INTRODUCTION TO BAUHAUS

Coined by the architect Walter Gropius, Bauhaus combines the root of the German verb bauen (to build) with haus (house). It is the name given to the art school founded by Gropius under the original title of the Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar. The Bauhaus, which lasted from 1919-1933, has come to represent the distillation of the Modern movement and the fundamentalist design ethic. Yet, its intellectual origins lay with the Arts and Crafts movement and its early years (before Gropius moved the school to his designed building in Dessau where it became known simply as the Bauhaus) were dominated by Expressionist arts, thought and behavior. Under Gropius the Bauhaus became an art school of immense creativity and influence. The approach to design was to stress aesthetic fundamentals and strive for geometrically pure forms, but unlike the practitioners of the Arts and Crafts movement, machines were not disdained. Some of the greatest painters, graphic designers, architect/designers and thinkers of the period participated in the movement.