Our graphic arts practitioner should live with design. He should make design his constant companion. […] This method of self-training should keep the creative personality alive and vibrant, ready for instant service when the challenge arrives. What we have been advocating in the previous paragraphs is recommended also for art teachers and printing instructors. They should not only know what they would teach, they should also be able to perform. Moreover, this particular group should possess vision and leadership – with the ability to anticipate future trends. […] form is determined by function, and the best kind of functional designing is based upon the experimental knowledge of our media. When we have learned this lesson ourselves and practice it, then, and then only, will we be qualified to share our knowledge. Then, and then only, will others respect our expertness and leadership as teachers. In conclusion then, may we say that there is a definite need for education and training in fundamental, functional and creative art and design, conjointly with practical experimental acquaintanceship with various tools and media, as a basis for subsequent planning or selecting products planned in good taste. and the apparel industries.

HfG Ulm

The Hochschule für Gestaltung educates specialist for two different tasks of our technical civilization: The design of industrial products (industrial design department and building department); The design of visual and verbal means of communication (visual communication department and information department). The scholl thus educates designers for the production and consumer goods industries as well as for present-day means of communication: press, films, broadcasting, television, and advertising. These designers must have at their disposal the technological and scientific knowledge necessary for collaboration in industry today. Ath the same time they must grasp and bear in mind the cultural and sociological consequences of their work. The Hochschule für Gestaltung is conceived as a school for a maximum number of 150 students, in order to ensure a favourable proportion between the number of students and faculty. Faculty and students come from many different countries, thus giving the school an international character. The training lasts tour years, inclusive of one year's foundation course, and concludes with the diploma of the Hochschule fiir Gestaltung. Wood, metal, plaster, and photography workshops are available far practical work. The school also combines teaching and research in an institute for industriai design and in an institute for industrialized building. An instit ute far communication is under construction. The school contains living quarters and socia! facilities for faculty and students. The Hochschule für Gestaltung is a private institution. The Geschwister-ScholI Foundation, which has financial and legal responsibility for the school, was founded in 1950 by lnge Aicher-Scholl in memory of her brother Hans and sister Sophie, who were executed in 1943 by the Nazi regime. The buildings were designed by Max Bill; construction began in September 1953, and the school was officially opened on 2 October 1955. Until 1956 Max Bill was the director of the Hochschule für Gestaltung; since then the school has been directed by a Faculty Board. […]

1958

QUARTERLY BULLETIN

1958, HfG Ulm quarterly bulletin

AII students entering in the same year follow a one year's foundation course before being accepted into one of the four departments. The foundation course has four purposes: 1: it introduces the students to the work of the departments, above ali to the methods on which this work is based; 2: it makes the students conversant with the most important questions of our technical civilization, and in this way communicates the horizons of actual design problems; 3: it trains the students to work together in various disciplines and thus prepares them for teamwork, i.e. for work in committees of specia lists, each of whom understands the problems and outlook of his collaborators; 4: it adjusts levels in previous education which are due to the fact that the students net only come from varying professions but also from many countries with differing educational systems [â&#x20AC;Ś] Visual communication department: In many phases of social life, men are nowadays addressed, linked, or put into contact with one another through visual information. The purpose of the department is to design such information in a way that corresponds to its function. Thus, typography, graphic design, photography, exhibition, film, and television techniques are handled as an homogeneous field, which is termed 'visual communication' in accord with international usage. The research in the department aims at relating visual statements as clearly as possible to their subject. For this, methods must be developed which make use of the knowledge which has been won in recent decades in the field of perception and meaning.[...]

Tomàs Maldonado

The question «Is the Bauhaus relevant today? » we have in the past answered sometimes negatively, sometimes evasively. It was obvious to us that design and education for design are not the same today and cannot be the same as in the twenties. Our negative or evasive answer however was not entirely determined by this consideration still valid today. Disputing or calling into question the present-day relevance of the Bauhaus, we believed to confirm our own importance and originality. We recognised an old premise of the idealistic philosophy of history: to be is always to be in conflict with one's predecessors. In this way we believed to prove our own raison d'être. Facts have shown that the development of ideas cannot be forced into such simple schemes - certainly not into a linear and irreversible pattern. Statements about the relevance (or irrelevance) of cultural phenomena are but ephemeral and fruitless. Obviously, that which we today conceive as relevant will necessarily not be so tomorrow. But that which yesterday seemed to be irrelevant can today for various reasons regain its lost importance. This is what happened to the Bauhaus in the end. The question: «Is the Bauhaus relevant today » we answer today in the affirmative, if not without reservation. By 'Bauhaus' we do not mean here what is usually associated with this name i.e. a pedagogical institution or an artistic or architectural movement of the twenties. In saying that the Bauhaus is of importance today, or better, that it has regained importance we have another Bauhaus in mind, a Bauhaus which has often been proclaimed but hardly ever realised, a frustrated Bauhaus, which tried, though without success, to lay open a humanistic perspective of technical civilisation, i.e. to regard the human environment as a «concrete field of design activity». We are thinking here of a Bauhaus which tried, also without success, to sponsor an open and progressive culture in Germany.

1969

IS THE BAUHAUS STILL RELEVANT TODAY?

This is the Bauhaus which is of importance for us today. But not because the conditions are especially favourable today, on the contrary, because it has been recognised that the conditions are not favourable and indeed perhaps never were. Not because the Bauhaus is an assimilated, recognised or institutionalised tradition, on the contrary, because it is a tradition whose vigour has suddenly been re-discovered and which has unexpectedly turned out in the form of a programme yet to be realised.

Gui Bonsiepe

Education for visual design - these words could announce a manifesto. They could nourish the expectation that a program is presented here. But that is not my intention. We have become reserved in regard to programs, probably for the reason that our social environment is not conducive to the candour necessary to formulate and to present programs. My aim is more modest. I shall try to show some ways which might lead to a philosophy of visual design including education. all-embracing design Using hitherto the term 'design' without specification, that is talking neither about architectural design, nor visual design nor product design, I am aware of the fact that this vague and undefined term could foster false ideas. 'Design' embraces a large variety of human activities. Its range reaches from the design of a wall carpet, to the design of an exhibition and ends in the most recent variant of design: the weapon and defense systems. In the course of my talk I will limit the often too loosely used term 'design'. Especially, I shall try to describe the content of the term 'visual design'. [â&#x20AC;Ś] the consequences of the bauhaus The basic course has proved to be the core of the Bauhaus concept. All the various art movements of the twenties have contributed to put a mark on this basic course, which are the German expressionism, the Russian constructivism and the Dutch Stijl. Only the French surrealism left at first sight no clearly visible traces if you disregard for a moment the photo-montages of Moholy- agy. But to clarify this problem a more profound historical research is needed. It is difficult to evaluate exactly the extent of the Bauhaus influence on the whole art and design education. Although we still lack a historical study on these ramifications we might be justified in say ing that there is hardly any art school which has not incorporated the basic course be it modified or not.

1969

EDUCATION FOR VISUAL DESIGN

communication industry The Ulm School has conceived a program for visual design which not only differs from similar attempts of the Bauhaus but also is essentially new. The Bauhaus is not to be blamed for this, because the historical conditions simply did not allow it. The industry which we denote today by the term 'communication industry' - this is film, television, broadcasting and mass printing - began to establish itself during the twenties respectively after the Bauhaus had been closed. And it is exactly in communication industry where dramas and farces of the communicative life take place today. Furthermore, the transition from an economy of scarcity to an economy of abundance placed advertising as a new institution of social control into the center of visual design. These changes in technology and economy prohibit the transplanting of the Bauhaus en bloc. But the new parts of the program of the Ulm School are not the cause for the reservations with which other schools of design regard Ulm. Causes for tensions and animosity are provided by the fact that the Ulm School gives greater attention to the question how design is related to science, than to the question how design is related to the arts. [...] the meaning of 'design' At the beginning of my talk I emphasizcd the necessity of giving to the concept of design a precise meaning. This can be achieved by cutting off. First I want to exclude from the activity of the designer the planning of weapon and defense systems. For from its beginnings the philosophy of design interpreted design as a design for living, less than for surviving and destruction. To the question: What has the designer to do with space rockets? there is today only one answer: nothing. Secondly, I want to separate within the fields of design those sectors which remain under the influence of an arts and crafts tradition. Concerning visual design, these sectors are: calligraphy, the typography of the precious single book, wood cutting, etching, engraving and illustration. In Ulm we have decidedly not introduced these because there are already many schools offering an education in mentioned fields; secondly, we want to concentrate our energies on the modern communication media and techniques, for which the term 'visual communication' has become customary.

TERZA SEZIONE Artefatti comunicativi

In alto: 1937, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, sigillo per il New Bauhaus di Chicago A destra: 1938, Herbert Bayer, copertina per il catalogo riassuntivo della mostra al MoMA

A destra: 1930, catalogo di una mostra sul Bauhaus a Cambridge In alto: 1939, anonimo, Herbert Bayer in visita allâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;esposizione al MoMA

Pagina di sinistra in alto: 1958, M. Buch, esercizio del corso di formazione della HfG sotto la direzione di Maldonado Pagina di sinistra in basso: data sconosciuta, Hans von Klier, esercizio sul colore nel corso di formazione HfG

In alto e in basso nella pagina di destra: due pagine del giornale della HfG di Ulm

A destra: 1962, Otl Aicher, Tomas Gonda, Fritz Querengasser, Hans Roericht, studio di lettering per l’immagine coordinata Lufthansa In alto: terzo numero del periodico “bulletin” della HfG di Ulm

BIBLIOGRAFIA

BIBLIOGRAFIA GENERALE AA.VV, “Bauhaus”, The MIT Press, 1969, Massachussetts G.C. Argan, “Walter Gropius e la Bauhaus”, Giulio Einaudi Editore, Torino, 1974 F. Whitford, “The Bauhaus: Masters and Students by themselves”, Conrad Octopus Limited, London, 1992 Bauhaus Archiv, M. Droste, “Bauhaus 1919-1933”, Benedikt Taschen, 1998, Germania M. Kentgens-Craig, “The Bauhaus and America: First contacts 1919-1936”, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1999 AA.VV., “Bauhaus Weimar: Designs for the future”, Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2000 D. Baroni, M. Vitta, “Storia del Design Grafico”, Longanesi, Milano, 2003 P. Rössler, “The Bauhaus and Public Relations – Communication in a permanent State of Crisis”, Routledge, New York, 2014

BIBLIOGRAFIA SPECIFICA - SEZIONE 1 W. Morris, “The Arts and Crafts of To-day”, discorso per la Applied Art Section of the National Association for the Advancement of Art in un incontro tenutosi a Edimburgo, 30 ottobre 1890 (pubblicazione scritta per Longmans & Co., Londra, 1901) W.R. Lethaby, “Art and Workmanship”, The Imprint no. 1, Gennaio 1913, Originally distributed by the Designs and Industries Committee, No. 6 Queen Square, Bloomsbury W.C. [London, England] H. Muthesius, “Style-architecture and Building-art: transformation of architecture in the 19th century and its present condition”, 1903, trad. Inglese di Stilarchitektur und Baukunst a cura di Julia Bloomfield, Thomas F. Reese, Salvatore Settis, The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, Santa Monica, 1994 H. Muthesius, “Style-architecture and Building-art: transformation of architecture in the 19th century and its present condition”, 1903, trad. Inglese di Stilarchitektur und Baukunst a cura di Julia Bloomfield, Thomas F. Reese, Salvatore Settis, The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, Santa Monica, 1994 Walter Gropius, “The Theory and Organization of the Bauhaus” (“Idee und Aufbau des Staatlichen Bauhauses Weimar”), Bauhausverlag, Monaco, 1923

BIBLIOGRAFIA SPECIFICA - SEZIONE 2 Lyonel Feininger, Walter Gropius, “Manifesto and programme of the State Bauhaus” (“Programm des Staatlichen Bauhauses in Weimar”), aprile 1919, illustrazione di copertina “Cathedral” di Lyonel Feininger, 1919 Anonimo, “Preliminary course, Weimar” (“Ausstellung von Arbeiten der Gesellen und Lehrlinge im Staatlichen Bauhaus”), Weimar, aprile/maggio 1922 Scheffauer, Herman George, “Building the Master Builder: The Staatliches Bauhaus of Weimar.” The Freeman 8 (5 December 1923): 304–305 (come citato in M. Kentgens-Craig, “The Bauhaus and America: first contacts 1919-1936”, The Mit Press, Cambridge, Massachussets, 1999, pp. 153-154) Walter Gropius, “Statement about differences of opinion at the Bauhaus (3 February 1922)”, in “The Bauhaus: Masters and Students”, curato da Frank Whitford, Conran Octopus Limited, Londra, 1992, pp. 134-135 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, “The new typography”, in “Staatliches Bauhaus, 1919-1923”, Weimar, in collaborazione con Karl Nierendorf, Cologna , 1919- 1923 // IMMAGINE: 1923, cover design: Herbert Bayer J. Albers, “Historical or contemporary”, Junge Menschen (Hamburg), no. 8, November 1924, p.171 Wassily Kandinsky, “Point and line to plane”, Bauhausbucher, 1926 (traduzione inglese a cura di Howard Dearstyne e Hilla Rebay, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, 1947, pp. 20-21) Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, “Painting, photography, film”, Bauhausbucher, 1925 (traduzione inglese a cura di Janet Seligman, Lund Humphries, Londra, 1967, pp. 38-40) Sybil Moholy-Nagy, introduzione a P. Klee, “Pedagogical sketchbook”, Bauhausbucher, 1925 (traduzione inglese a cura di Sybil Moholy-Nagy, Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., New York, 1953, pp. 9-11) J. Albers, “Teaching form through practice”, Bauhaus: Zeitschrift für Gestaltung (Dessau), no. 2/3, 1928, pp. 3-7

BIBLIOGRAFIA SPECIFICA - SEZIONE 3 H. Bayer, W. Gropius, I. Gropius, “Bauhaus 1919-1928”, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1938, p. 207 E.J. Frey, “Postwar Graphic Art Education – What changes will come in teaching design?”, Print Magazine en, October 1, 1943 Anonimo, “Quarterly bulletin of the Hochschule fur Gestaltung, Ulm” October 1958 [integrare] T. Maldonado, “Is the Bauhaus relevant today?”, «Bit» International br no. 4, 1969, p.29 Gui Bonsiepe, “Education for visual design”, «Bit» International br no. 4, 1969, p. 51