your guide to 100 years of bauhaus Words By: Libby Phillips
The Bauhaus school was founded by Walter Gropius in 1919. First set up in Weimar, Germany, the school was known as the Staatliches Bauhaus. Between 1919-1933, the official end of the school, it found its home in Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin. In 1933, the school was pressured by the Nazis to replace its staff with Nazi sympathizers. Rather than cooperate with the Nazis, the school voted to close. Despite its brief 14-year existence, the Bauhaus school lived on as a movement which is seen today as the foundation for modern design, aesthetic, and art theory.
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The Bauhaus school had over 1,250 students and its teachers were iconic artists of the 20th century. Some of the more recognizable names to pass through the school include Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, Joseph and Anni Albers, and Wassily Kadinsky, among others. Klee joined the school as a painting instructor in 1920 and, along with Joseph Albers, contributed to the formative fundamental courses students took at the start of their education. Klee was a painting instructor while Albers focused on glass. Anni Albers, though, did weaving and is considered, perhaps, the most prolific weaver of the twentieth century. Moholy-Nagy was initially brought in for his use of metal, but did much of his work in photography. He was particularly interested in experimentation in the darkroom and how light could be used to distort photography. Finally, Kadinsky, who was also a painter. Kadinsky is likely one of the most remembered faces of Bauhaus as his work is often recognized as the epitome of the school’s artistic achievements.
