DATE 24th-28th Aug 2020
A hundred years has passed since the Bauhaus school was founded in Germany by Walter Gropius and while many people may not be very familiar with its teaching, they will almost certainly encounter its influence as they go about their lives.
2019 sees the celebration of the centenary of a movement which set a pattern for the way we live today and its importance is almost impossible to overestimate.
'Form follows function' was the most basic philosophy and its teaching transformed advertising, typography, architecture and interior design.
There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman – Walter Gropius
Bauhaus means ‘building house’ but Gropius didn’t want to build only houses. He wanted to create a new breed of artists, who could turn their hands to anything. “There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman,” he said. Pupils learnt pottery, printmaking, book-binding and carpentry. They studied typography and advertising. They went back to basics, and began again with fresh eyes.
It is refreshing to learn of the importance of craft with today's conceptual-led aesthetic.
Indeed, many of its lessons have great significance for the curious photographer. Wassily Kandinsky - one of many notable artists who taught there - maintained that colors and shapes have powerful connections and we should consider our combinations carefully.
Art is a continuum of great ideas. The Bauhaus teaches that many of the best ones have been done before, but you can always frame those ideas in new ways.
One of the most famous courses in theory was taught by Paul Klee.
By the time Klee came to work at the Bauhaus, he had already gained acclaim as a founding member of the German Expressionist movement, known as Die Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). His courses on color theory concentrated on the movement of color and did much to change the ideas behind color in the 20th century.
The Bauhaus was situated in three different locations during the time that it was active. The first location was in The School of Arts and Crafts in Weimar. It then moved to Dessau before finally relocating to Berlin before it was closed.
We will base ourselves in Berlin from where we can explore the Modernist traditions of this most compelling of cities
We will travel from Berlin to Dessau and visit the Bauhaus studio building - now a World Cultural Heritage Site.
Everything from the floor plan and the materials to replicas of the original furniture has been returned to its original state in meticulous detail. Some rooms evoke their former inhabitants by virtue of the furniture designs: selected rooms are currently dedicated to the Bauhauslers Alfred and Gertrud Arndt, Josef and Anni Albers and Franz Ehrlich.
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