Monday, September 23, 2019

What was the artistic ideology of the Bauhaus Assignment

What was the artistic ideology of the Bauhaus - Assignment Example According to the Bauhaus, art was supposed to bring creativity and modernity in modern architecture (Forgacs 197). This came in time when art and creativity in Germany has been overly suppressed by the previous leadership regime claiming that art in modern architecture was a form of communism. Bauhau’s idea was that art should be helpful to the society in all aspects including architecture. The ideology was that architecture could be approached from an artistic direction such that the resultant architectural designs would represent modernity and most importantly, be a tool of making more meaningful and useful buildings. However, the politics of constructivism, modernism were, evidently, behind Bauhaus conceptions of art and architecture. Bauhaus strongly argued that Bauhaus was apolitical in nature. However, the ideology came at a time when German was undergoing constructivism and modernism. These two functions were politically driven since the ideologies of German leadership at the time determined the future of Germany through supporting or suppressing such ideologies. Therefore, the desire of Bauhaus to shape the future of German architecture through art was based on politics of constructivism and modernism. Sadly, Bauhaus had to close down its Berlin institute in April 1933 following pressure from Nazi regime. Actually, the pressure for demobilization of Bauhaus began before even the Nazi regime came to power. They accused Bauhaus of â€Å"Un-German† approach to architecture and made claims of negative influence from the western nations. How did the World War One and its aftermath (inflation, rise of political extremism, etc) influence the artistic production of artists such as Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, George Grosz and Laszio Moholy-Nagy? Interestingly, most of the German artists who were active after World War One were influenced by the war to express their ideas through art. For instance, Otto Dix was actively involved in World War One and was greatly affected by the war. Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, George Grosz and Laszio Moholy-Nagy had one thing in common in that they all had ideologies that contradicted the ideologies of the Nazi regime. Therefore, their art of expressionism faced political extremism to the extent that some of them had to either quit their art or change it to a more favorable art depending on the political climate. For instance, Dix was branded a degenerate artist as was barred from producing art of expressionism against the ruling regime. These artists had to reduce their level of criticism of the Nazi ideologies. Dix's work including â€Å"The Trench  and  War cripples† were destroyed by the Nazi regime. Likewise, over 500 artwork pieces belonging to Max Beckmann were impounded during Hitler’s regime through claims of degenerate art. Laszio Moholy-Nagy felt the pinch of political extremism when Bauhaus was overly criticized and suppressed. Whereas inflation affected virtually everybod y in Germany, artistic productions were also affected. The most affected artists were George Grosz, Laszio Moholy-Nagy and other artists who were part of Bauhaus. Whereas modern and artistic architecture required heavy capital investment, funds became unavailable during the aftermath of World War One. Cost of production of artwork became high and therefore, the artists found it difficult to keep producing large volume of artwork during the inflation period. What is â€Å"Dada† and how did it both influence and reflect the Berlin of the 1920’s? Dada refers to an artistic and literary transformation that began during World War One. At the time, Switzerland being a neutral country acted as a safe haven for artists, intellectuals, and writers.

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