Bauhaus source book

Abstract

The way our environment looks today, the appearance of everything from newspapers to housing estates to skyscrapers, has been deeply influenced by the work of the Bauhaus. This school of art and design, founded in 1919 and closed down by the Nazis in 1933, has not only left a world-wide visual legacy; it has also made an indelible mark on art education throughout the world. The ideas behind the reflected attitudes to art, architecture and craft which had been shaped by the forces of engineering and technology, and which were placed firmly in the context of contemporary life. Under the direction of the architect Walter Gropius, the gathered together some of the greatest figures of 20th-century art and design in a unique teacher-student relationship. With the rise of Hitler, many of its members emigrated to the USA, where the painters Klee and Kandinsky, and architects Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer and Gropius himself, had a profound effect on the modern environment. The Bauhaus Source Book looks at the innovative and enduring work of this extraordinary art and design school, and traces its wide-ranging influence on the world around us.