While architecture was not taught at the school for the first half of its existence, even today we speak of “Bauhaus architecture” and feel confident that we know precisely what that means — even though, often, what we call “Bauhaus” has no connection to the school at all. — The New York Times
100 years after the inauguration of the famed Bauhaus school, we must still be reminded of some of its most essential principles. Namely, Barry Bergdoll admonishes, the Bauhaus was never a 'style' - it was a school of thought that advocated for the abolition of distinctions between the various fields of art, as well as that between "the fine and the useful."
As Bergdoll argues, the term 'Bauhaus' "has become a catchall synonym for modernism in architecture and design. The details of the school’s history — the huge diversity of forms, ideologies, opinion and experiments, not to mention the influence of its three directors — are more the concerns of academic historians than of those who continue to burnish the legend and exploit the selling power of the name 'Bauhaus.' No less does it remain a term of derision for neo-traditionalists, who see the modernist Bauhaus as the great destroyer of values enshrined in classical pilasters."
Because a school of thought is more pliable than a style, the name 'bauhaus' may never be properly associated with its original intentions. However, it is the essential principles associated with the school that are worth saving, however we may name them.
4 Comments
What is a "neo-traditionalist"? Why can't I just be a "traditionalist"?
:)
Maybe you could be a post-neo-tradtionalist.
I absolutely agree with the premise. Modernism is not a style. Classicism is not a style. They are aesthetic philosophies. They are worldviews, lenses through which we see and understand aspects of the world.
The problem with Bauhaus modernism is that it quickly became a style, thoughtlessly applied, and abandoned its fundamental principles.
Because of the crappy design (Meier, etc.), "modernism" was seen as a failure and this caused a psuedo-neoclassical backlash (Stern, etc.) and helped allow post-modernism (Gehry, etc.) to flourish.
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