Bauhaus 1919-1933 | English | Compact Edition

The ultimate reference work in a compact, revised, and updated edition in English.

In a brief 14-year span between two world wars, Germany’s Bauhaus school of art and design transformed the face of modern life. With idealistic visions for the future, the school developed a groundbreaking blend of fine art, handcraft, and technology, which they applied across fields and practices from film to theatre, sculpture to pottery.

This book is created in partnership with the Bauhaus-Archiv/Museum für Gestaltung in Berlin, the world’s largest collection on the history of the Bauhaus. Around 550 illustrations including building plans, studies, photographs, sketches, and models document not only the completed works but also the guiding principles and key figures of this idealistic creative community through its three successive homes in Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin. From informal photos of group gymnastics to drawings led by Paul Klee, from extensive building plans to a perfectly smooth ashtray by Marianne Brandt, the collection overflows with the colours, materials, and shapes that formed the Bauhaus vision of a “total” work of art.

As we near the Bauhaus centenary, this is a defining account of its spirit and discipline, not only as a pioneering movement in modernism but also as a model of art teaching, where creative expression and forward-thinking ideas led to works both practical and beautiful. Featured artists include Josef Albers, Marianne Brandt, Walter Gropius, Gertrud Grunow, Paul Klee, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Lilly Reich.