BAUHAUS MASTERWORKS: New World View

The Bauhaus manifesto, written by the movement's founder Walter Gropius in 1919, announced that "the ultimate aim of all visual arts is the complete building". Kandinsky, Klee, Franz Marc and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy taught at the Bauhaus school. The author suggests that this ideal goes back to William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, and the slogan "beautiful, well-made and useful" echoes Morris, but Gropius insisted on keeping his institution apolitical, even though all his negotiating skills were necessary to ensure the continuation of the Bauhaus until it was dissolved by the Nazis in 1933. The unification of architecture with sculpture, painting and handicrafts brought with it a new aesthetic, while training in practical skills such as book-keeping emphasized the importance of a sound business footing. Apart from its influence on applied arts, the Bauhaus legacy also included educational innovation, for instance the foundation year as a preliminary to art school. This solid and gorgeously illustrated book is a lavish tribute to the work of the Bauhaus masters. Among the impressive illustrations, the posters and advertising material for the group, for instance Schmidt's exhibition poster of 1923, are superb examples of the geometric purity that reached its zenith in the work of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy's work on fonts and letterheads using only a limited palette. Oskar Schlemmer's "Costumes for the Triadic Ballet" is an enigmatic study using his signature monumental columnar figures. Kandinsky said "The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul", and the warmth and depth of his canvases, for instance the glowing geometric diversity of "In Blue" or the fizzing dynamism of "Round and Pointed", ushered in a more spiritual phase for the school. Paul Klee, who taught colour theory, combined Kandinsky's vibrant palette with a calm approach to abstract composition, for instance the subtle greens of "The Harbinger of Autumn". His enigmatic head "Senecio", abstract but with curiously expressive eyes, is one of the great iconic works from the Bauhaus period. 192pp, high quality production values, lavishly illustrated in colour.