Bauhaus: A Conceptual Model

de Michael Siebenbrodt, Jeff Wall, Klaus Weber

"One of Walter Gropius' guiding principles in founding the Bauhaus was that "design is neither an intellectual nor a material affair, but simply an integral part of the stuff of life, necessary for everyone in a civilized society." As a result of this ethos, Bauhaus artists and designers experimented freely with everything from painting to furniture, producing countless masterpieces in many genres. This comprehensive volume takes stock of the Bauhaus' output by highlighting 68 projects, with a particular focus on neglected aspects of the school's legacy. A different author is assigned to respond to each work, creating an inventory of celebrated and lesser-known works that helps the reader to tangibly cohere the Bauhaus' daunting achievements. Marking the ninetieth anniversary of the school's founding, this comprehensive volume, with nearly 400 color illustrations, is made possible through the collaborative efforts of three institutions: the Bauhaus-Archiv Museum of Design in Berlin, Dessau's Stiftung Bauhaus and the Bauhaus-Museum Weimar (Klassik Stiftung). Also featured are essays by the Director of the Bauhaus-Museum in Weimar, Michael Siebenbrodt, and the artist and writer, Jeff Wall."--Jacket. "The Bauhaus--founded in Weimar in 1919, located in Dessau beginning in 1925, and ultimately shut down in 1933 shortly after relocating in Berlin--continues to be the most effective and successful export article of twentieth-century German culture. Even more than seventy years after it was closed, this interdisciplinary school for art, architecture, design, and theater has not lost any of its currentness. On the occasion of the ninetieth anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus, this profusely illustrated, comprehensive publication with over three hundred illustrations reexamines and reevaluates the art school's history and influence. In this collaborative project by the three leading institutes at the former sites of the Bauhaus's activities--the Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin, the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, and the Bauhaus-Museum of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar--the historic Bauhaus and the trail of its reception are closely examined and analyzed based on sixty-eight selected highlights, including the hitherto neglected aspects of the Bauhaus during the period of National Socialism as well as its international propagation and commercialization."--English trade ed. book jacket.