Bauhaus | Basic Art | English Edition

Geniuses and Gesamtkunstwerk: the most famous art school of the modern era.

Between two world wars, in just 14 years, the Bauhaus changed modernism. Guided by utopian ideals, the school of art and design brought together art, craftsmanship and technology, applying this holistic concept to painting, sculpture, design, architecture, film, photography, textile design, pottery, theatre and installations.

The artist collective with an external impact was also a close-knit personal community. The school was founded by Walter Gropius (1883-1969), and its members included Josef and Anni Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer, Gunta Stölzl, Marianne Brandt and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. At all three successive locations of the school in Weimar, Dessau and Berlin, there was a lively creative exchange between the students and teachers, who, although they all cultivated different artistic styles and preferences, were united in their idealism and pursuit of a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ (total work of art).

This volume celebrates the innovative power of the Bauhaus movement, which fuelled modernism with its avant-garde ideas and focused on comprehensive freedom of artistic expression and the combination of function and aesthetics in art education.

[ Taschen Verlag ]