mortiz004

With roots in Dada, surrealism entered the Paris scene in 1924, searching for the “more real than real world behind the real” – the world of institution, dreams, and the unconscious realm explored by Freud. André Breton was the founder of surrealism and imbued the word with all the magic and dreams, the spirit of rebellion, and the mysteries of the subconscious in his Manifesto du Surréalisme in 1924. Tristan Tzara joined Breton, Paul Aluard and Louis Aragon in Zurich where he stirred the group on towards scandal and rebellion. These young poets rejected the rationalism and formal conventions dominating postwar creative activities in Paris. They sought ways to make new truths, to reveal the language of the soul. Surrealism was not a style or a matter of aesthetic, but rather a way of thinking and knowing, a way of feeling, a way of life. Dada contrasts heavily with Surrealism, as Dada was negative, destructive and perpetually exhibitionist and surrealism professes a poetic faith ...

 Tension between the Bauhaus and the government in Weimar intensified when a new, more conservative regime came to power and tried to impose unacceptable conditions on the school. The director and masters all signed a letter of resignation, effective 1 April 1925, when their contracts expired. Two weeks later, students signed a letter to the government informing it that they would leave with the masters. Gropius and Dessau mayor, Dr Fritz Hesse, negotiated moving the Bauhaus to this small provincial town. In April 1925 some of the equipment was moved from Weimar to Dessau and work began immediately in temporary facilities. A new building complex was designed and was occupied in the fall of 1926 where a reorganized curriculum was taught. Walter Gropius, Dessau Bauhaus building, 1925-26. This architectural landmark has a series of parts – workshops (shown here), classroom, dormitory, and administrative structures – unified into a whole. During the Dessau period the Bauh...

Walter Gropius resigned his post I n1928 to resume private architectural practice. At the same time, Bayer and Moholy-Nagy both left for Berlin, where graphic design and typography figured prominently in the activities of each. Former student Joost Schmidt followed Bayer as master of the typography and graphic design workshop. He moved away from strict constructivist ideas and stocked the workshop with a larger variety of type fonts. Hannes Meyer, a Swiss architect with strong socialist beliefs, assumed the directorship of the Bauhaus. By 1930 conflicts with the municipal authorities forced Meyer to resign. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe a prominent Berlin architect whose design dictum “less is more” became a major tenet of twentieth- century design, became director. Herbert Bayer, “Europäisches Kunstgewerbe 1927” (European arts and crafts 1927), poster, 1927. The Nazi party dominated the Dessau City Council in 1931. It cancelled the Bauhaus faculty contracts in 1932. Mies van der Rohe tried...

In 1923 Itten’s replacement as head of the preliminary course was the Hungarian constructivist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, a restless experimental painter, photographer, film maker, sculptor and graphic designer. New materials such as acrylic resin and plastic, new techniques such as photomontage and the photogram, and visual means including kinetic motion, light and transparency were encompassed in his wide-ranging investigation. Young and articulate, Moholy-Nagy had a marked influence on the evolution of Bauhaus instruction and philosophy. He became Gropius’s “prime minister” at the Bauhaus. Gropius and Moholy-Nagy collaborated as editors for the catalogue for the 1923 exhibition. Herbert Bayer, cover design, Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar, 1919-1923, 1923. Geometrically constructed letterforms printed in red and blue on a black background are compressed into a square. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, title page, Staatliches  Bauhaus in Weimar. This page structure is based on a rhyt...