Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Bauhaus student work
850514  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Biographical/Historical Note
  • Administrative Information
  • Separated Material
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Bauhaus student work
    Date (inclusive): 1919-1933
    Number: 850514
    Creator/Collector: Bauhaus
    Physical Description: 7 Linear Feet (14 boxes, 11 flat file folders)
    Repository:
    The Getty Research Institute
    Special Collections
    1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
    Los Angeles 90049-1688
    reference@getty.edu
    URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
    (310) 440-7390
    Abstract: A comprehensive collection of photographs, records, notebooks, drawings, prints, manuscripts, and other materials documenting student coursework, assignments, projects, and activities at the Bauhaus (ca. 1919-1933). Includes some work by Bauhaus professors.
    Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record  for this collection. Click here for the access policy .
    Language: Collection material is in German

    Biographical/Historical Note

    The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 by the architect Walter Gropius as a school of art, architecture, crafts, and theater, with the focus of instruction on the unity of art and technology. Gropius led the Bauhaus until 1928, when he named Hannes Meyer as his successor. Mies van der Rohe replaced Meyer in 1930. The Bauhaus began in Weimar, moved to Dessau in 1925, and closed in 1932. Attempts to revive the school were made in Berlin in 1933 and Chicago in 1937.
    The mission of the Bauhaus was to provide courses in the combined constructive arts and crafts. Gropius' goal was to bridge the divide between fine and applied arts, and he envisioned the Bauhaus as a fulfillment of his ideal of a medieval craft guild, where artists and craftsmen worked in unison. Workshops were offered in carpentry, weaving, pottery, and glass-, wall-, and stage painting. Students, known as apprentices or journeymen, were enrolled in specific workshops, which were originally taught by pairs of professors: a Formmeister, a teacher of fine arts, and a Werkstattmeister, a craftsman. After the move to Dessau, the Werkstattmeister became subordinate to the Formmeister, and later workshops were taught by only one professor. Several students continued on at the Bauhaus as professors or workshop masters, including Gunta Stölzl, Margarete Willers, Otti Berger, Josef Albers, Marcel Breuer, Herbert Bayer, and Joost Schmidt. Every student was required to take the Grundkurs, which was directed by Johannes Itten, assisted by Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky from 1919 to 1923, and later led by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1923-1928), and Josef Albers (1928-1932).
    The watershed event of the Weimar years was the "Bauhaus Week" held in August, 1923. Exhibits were presented, as well as stagings of Oskar Schlemmers' "Triadic Ballet." Gropius' opening address," Art and Technology - an new unity," announced a change in Bauhaus ideology from the fusion of art and craft to art and industry.
    After the move to Dessau, workshops for stained glass and pottery were ended, cabinetmaking and metal were combined into one workshop, and Kandinsky began a "free painting" workshop. The Dessau buildings, designed by Gropius and built 1925-1926, became a manifestation for many of Bauhaus philosophy, teaching and design.
    Gropius' successor Hannes Meyer expanded upon his vision of forming closer alliances between the art and industry. Bauhaus weavers designed carpets which were mass-produced by manufacturers, and Bauhaus artists had their wallpaper designs sold in department stores. These efforts enriched the school and allowed them to accept more underprivileged students. Meyer also established a department of architecture and introduced photography to the curriculum. Painting was not encouraged, and Schlemmer left the Bauhaus in 1929 and Klee departed in 1931. Many of the faculty members and students resisted Meyer's rationalism and Marxism, and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Marcel Breuer and Herbert Bayer resigned in 1928 in protest over his appointment.
    In 1930, a coup against Meyer replaced him with Mies van der Rohe. Mies introduced more discipline to the workshops, and the Bauhaus developed into a fairly conventional school of architecture. The metal/cabinetmaking workshop and wall painting workshop were merged into a singular interior design workshop. Nazi pressure on the school increased after the National Socialists gained control of the Dessau parliament, and the school closed at the end of 1932. Mies van der Rohe attempted to revive the school in 1933, but the incarnation was short-lived. Many Bauhaus professors, including Josef Albers, Marcel Breuer, and Mies van der Rohe, moved to America.

    Administrative Information

    Access

    Open for use by qualified researchers.

    Publication Rights

    Preferred Citation

    Bauhaus student work, 1919-1933, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 850514.
    http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa850514

    Acquisition Information

    The Bauhaus student work collection was assembled from several acquisitions acquired between 1984 and 1990. Items were moved from: Special Collections accession nos. 840009; 840052; 840053; 850024; 850138-850142; 850171; 850926; 860337; 860973A; 870213; 870381; 870383; 870581; 870649; 880104; 880220; 880404; 900010.

    Processing History

    Preliminary processing was completed by April, 1995. Hillary Brown processed, rearranged and described this collection in 1997. She wrote this finding aid in May 1997.

    Separated Material

    Material was moved to the following collections within Special Collections: Schmidt, accn. no. 880383A; Stölzl, accn. no. 880373B; Moholy-Nagy, accn. no. 890013; Schwitters accn. no. 890014; Schreyer, accn. no. 900046; Itten, accn. no. 900047; Meyer, accn. no. 900048; Breuer, accn. no. 900049; Gropius, accn. no. 900058; Hözel, accn. no. 900070; Hubsch, accn. no. 900078; Bauhaus photography, accn. no. 900079.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    A comprehensive assembled collection representing the variety of assignments given to students at the Bauhaus in Weimar (1919-1925), Dessau (1925-1932), and Berlin (1932-1933). The collection includes designs by students, photographs of artworks and activities, and lectures.
    This collection contains a few works by professors as well as notebooks kept by students of their courses. There are very few personal items in this collection.
    Media in the collection include drawings (pencil, pen and ink, watercolor, charcoal, etc.), photographs, glass negatives, printed matter, holograph and typescript manuscripts, blueprints, and textile samples.

    Arrangement note

    The papers are organized in 12 series according to the workshop for which the items were produced: Series I. Preliminary course, 1919-1931, n.d.; Series II. Woodworking, 1921-1922; Series III. Cabinetmaking, 1921-1932, n.d.; Series IV. Metal, 1925-1927, n.d.; Series V. Ceramics, 1922-1923, n.d.; Series VI. Weaving, 1922-1930, n.d.; Series VII. Printing and typography, 1927-1930, n.d.; Series VIII. Theater, 1926-1930, n.d.; Series IX. Drawing, 1922-1930, n.d.; Series X. Painting, n.d.; Series XI. Photography, 1922-1923, n.d.; Series XII. Architecture, 1925-1933, n.d.

    Indexing Terms

    Subjects - Names

    Willers, Margarete
    Schlemmer, Oskar

    Subjects - Corporate Bodies

    Bauhaus

    Subjects - Topics

    Art, German -- 20th century
    Art schools -- Germany
    Architecture-Study and teaching
    Architecture -- Germany -- 20th century
    Art -- Study and teaching
    Color in art
    Drawing, German -- 20th century
    Furniture design
    Pottery, German
    Anatomy, Artistic
    Calligraphy, German

    Genres and Forms of Material

    Glass negatives -- 20th century
    Photographs, Original
    Photographic prints -- 20th century
    Architectural drawings -- 20th century
    Drawings (visual works) -- 20th century

    Contributors

    Mrozek, Erich
    Moholy-Nagy, László
    Preiswerk, Gertrud
    Ortner, Rudolf
    Marx, Gerda
    Loew, Heinz
    Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig
    Meyer, Hannes
    Köster, Arthur
    Körte, Hugo
    Lindig, Otto
    Lang, Lothar
    Kandinsky, Wassily
    Kampt, K. H.
    Klee, Paul
    Kessinger, Friedly
    Weiss, Ursula
    Tolziner, Philipp
    Trinkhaus, Hermann
    Weber, Vincent
    Weiss, Gertrude
    Radach, Stups
    Renger-Patzsch, Albert
    Schmidt, Joost
    Albers, Josef
    Balzer, Gert
    Bill, Max
    Bormann, Heinrich
    Berger, Otti
    Cieluszek, Karl
    Buscher, Alma
    Brendel, Erich
    Bredendieck, Hinrich
    Ehrhardt, Alfred
    Dieckmann, Erich
    Consemüller, Erich
    Comeriner, Erich
    Haupt, Karl Hermann
    Hassenpflug, Gustav
    Hartogh, Rudolf Franz
    Gerson, Lotte
    Kaminski, Walter
    Itten, Johannes
    Hölzel, Adolf
    Hilberseimer, Ludwig
    Bauhaus
    Schlemmer, Oskar