The Bauhaus at MoMA

This exhibition at MoMA thoroughly examines the most influential school of avant-garde art, design and architecture of the 20th century. Literally meaning “house of building” the Bauhaus, a term coined by the school’s founder Walter Gropius, was created to offer an interdisciplinary approach to the arts. All arts had equal status at the school when it was first founded in 1919. It had three different locations throughout its 14 year history: Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin, Germany and three different directors: Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, and Mies van der Rohe. It “generated productive conversation among faculty and students on the nature of modernity and the modern art object.”

Gropius selected faculty straight from the avant-garde including Feininger, Klee, Kandinsky, Moholy- Nagy, etc. He founded his manifesto on a medieval cathedral which is the great holder for society because it brings all of the arts and crafts together for the public to view and experience. The most important principle for the students in the first years of its creation was to be schooled in abstract language including color and form before moving on to specific areas of interest; work of previous artists should not be imitated but materials should be played with and experimented with. This show includes 420 works with architecture as the unifying force (though the architecture workshop was not set up until 1929). Curator Berry Bergdoll wants the viewers to understand that the Bauhaus is not a style or movement, but a school. What was once labeled as “degenerative art” is now shown as exemplary in the canons of art history.

Klee, Contrasts in the Evening, 1924

What I found most interesting was how the work of the teachers was markedly influenced by their teaching experience. For example, Paul Klee’s color-theory exercises influenced works like “Contrasts in the Evening” from 1924. In it horizontal bands of color mediate the complementary colors orange and blue.

Kurt Schmidt, Form and Color Organ with Moving Color, 1923

One of my favorite works in the show is Kurt Schmidt’s “Form and Color Organ with Moving Color Tones” from 1923. It is a painted wooden relief sculpture with colored strips arranged horizontally and vertically on a multi-colored grid. As the viewer moves back and forth, the palette of warm red and brown transforms into cool blues and greens; there is an interactive element to the abstraction in this work that I found intriguing for the time it was created.

Moholy-Nagy, Photogram, 1926

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, an artist with strong ties to Constructivism,  joined the faculty in 1923. Many of his works are on view including those which garnered an interest in photography and film. The first darkrooms were set up in 1927 and became part of the curriculum. Some of his photograms are on view where he would expose photo paper to light while placing an object on it, not a traditional photo at all but more an exploration of what the medium of photography can do. His influences are linked to what we most often associate with the Bauhaus.

In April 1925 the Bauhaus moved to the booming town of Dessau and former students such as Albers and Breuer became faculty. The building became the center of school life. The building is one of the first to have no real facade. Different rooms in the masters’ houses had different brightly colored walls which are recreated in this show. In 1928 Gropius left the Bauhaus and with him went many distinguished faculty. Hannes Meyer was hired to run the architecture department and became the director within a year.  By 1932 Mies van der Rohe arranged for the school to move to Berlin and he reduced the staff and program. The school closed because the Nazis had taken over.

Oskar Schlemmer, Bauhaus Stairway, 1932

In 1932, 3 days after the school was closed, Oskar Schlemmer painted Bauhaus Stairway as a memorial to the school and all that it had stood for. This work is owned by MoMA.

"African" Chair-collaboration between female and male student

What I found refreshing but also a bit overwhelming about this show are the varied objects on view. Lamps, paintings, furniture, performance work, puppets, ceramics, textiles, printed fabrics can all be seen as they represented all aspects of the Bauhaus curriculum. But it became too much to take in after awhile (perhaps that is because I saw this exhibit right after visiting the Kandinsky show at the Guggenheim). Also, I felt that there was too much repetitive wall text in the show. While the viewer needs some background information, he/she learns very quickly that Klee and Kandinsky taught with an emphasis on form and color, one doesn’t need to read it over and over.

For a solid introduction to the Bauhaus and all that it stood for, this show is worth a visit. Just be sure that it is your only art experience for the day or you may have information overload. I enjoyed my second, curator-led tour very much as it was pointed and I was therefore unable to get lost in the objects.