Importance of the Bauhaus

In the Germany of beginning century, an artistic school arose that has definitely been one of the most important and recognized of the century both in its construction of new paradigms as well as for its political contribution and its link with the context in which it was born.

Explanation of the name and emergence of a new artistic school

Understanding the reason for the name 'Bauhaus' will allow us to take better advantage of its richness and the beauty that this school brought to universal art. This term comes from German since the artists and creatives who founded this new artistic form came from that country. In German, 'Bauhaus' is made up of two words: 'Bau' which means construction while 'Haus' means house. Thus, the Bauhaus was the school that sought to re-found the concept or idea of ​​building spaces from both the architectural (discipline that arose later to others) as internally and decoratively.

The date of birth of this new artistic conception occurred in postwar Germany, the one that became known like the Weimar Republic where the concepts of state intervention and the diffusion of socialist ideas abounded. In this sense, the founder of the school, Walter Gropius, was an architect with ideas of this type who sought simplify the design and socialize it, thus escaping the luxuries and aesthetic recharges of the previous period, also known as

Bauhaus design: simplicity and pragmatism

Among the most distinctive elements of the Bauhaus we must mention simplicity and pragmatism as central forms of its ideology. Thus, the architectural constructions of this group were based on straight lines, geometric shapes, stripped of all the luxury and exuberance typical of other styles. This same thing became visible both in the architecture and in the graphic design, painting, interior decoration, furnishing, etc. As it happened with other artistic styles, the Bauhaus gave prominence to certain artistic branches that were understood as crafts and that were usually left aside by academicism.

The social context behind the Bauhaus

As indicated with the ideals of Gropius, founder of the school, who were part or indirectly participated in the construction of the Elements of the Bauhaus jointly maintained an interest in breaking with the social impositions of classes and tending towards a union that was based on the equity. These socialist values ​​were also present in their ideals that made them fight against the difference between artists and artisans, since for them the value and importance of the work of some was equal to that of the others. others. After its period of splendor (between 1919 and 1930), the Bauhaus would be closed when Nazism came to power.

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