Search results for ""Author László Moholy-Nagy""

Published in 1929, From Material to Architecture contains the main features of László Moholy-Nagy’s teaching program at the Bauhaus. With its focus on the preliminary course and its training of finer sensory perception, this last title of the 14-volume series explains how students “develop towards practice from day to day.” The educational principle behind it, Jedermann ist begabt (everyone is talented), was central to teaching at the Bauhaus.

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Although he was never an official member of the Bauhaus, Albert Gleizes dedicated his influential essay on Cubism to the art school. In 1928, László Moholy-Nagy and Walter Gropius included this essay as volume 13 of the Bauhausbücher series. In addition to his own works, Gleizes shows works by Georges Braque, Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger and Pablo Picasso as reference examples, and places the Bauhaus and its series in an international context that impressively captures the interaction of the numerous art movements of the time.

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Point and Line to Plane can be seen as a continuation of Wassily Kandinsky’s seminal treatise On the Spiritual in Art. Kandinsky’s thesis is that different constellations of point, line and surface have different emotional effects on the viewer. Starting from the point (which represents the most concentrated and minimal graphic form), he understands all painterly forms as being a play of forces and counterforces: of contrasts.

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In what he called his “illustrated guide to modern architecture,” which starts off the Bauhausbücher series, Gropius gives an overview of the international architecture of the mid-1920s. A preface by the author explores, briefly but in detail, the guiding principles that unite the avant-garde in all countries. This statement is followed by an extensive illustrated section showing examples of architecture from around the world. According to Gropius, these illustrations bear witness to the “development of a consistent worldview” that disposes of the prior role of the architect and expresses itself in a new language of shapes.

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Kasimir Malevich’s treatise on Suprematism was included in the Bauhausbücher series in 1927, as was Piet Mondrian’s reflections on Russian Constructivism in 1925 (New Design, Bauhausbücher 5). Like Mondrian, who was never an official member of the Bauhaus, Malevich nevertheless had a close connection to the ideas of the school in terms of content. This volume 11 laid the foundation for the Russian avant-garde artist’s late work: to wrest the mask of life from the true face of art.

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Moholy-Nagy’s efforts to have photography and filmmaking recognized as means of artistic design on the same level as painting are propounded and explained at length. The use of artistic instruments is thus radically reformed. The Hungarian artist makes the case for a functional transformation within the visual arts and for the further development of photographic design options. Alongside theoretical and technical approaches as well as detailed forays into the broad field of the medium of photography, Moholy-Nagy uses an extensive appendix of illustrations to provide a thorough survey of the numerous possibilities that photographic and cinematic work had in store as early as 1925. This English edition appears in original design and with separate commentary.

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Adolf Meyer was Walter Gropius’s right-hand man, his planner and close confidant. As early as 1910, they jointly created the Fagus Factory, one of the most important modernist buildings. The experimental single-family home “Haus am Horn” was built for the first Bauhaus exhibition, in the summer of 1923 in Weimar. The house was planned by Georg Muche (design) and the architectural department at the Bauhaus. Adolf Meyer and Walter March were responsible for construction management. The book about the project was compiled in the summer of 1924 and became the third volume of the Bauhausbücher. Following an essay by Walter Gropius that supplies information on the “Housing Industry,” Georg Muche presents the design of the model building. Adolf Meyer then describes its technical execution, giving details on the companies involved.

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Dutch architect and designer J. J. P. Oud participated in the Bauhaus Week and the International Architecture Exhibition. His writing, beginning with a personal confession, is a summary of theoretical and practical findings in the field of architecture, specifically using the example of Dutch architecture. He thus looks to the future and reflects on the potential of architecture without forgetting to reveal his relationship with the past.

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Theo van Doesburg was a jack of all trades: painter, writer, architect, typographer, and art theorist. In this volume of the Bauhausbücher, he attempts to make elementary concepts in the visual arts generally comprehensible. He was addressing the “modern artist” of his day, who had to deal with both shifting social paradigms and a changing understanding of art and art theory. Van Doesburg describes theory as a necessary consequence of creative practice. Artists, he says, “do not write about art but from within art.”

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The fourth volume presents the main characteristics of the Bauhaus concept of the stage. It was essentially shaped by Oskar Schlemmer, who had taken over the stage department in 1923. László Moholy-Nagy took an interest in abstract kinetic and luminary phenomena which he examines in his essay “Theatre, Circus, Variété.” Farkas Molnár focused for his part on stage architecture, which he discusses in detail in this volume.

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The Bauhaus sought to unite life, craftsmanship, and art under one roof. In this volume, Walter Gropius provides a comprehensive overview of the Bauhaus workshops. He explains the basic principles guiding the teaching, describes contemporary developments in architecture, and illuminates the Bauhaus point of view on household utensils, which was geared toward finding the most suitable form for the respective object. Here, Gropius presents the Bauhaus workshops in Weimar devoted to furniture, metals, textiles, and ceramics, among other subjects.

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