BAUHAUS
The Bauhaus was the most influential modernist art school of the 20th century, one whose approach to teaching, and understanding art's relationship to society and technology, had a major impact both in Europe and the United States long after it closed. It was shaped by the 19th and early 20th centuries trends such as Arts and Crafts movement, which had sought to level the distinction between fine and applied arts, and to reunite creativity and manufacturing. This is reflected in the romantic medievalism of the school's early years, in which it pictured itself as a kind of medieval crafts guild. But in the mid 1920s the medievalism gave way to a stress on uniting art and industrial design, and it was this which ultimately proved to be its most original and important achievement. The school is also renowned for its faculty, which included artists Wassily Kandinsky, Josef Albers, László Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee and Johannes Itten, architects Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and designer Marcel Breuer.
DE STIJL
De Stijl, Dutch for “The Style”, also known as Neo-Plasticism, was a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917 and staked its place in the history of art and design at nearly the same time as its close counterparts Suprematism and Constructivism. The group’s principal members were the painters Theo Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian with a number of others artists like Bart van der Leck and the architects Gerrit Rietveld and J.J.P. Oud contributing shortly after the movement’s birth. The artistic philosophy that formed a basis for the group’s work is known as Neo-Plasticism (the new plastic art). Supporters of De Stijl sought to express a new utopian ideal of spiritual harmony and order. They advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and colour; they simplified visual compositions to the vertical and horizontal directions, and used only primary colors along with black and white. De Stijl was built on the fundamental principle of the geometry of the straight line, the square, and the rectangle, combined with a strong unevenness; the predominant use of pure primary colors with black and white; and the relationship between positive and negative elements in an arrangement of non-objective forms. In the case of De Stijl and Neo-Plasticism, the theoretical end of this “life span” came with the death of one of its founders, Theo Van Doesburg.
BLAUE REITER
The Blue Rider (or in German Der Blaue Reiter) was a German Expressionist movement that was established in December 1911 by Kandinsky, Marc and Gabriele Münter. Painters Kandinsky and Marc worked on an almanac in which they showed their artistic conceptions. The title of the almanac, which then became the name of the group, Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), came from the painting by Kandinsky. His Blaue Reiter ( Blue Rider ) was an adventure in the simplification and stylization of forms and the connection between music and painting. The Blue Riders believed that colors, shapes and forms had equivalence with sounds and music, and sought to create color harmonies which would be purifying to the soul. Although in this very earliest works, the impressionistic influence was recognizable, the artists who took part in The Blue Rider were considered to be the pioneers of abstract art or abstract expressionism. Their work promoted individual expression and broke free from any artistic restraints. These Nietzsche's words sum up the group's motto, "Who wishes to be creative must first blast and destroy accepted values." The first exhibitions of The Blue Rider included works by Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Henri Rousseau, Robert Delaunay, and Arnold Schönberg. These artists, who early in their careers broke from the mainstream, were later to become the driving force behind modern art as we know it today.
Important Graphic Artists of Bauhaus, De Stijl & Blaue Reiter
"Cover design for The Blue Rider Almanac" (1911).
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky was the first person to be credited with creating modern abstract works. He originally was not even an artist and did not pursue that profession until his later years. Kandinsky enrolled in the University of Moscow and studied law and economics. It wasn't until 1896, at 30 years old, that he quit his very promising profession to enroll in a Munich art school. He wasn't admitted right away so he began to teach himself art. He was influenced greatly by Monet's 'Haystacks' and Richard Wagner's 'Lohengrin'. Kandinsky called his art 'inner beauty, fervor of spirit, and deep spiritual desire, inner necessity'. None of his paintings emphasized human beings, they were more abstract figures. Kandinsky also was an art theorist, helping to found the Neue Kunstlervereinigung Munchen or the New Artists Association and in 1909 he became the president. After their demise in 1911, he is credited with forming the Blue Rider Group. Kandinsky taught at the Bauhaus in Germany but once that closed he moved to France where he died in 1944.
Wassily Kandinsky was the first person to be credited with creating modern abstract works. He originally was not even an artist and did not pursue that profession until his later years. Kandinsky enrolled in the University of Moscow and studied law and economics. It wasn't until 1896, at 30 years old, that he quit his very promising profession to enroll in a Munich art school. He wasn't admitted right away so he began to teach himself art. He was influenced greatly by Monet's 'Haystacks' and Richard Wagner's 'Lohengrin'. Kandinsky called his art 'inner beauty, fervor of spirit, and deep spiritual desire, inner necessity'. None of his paintings emphasized human beings, they were more abstract figures. Kandinsky also was an art theorist, helping to found the Neue Kunstlervereinigung Munchen or the New Artists Association and in 1909 he became the president. After their demise in 1911, he is credited with forming the Blue Rider Group. Kandinsky taught at the Bauhaus in Germany but once that closed he moved to France where he died in 1944.
Paul Klee
Klee came from a musical family and lived a musical life. He was born in Switzerland to a German father who was a church organist. Klee was a trained violinist and studied music in Germany. It was not until he was a young adult that he decided to devote himself to art, rather than music. Paul Klee, a Swiss-born painter, printmaker and draughtsman of German nationality, was originally associated with the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter. He later was a member and an instructor of the legendary Bauhaus, the international school and philosophy that aimed to combine art and craft into a functional lifestyle, to ultimately create a kind of “gothic cathedral” where artists and artisans could make a master structure that was both beautiful and functional. His work was later considered “degenerate” by the Nazis and he was forced to flee to Switzerland. Primitivism, childhood drawings, the walls of Pompeii and the hot, vibrant colors of Africa inspired his art. He was even inspired by the fish he saw in a Naples aquarium. He used hieroglyphic-like symbols to create his own language, a combination of deceptively simple compositions with lines that almost speak from the canvas with witty and ironic words. His work was emotional and analytical, logical and fantastical, individual and cosmic. Klee worked with both his right and left hands, equally comfortable with either, although he preferred using his left hand for drawing and his right for writing. When he died, he left almost 9000 pieces of art as well as the publications and diaries he wrote from 1897 to 1918 – an important source for his poetic theories, his painting, and his inspiration. ." His paintings, which are at times fantastic, childlike, or otherwise witty, served as an inspiration to the New York School, as well as many other artists of the 20th century.
Klee came from a musical family and lived a musical life. He was born in Switzerland to a German father who was a church organist. Klee was a trained violinist and studied music in Germany. It was not until he was a young adult that he decided to devote himself to art, rather than music. Paul Klee, a Swiss-born painter, printmaker and draughtsman of German nationality, was originally associated with the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter. He later was a member and an instructor of the legendary Bauhaus, the international school and philosophy that aimed to combine art and craft into a functional lifestyle, to ultimately create a kind of “gothic cathedral” where artists and artisans could make a master structure that was both beautiful and functional. His work was later considered “degenerate” by the Nazis and he was forced to flee to Switzerland. Primitivism, childhood drawings, the walls of Pompeii and the hot, vibrant colors of Africa inspired his art. He was even inspired by the fish he saw in a Naples aquarium. He used hieroglyphic-like symbols to create his own language, a combination of deceptively simple compositions with lines that almost speak from the canvas with witty and ironic words. His work was emotional and analytical, logical and fantastical, individual and cosmic. Klee worked with both his right and left hands, equally comfortable with either, although he preferred using his left hand for drawing and his right for writing. When he died, he left almost 9000 pieces of art as well as the publications and diaries he wrote from 1897 to 1918 – an important source for his poetic theories, his painting, and his inspiration. ." His paintings, which are at times fantastic, childlike, or otherwise witty, served as an inspiration to the New York School, as well as many other artists of the 20th century.
"Composition with red, yellow and blue" (1938).
Piet Mondrian
Dutch painter, theorist and draughtsman. His work marks the transition at the start of the 20th century from the Hague school and Symbolism to Neo-Impressionism and Cubism. His key position within the international avant-garde is determined by works produced after 1920. He set out his theory in the periodical of De Stijl, in a series of articles that were summarized in a separate booklet published in Paris in 1920 under the title Le Néo-plasticisme, by Léonce Rosenberg. The essence of Mondrian’s ideas is that painting, composed of the most fundamental aspects of line and colour, must set an example to the other arts for achieving a society in which art as such has no place but belongs instead to the total realization of ‘beauty’. The representation of the universal, dynamic pulse of life, also expressed in modern jazz and the metropolis, was Mondrian’s point of departure. Even in his lifetime he was regarded as the founder of the most modern art. His artistic integrity caused him to be honoured as a classical master by artists who were aligned with entirely different styles, as well as by musicians and architects. He was able to make a living from the sale of his works in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, England and the USA.
Dutch painter, theorist and draughtsman. His work marks the transition at the start of the 20th century from the Hague school and Symbolism to Neo-Impressionism and Cubism. His key position within the international avant-garde is determined by works produced after 1920. He set out his theory in the periodical of De Stijl, in a series of articles that were summarized in a separate booklet published in Paris in 1920 under the title Le Néo-plasticisme, by Léonce Rosenberg. The essence of Mondrian’s ideas is that painting, composed of the most fundamental aspects of line and colour, must set an example to the other arts for achieving a society in which art as such has no place but belongs instead to the total realization of ‘beauty’. The representation of the universal, dynamic pulse of life, also expressed in modern jazz and the metropolis, was Mondrian’s point of departure. Even in his lifetime he was regarded as the founder of the most modern art. His artistic integrity caused him to be honoured as a classical master by artists who were aligned with entirely different styles, as well as by musicians and architects. He was able to make a living from the sale of his works in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, England and the USA.
Rietveld designed the Red Blue Chair in 1917.
Gerrit Rietveld
Born in Utrecht in 1888, the Dutch designer, architect and painter Gerrit Rietveld spent his entire life in the city of his birth. Until 1913 Gerrit Rietveld was employed as a draftsman in the workshop of the goldsmith C.J.A. Begeer. From 1906, Gerrit Rietveld also attended evening courses, where he learned technical draftsmanship from the architect P.J.C. Klaarhamer. In 1911-12 Gerrit Rietveld was a member of the group of artists known as Kunstliefde, with whom he also showed work. In 1917 Gerrit Rietveld established a furniture workshop in Utrecht. By 1919, however, Gerrit Rietveld had joined Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian, and other artists to found "De Stijl"; Rietveld would become one of the most important and influential artists in that celebrated group. In 1919 Gerrit Rietveld designed the prototype of his famous "Red and Blue" chair, which, however, was not given the striking lacquering that is so typical of De Stijl until 1923. Gerrit Rietveld himself seems to have viewed his chair as a work of art since he called it a "spatial creation", designating a sculpture in space, rather than a piece of furniture. The "Red and Blue" chair was shown in the journal "De Stijl" and was also exhibited in a show mounted by the Bauhaus, where it made quite an impact. In 1924-25 Gerrit Rietveld designed the "Schröder House" for Truus Schröder in Utrecht, a building that would become the architectural manifesto of the De Stijl movement. The colors, the division and arrangement of surfaces on the two floors of this private house faithfully follow the De Stijl principles. Between 1932 and 1934, Gerrit Rietveld designed the "Zig-Zag" chair, which consists in four simple boards fitted together at oblique angles. In 1922, in connection with the practice he was designing for Dr. Hartog in Maarssen, Gerrit Rietveld designed a tubular ceiling lamp of white soffits arranged at right angles with black cubes at the ends for fastening the straight wires on which it was suspended from the ceiling. In 1928 Gerret Rietveld became a member of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM). As an architect plant, Gerrit Rietveld designed many buildings and interiors. His biggest project, however, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, was not completed until nine years after he died in 1964.
Born in Utrecht in 1888, the Dutch designer, architect and painter Gerrit Rietveld spent his entire life in the city of his birth. Until 1913 Gerrit Rietveld was employed as a draftsman in the workshop of the goldsmith C.J.A. Begeer. From 1906, Gerrit Rietveld also attended evening courses, where he learned technical draftsmanship from the architect P.J.C. Klaarhamer. In 1911-12 Gerrit Rietveld was a member of the group of artists known as Kunstliefde, with whom he also showed work. In 1917 Gerrit Rietveld established a furniture workshop in Utrecht. By 1919, however, Gerrit Rietveld had joined Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian, and other artists to found "De Stijl"; Rietveld would become one of the most important and influential artists in that celebrated group. In 1919 Gerrit Rietveld designed the prototype of his famous "Red and Blue" chair, which, however, was not given the striking lacquering that is so typical of De Stijl until 1923. Gerrit Rietveld himself seems to have viewed his chair as a work of art since he called it a "spatial creation", designating a sculpture in space, rather than a piece of furniture. The "Red and Blue" chair was shown in the journal "De Stijl" and was also exhibited in a show mounted by the Bauhaus, where it made quite an impact. In 1924-25 Gerrit Rietveld designed the "Schröder House" for Truus Schröder in Utrecht, a building that would become the architectural manifesto of the De Stijl movement. The colors, the division and arrangement of surfaces on the two floors of this private house faithfully follow the De Stijl principles. Between 1932 and 1934, Gerrit Rietveld designed the "Zig-Zag" chair, which consists in four simple boards fitted together at oblique angles. In 1922, in connection with the practice he was designing for Dr. Hartog in Maarssen, Gerrit Rietveld designed a tubular ceiling lamp of white soffits arranged at right angles with black cubes at the ends for fastening the straight wires on which it was suspended from the ceiling. In 1928 Gerret Rietveld became a member of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM). As an architect plant, Gerrit Rietveld designed many buildings and interiors. His biggest project, however, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, was not completed until nine years after he died in 1964.
Large Blue Horses (1911). Oil-on-canvas.
Franz Marc
Franz Marc was at the forefront of German Expressionism and was a founding member of The Blue Rider group. His paintings were highly distinctive and incredibly powerful. Franz Marc was born in 1880 in Munich the second son of the painter Wilhelm Marcand his Alsace-born wife Sophie. After one year's military service he attended the Munich University to study philosophy and theology. He switched to painting in 1920 and studied for two years at the Kunstakademie. In 1903 he travelled to Paris where he first encountered the work of the Impressionists; the works of Gauguin and van Gogh particularly impressed him. In 1909 Marc moved to Sindelsdorf with Maria Franck who was later to become his wife and a year later he met August Macke who was to become his closest friend. In 1911 he became a member of a Munich exhibiting society, the Neue Kunstlervereinigung and by the end of the year had moved on to the splinter group, Der Blaue Reiter. Marc concentrated on painting animals for the most part, believing they were more important physically and spiritually than humans. He was a highly emotional painter regarding different colours as representing some feeling or perception of the animal. In 1912 he was exposed to the work of Robert Delaunay and this led Marc into further abstractions, most notably 'Animal Destinies' (1913). He was very sensitive to his surroundings, a characteristic which was pushed to overload with the outbreak of the First World War. The death of Macke on the battle field disturbed him enormously. Sadly Marc was to succumb to the same fate a few months later in 1916.
Franz Marc was at the forefront of German Expressionism and was a founding member of The Blue Rider group. His paintings were highly distinctive and incredibly powerful. Franz Marc was born in 1880 in Munich the second son of the painter Wilhelm Marcand his Alsace-born wife Sophie. After one year's military service he attended the Munich University to study philosophy and theology. He switched to painting in 1920 and studied for two years at the Kunstakademie. In 1903 he travelled to Paris where he first encountered the work of the Impressionists; the works of Gauguin and van Gogh particularly impressed him. In 1909 Marc moved to Sindelsdorf with Maria Franck who was later to become his wife and a year later he met August Macke who was to become his closest friend. In 1911 he became a member of a Munich exhibiting society, the Neue Kunstlervereinigung and by the end of the year had moved on to the splinter group, Der Blaue Reiter. Marc concentrated on painting animals for the most part, believing they were more important physically and spiritually than humans. He was a highly emotional painter regarding different colours as representing some feeling or perception of the animal. In 1912 he was exposed to the work of Robert Delaunay and this led Marc into further abstractions, most notably 'Animal Destinies' (1913). He was very sensitive to his surroundings, a characteristic which was pushed to overload with the outbreak of the First World War. The death of Macke on the battle field disturbed him enormously. Sadly Marc was to succumb to the same fate a few months later in 1916.
Main Fine Arts Movements: 1900-1945
The major fine art movements of this period are: Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Constructivism,
Dada, Fauvism, Futurism, Vorticism. These movements allowed many artists from many different fields to shine in many different ways. It was these artists that not only influenced but developed the art world today. Some of the famous graphic artists, visual artists, photographers and designers of this period include: James Montgomery Flagg, Lucian Bernhard, Pablo Picasso, Gustav
Klimt, Arnold Genthe, Lewis Hine, Walter Gropius, Erich Mendelsohn.
James Montgomery Flagg's "I Want You" US Army Recruiting poster: The most famous poster in the world, with 4 million copies printed and distributed between 1917-1918, as the United States entered World War I and began sending troops and matériel into war zones. Because of its overwhelming popularity, the image was later adapted for use in World War II.
Lucian Bernhard's Priester Match poster is a watershed document of modern graphic design. Its composition is so stark and its colors so starling that it captures the viewer's eye in an instant. Before 1906, when the poster first appeared on the streets of Berlin, persuasive simplicity was a rare thing in most advertising: posters, especially tended to be wordy and ornate. No one had yet heard of its young creator, who, thanks to this poster, was to influence the genre of advertising know as the Sachplakat, or object poster. Over the course of his career, which progressed from the turn of the century to the 1950s, Lucian Bernhard became a prolific designer not only of innovative posters but of trademarks, packaging, type, textiles, furniture, and interior design. From his studio in New York City (he left Berlin in 1922), he developed some of the most recognizable American business advertising and trademarks, for such clients as Cat's Paw, ExLax, and Amoco. He also designed more thank thirty-five popular display typefaces, including Bernhard Gothic.
Picasso's Man with a Violin dates from the spring or summer of 1912, a period in the evolution of Cubism often described as hermetic. Paintings such as Man with a Violin paved the way for much abstract art to come, but Picasso's persistent inclusion of abbreviated signs for human physiognomy and objects shows what all his subsequent work confirms: he was more interested in dissecting and reinventing representation than in pursuing pure abstraction.
The Austrian artist Gustav Klimt shared his “Golden period” to the whole world. He was able to create numerous art works that evoked love, passion and beauty. This can be seen through one of his famous artwork The Kiss (Der Kuss). This beautiful 180 cm x 180 cm oil and gold leaf canvas brought the emotion of love and symbolism to the whole world. Gustav Klimt created this beautiful piece in 1907 and he finished it in 1908. It is considered to be one of Klimt’s famous paintings in history. Klimt also explored the human relationship which brought this piece to life. This exploration was considered by many as “modern” during this time.
The great Earthquake of San Francisco almost destroyed the city. Nobody really understood the devastation that it caused until photographer Arnold Genthe took a photo of Sacramento Street in 1906. The photograph clearly depicted the destruction from the
fire that had started and threatened to take away the West Coast of the United
States.
Lewis Hine is another famous photographer. In 1910, Hine took the photo of the Breaker Boys in Pennsylvania. The Breaker Boys were children who had been forced to work separating coal and slate. This photo brought about the ban of child labor in the United States.
Bauhaus was born in the midst of the revolutionary atmosphere of the spring of 1919. Its principles were presented in the Bauhaus Manifesto of April 1919, primarily authored by the architect and first head of the Bauhaus school, Walter Gropius. In the architecture of Walter Gropius, the design of Marcel Breuer, and the paintings of Vassily Kandinsky, the school produced works that changed the places in which people worked, the houses in which they lived, the furnishings and accessories that filled their homes, and their ideas of beauty.
The Einstein Tower was the product of the complementary investigations of expressionism, reinforced concrete construction, and relativity undertaken by its architect, Erich Mendelsohn, between 1912 and 1920. The war-ravaged German economy of 1921, which impeded its construction, and the scientific agenda of its patron, Erwin Finlay Freundlich, which determined the character of its interior spaces, also helped shape its final appearance. Designed to serve scientific inquiry, it occupies a distinctive intellectual, as well as stylistic, position within the history of German expressionism. In this building Mendelsohn established the design approach that would characterize the rest of his German career, fusing attention to program with bold images of the thrilling instability of modern life. As its reception demonstrates, the functional aspects of the tower have been overshadowed by the degree to which its form has mistakenly been identified with a contemporary enthusiasm for mysticism, which in fact played no role in its design.