DIARIO 01, ISSUE 14

100 Years of Bauhaus

The most influential art and design school in history, the Bauhaus movement turns 100 and is as relevant today as when it started.

Bauhausgebäude Dessau, Walter Gropius (1925–26), Südseite. Photo: Tadashi Okochi © Pen Magazine, 2010, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

There is no essential difference between the artist and the artisan.

BAUHAUS MANIFESTO, WALTER GROPIUS, 1919

Originally an art school established in Weimar in 1919, Bauhaus literally means “construction house” in German. What soon became a movement, Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius, a modernist architect from Berlin who suffered physical and emotional trauma during the Great War and created a utopia for German youth, trusting in art as a healing power. According to his manifesto, “any person of good repute, without regard to age or sex,” was considered for admission to the Bauhaus School. Students learned cabinetmaking, metalworking, typography, and wall painting, creating utilitarian art through interior design and architecture.

'Bauhaus Poster I' by BLTV. Bauhaus exhibition poster. Retro, vintage 1920s poster

The Bauhaus signet

The main staircase of the Bauhaus building.Photo: Alan John Ainsworth/Heritage Images via Getty Images

Laccio Side Table, Marcel Breuer 1925 via Knoll

Portrait of Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Sven Markelius, and Marcel Breuer, 1952. Photo: RIBA Collections.

The basic principle of Bauhaus is that functionality dictates form. Bauhaus allowed for mass production which is why it not only thrived through World War II but is now celebrating its 100th anniversary. The Wassily Chair is an iconic example of this style. It was designed by Marcel Breuer, a pivotal figure educated and taught at the Bauhaus, who championed a rational approach to design.

Named in honor of Wassily Kandinsky, who expressed admiration for its prototype, this chair solves the formal problem of creating a substantial piece of furniture that is both there and not there, boasting its characteristic tubular steel structure, revolutionary at that time.

Mies van der Rohe. Photo: Werner Blaser

The third director of the school, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is another pillar of the Bauhaus and one of the 20th century’s greatest architects. He shifted its direction almost entirely towards architecture and is predominantly known for his American skyscrapers such as the Seagram Building in New York and the Lake Shore Drive Towers and IBM Plaza in Chicago - designs that now seem forerunners of the many glass towers built today, but whose gestation took place in pre-war Germany.

Mies van der Rohe Farnsworth House, Interior, Photo: Francois Dischinger

Hungarian-born painter László Moholy-Nagy, an influential teacher at the Bauhaus School, known particularly for photography and metalwork, is famous for his work abroad as well as relocating the Bauhaus School from Germany to the United States. The school’s work was abruptly and painfully interrupted when Nazis forced it to shut its doors in 1933. The artists either went into hiding or fled the country. Before World War II was over, Moholy-Nagy flew to Chicago to found the New Bauhaus School in 1937, a school still open to this day with the name IIT Institute of Design.

The timeless Bauhaus style is deeply rooted in the conviction that “art must return to craftsmanship.” Ippolita’s pieces are designed and made with the same philosophy, with no distinction between artist and artisan. The Bauhaus manifesto, written 100 years ago, still resonates in Ippolita’s atelier, a place where art blossoms from the work of the craftsman’s hand, with "fatto a mano" one of the cornerstones of Ippolita’s approach to jewelry making.

To honor the history and legacy of this groundbreaking style, many galleries and museums across the world, including Tate Modern in London, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and Garage in Moscow, are planning exhibitions and celebrations.

The Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois by Mies Van Der Rohe. Photo: Photo by Francois Dischinger

László Moholy-Nagy, Photogram, 1926, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Ralph M. Parsons Fund, © 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

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