Bauhaus

   Bauhaus was a movement and a school in Germany built in 1919. The style was mostly simplity design without too much ornament. At this school, cabinet making was very famous along with creating abstract textiles and metal working. Their designs were mostly industrial designs. Famous teachers in this period included, Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Vasily Kandinsky, Josef Albers, Oskar Schlemmer, László Moholy-Nagy and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Unfortunately the school was shut down by Nazis in 1933.

    This is a Tea Infuser and Strainer which Marianne Brandt invented in the 1924. Brant spent all the days at the metal workshop while she was studying at the Bauhaus and she produced this while she was still a student. Its’ materials are the silver and the ebony, with the use of pure geometric forms, including the hemisphere, circle, and cylinder forming the teapots shape. Like other functional Bauhaus items, the teapot was designed to work well in addition to looking good. It seems well balanced and easy to hold. The shape is very different than the traditional teapots. Brant achieved to think outside the box to produce a shape we never saw before.

    The table lamp seen above is often called as the ‘Bauhaus Lamp’, which was designed by student Wilhelm Wagenfeld in 1924. The lamp was very popular at the time, this is because it takes very few space on your desk and was very efficient. It was a very modern design for that time, even today it looks very Modernistic. It is made out of a metal base, a cylinder and the bulb cover made from white glass. The colours look very clean and fresh. It goes well in any kind of room because the both colours and shape are neutral. This is another perfect example were form follows function. Throughout the years many versions of this lamp have been created and is still categorized as classic modern.

    As anyone can tell, the lamp above has nothing to do with the Bauhaus. This one from Art Nuoveau by Byron Vreeland, around fifty years before the ‘Bauhaus Lamp’ was produced. There is a huge difference between them. Both are desk lamps and both have the same shape- a base, a cylinder as a neck and a glass cover for the bulb. The one from Art Nuoveau has too much details and decoration compared to the one from the Bauhaus, where we can say it is all plain. The metal from Vreeland has very detailed lines carved in similar to a tree branch and has leaves motifs on the base. The glass cover is also very detailed with stained glass. This design is very organic. Even though the one from Bauhaus is very modern, I think we should appreciate certain design like this from Art Nouveau beacause they look like they consist of much more work to do.

Bibliography:

Dr Marcus Bunyan 2012 http://artblart.com/2012/05/12/exhibition-out-of-the-forest-art-nouveau-lamps-at-the-nevada-museum-of-art-reno/

2000 http://www.tecnolumen.de/12/

2013 The metropolitan Museum http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bauh/hd_bauh.htm

All searched on the 4th of Nov 2013