by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: November 19, 2008   Last Updated: December 01, 2010

Bauhaus is a design style that originated in Germany shortly after World War 1. The idea was to integrate the arts and artisans with production and manufacturing processes. At least that was the intention of the developer and founder of the Bauhaus School of Design, Walter Gropius. The school was known worldwide and was highly successful.

Incorporated into the workshop atmosphere was a no-nonsense way of learning the arts. This was the initial approach; it has now evolved into something amazingly different but is still sleek and less fussy. Usefulness was the integrating thought. Gone were excessive and needless features that had no functional purpose. Mies van der Rohe was the director of the school from 1930 until 1933 when it was shut down. He came to the United States and a successful and rewarding career for many years.

Why were the leaders of the school thrown out of Germany? Apparently, the Nazi Leader, Hitler derailed the school because they were independent minded and he and his political cronies couldn't control them. He thought this type of design decadent and not fitting for the future Germany his insane mind probably envisioned.

Jews found themselves out of favor with the upcoming Nazi dictatorship form of government. The ousted artists and school emerged elsewhere: A website, Chicago Bauhaus and Beyond tells visitors their site is living testimony to the importance of this newer art style. This website dedicates itself to information concerning its development from its first beginning in the early twenties to the present.

Looking at the photography online of the various buildings, modern is the only word to describe this art craze. As earlier, I mentioned starkness, no nonsense, functionality, and these still apply, but it seems to me Bauhaus has now evolved into a little bit of everything that is not strictly classical and ordinary. Sleek and ultramodern now seem a more fitting description.

Bauhaus as a design reached further outward than buildings and furniture. It was a simpler way of looking at art. You might say it was a way of thinking about life without all its clutter and confusion. In typography the usual flourishes that decorated manuscripts and writing were simplified.

The prevailing type was sans serif. This is blocked shaped lettering without the little curlicues and serifs. (Serif, or the decorative little line that supposedly points to the next letter, the next word, or begins a first letter, is missing in sans serif. Sans is an old archaic French word for without.)

Bauhaus architecture flourished after it was ousted in Germany,at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and at Harvard University Graduate school of Design. By the mid forties it was even more functional and restrained and less artistic. In appearance, it was more box like and had become almost austere. Now we can say it is still evolving into less austerity and into more innovative art forms.

Sometimes what is made, whether it is houses or paintings, or furniture is unexpected although no doubt functional. In art, it associates itself with expressionism. That means that the artist has a license to produce art that only he can while using basic art designs and techniques taught the Bauhaus way.

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