Day Nine

NOTES

BAUHAUS 1919 - 1933
14 years
33 faculty
1250 students

1919 - 1925
In city Weimar

1925 - 1932
In city Dessau
Is where they really evolve. Dessau is a factory town and they're designing for the industry.

1932 - 1933
In city Berlin

In 1923 they do their first public exhibition. Not such a good thing because a year late they get a letter of resignation.

Utopian desire to create a new spiritual society

Unity of Artists and Craftsmen to build for the future.

Ideas from all the Advanced Art and Design Movements were explored and applied to functional design.

Core people of Bauhaus
Paul Klee, Moholy Nagy, Johnannas Itten, Herbert Bayer, Kandinsky, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Oscar Schiemmer, Joseph Alberts

Walter Gropius 1919- 1928
Director of the Bauhaus

- Bauhaus Manifesto is basically the rules and guidelines
- Gerhard Marks does sculpture / pottery shot
- Lyonel Feringer does painting
- Johannes Itten does preliminary courses
- Johannes was very important because basically sculpts the basics of our courses today.
- Itten lives until 1967
- Very interested in the physical nature of materials
- They would do drawings of textures
- What is the materiality?
- Still being taught in European schools
- Americans are more pragmatic
- He taught the fundamental designs and principles of art
- Basics that everybody has to understand
- Color, material, to draw

Lazio Moholy Nagy
- Hungarian constructivist
- He's interested in materials
- art should have function and purpose
- Art should have a service for society
- He's experimenting with photography, montage, photograins, combining imagery, and typography
- Itten is replaced by Moholy Nagy
- Moholy Nagy looking for a way to unify photography and typography.
- He creates typophoto which is a combination of photography and typography
- He was interested in total communication
- Emphasis has to be on absolute clarity, legibility, and should never be impaired by an aesthetic.
- He does not like deconstructive theory
- He is trying to create a new graphic language and saw it as a new kind of literature.
- photoclastics basically photo collages. Back then it was harder. now it's a lot easier.

Herbert Behrens created a Bauhaus poster
- he was a student and became a professor of bauhaus
- his poster was very good because it wrapped up everything the Bauhaus stood for.
- Also gives us the universal alphabet. Behrens idea that we don't really have an alphabet. we have two alphabets. We have uppercase and lowercase.
- He rethinks the communication properties of the alphabet.
- This guy as a student is rethinking the alphabet
- sanserif type, asymmetry, practical use of design, negative space, minimalism is the nutshell of modern art

-In 1928 Gropius, Moholy leave the Bauhaus.
-Mies van der Rohe is from a school that's blood and soil. very down to business

JAN TSCHICHOLD
- Tschicochold created 1922 "Leipziger Messe" poster which is hand text
- studied calligraphy
- The ideas of the Bauhaus is not getting it's way towards America
- 1923 (Tichicochold 21 years old) goes to the Bauhaus exhibition. There he is exposed to all the ideas they're exploring. <- it rocks his world - In 1925 he's actually writing and publishing a paper that is explaining the new typography to printers, type setters, and designer - This paper had heavy rules, heavy type, sanserif type, etc - He wrote the "New Typography" He's saying that everything is crap and everything needs to be sanserif and asymmetrical. - Aim of every typographic work to be the delivery of a message in the shortest most efficient manner. Form follows function. Modernist. The Bauhaus. - He is harassed by the Nazi because of his typography and haul him off to jail. - He has to leave the country and thus turns over learning new typography - lives the rest of his life in Switzerland. He returns to and embraces classical typography


PERSONAL THOUGHTS
Lots of Bauhaus today! I love the Bauhaus movement. Learning about all the different core people of the Bauhaus was interesting. I think the most interesting one for me would be Moholy Nagy. The fact that he was a constructivist, experimented with different combinations, and really stressed absolute clarity, legibility, and should never be impaired by an aesthetic. "Education is a living thing. Just like art. Art is not static - Algebra is static" What an inspiring quote. This is why we go to art school. You went on a tangent on how art schools are more innovative and willing to experiment. I cannot express how much I agree with this. I'm a transfer student and last year attended Michigan State University. It's a big 10 college. Very enormous lots of greek life. I took a few studio courses and it was way to traditional. The problem I had with University art courses is that it doesn't challenge students to experiment. So learning about the Bauhaus was really inspiring that we as students should be experimenting everyday with our school projects.



QUESTIONS
Where there other artist like Moholy Nagy who experimented with photography combinations? Who were they?

Day Eight

NOTES

EL LISSITZKY

- a painter. he starts off originally painting pioneer suprematism.

- He influences constructivism and De Stijl and bauhaus. 

- He explores the intersection between painting and architecture 

- Lissitzky invented PROUNS which are experiments

- Stands for Projects for establishments of a new art. 

- 'Beat the whites with the red wedge' is a famous propaganda poster by Lissitzky 

- He writes a book called "The isms in Art" 

- Develops a page system which is a mathematical grid system. Also written in English, French, and German.

- Asymmetrical balance, active use of white space, san serif type, and grids.

- Grids is a system of rules

- If you are able to embrace the geometry of design your problems will be solved

ALEXANDER RODCHENKO

- "The Battleship Potemkim" movie is a great example of cinema

- The important thing about cinema around this time influences design, poster, etc

- 1910 to 1914 attended art school

- Moves into constructivism 

- Constructivism leads to modern poster design.

- This style is primitive and raw

- In 1928 it evolved and looks almost contemporary 

- Product, packaging, ads, is seen as something people need. This is constructivism. 

- Constructivism is creativity needs a social need.

DE STIJL

- From Netherlands

- Utopian world approach of aesthetics

- Based on functionalism

- has rectilinear planes

- using primary colors and black and white

- Thought to express mathematical expressions 

- mathematical system for universal harmony

- Theo van Doesburg is the leader

- De Stijl can apply to everything

- Squares, rectangles, black and white. Rather stark designs

- 1922 formats of magazines changes and embraces asymmetrical system

- Type is asymmetrically set and forces eye to move around the page

- Dadaism is about chaos 

- Theo van Doesburg embraces dadaism

-  This is where we are in design

- Doesburg believes to establish a new art you need to destroy everything else.

- 1922 most famous De Stijl artist is Piet Mondrian who created famous art 

BAUHAUS

- Bauhaus was a school just like Ringling

- Life in Germany kind of suck because they lost WWII 

- School built around the utopian idea to create a new spiritual society

- Looking for a unity of artist and craftsman to form a new future

- Only existed for 14 years but we still talk about it

- Germany is in ruin and Bauhaus brought fresh life and revitalized world

- 1990 - 1925 Weimer

- 1923 First public exhibition 

- 1924 Letter of recognition 

- 1925  1931 Dessau

- 1928 replaced by Meyer

- 1930 Meyer replaced by Van Der Rohe

- 1932 - 1933 Berlin

video we watched

I'm studying DESIGN not ART

Dadaism 

art school always make things cool

nac for putting depressing things at the end 

PERSONAL THOUGHT

It's great to be back from spring break and truly missed your lecture. "You're not suppose to follow us. You're suppose to confront us." A very bold idea to stand up for what you believe in. I agree that we should stand by our art concept. But aren't professors there to help you? I've been studying art for less then two years. I feel like someone who's devoted over 20 years of art versus my measly 2 years of study. You stated that you would rather have it be that Ringling ran on no grades. When I went hunting and researching art schools I specifically chose Ringling because it had a grade system. I have friends who go to art schools with no grade system and it feels like no structure. I feel having that letter grade makes have more power and confidence. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because it's a familiar system for 13 years. To some degree I agree with no grades but I really need that structure. 

El Lissitzky was an interesting artist. I really like his use and exploration in asymmetrical balance, active use of white space, san serif type, and grids. It's fun to know that geometry has a significant influence in art and design. I really like constructivism art. Ads, product design, packaging, etc are all things that people need. Over the past year I've taken a hug interest in learning ads, packaging, etc. I like how art is integrated into every day life. It's a shame that most people don't even see that as art. 

I'm studying DESIGN not ART! What defines design and what defines art? What is the difference? Going into our discussion with Bauhaus I already had a good understanding of Bauhaus and their style. Out of all the movements Art Nouveau and Bauhaus is my all time favorite as it houses some of my favorite art pieces. What I really love about them is the geometric approach to everything. I always learn something new when talking about Bauhaus. I did not know about how short Bauhaus existence was. 14 years is so short but left such a huge impact. 

QUESTIONS

What is the distinct difference between Bauhaus and De Stijl? 

What is your opinion on art versus design?