An exhibition in Bonn explores what makes the legendary Bauhaus school of design so timeless. These architects and artists came up with a revolutionary idea that is now taken for granted: Everything is design.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O.Berg
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Bauhaus designs revisited
At the beginning of the 20th century, revolutionary designers gathered around Walter Gropius and established the Bauhaus movement. An exhibition in Bonn explores what makes the iconic style so timeless.
The term "designer" wasn't in use when these architects, painters, musicians and stage artists met in Weimar to create what would become Bauhaus. At the beginning of the 20th century, Germans called design "Alltagskunst" - everyday art. Bauhaus artists experimented with new production methods. This 1935 photo documents the "Fitting of a compressed adapter sleeve in two tube elements."
Image: Collection Alexander von Vegesack, Domaine de Boisbuchet, France
Iconic, but not very functional
Wilhelm Wagenfeld was only 24 when he designed this lamp in 1924. It is one of the first objects to integrate the strict functionalist principles of Bauhaus. Ironically, the model was not adapted to the heat of the light bulb, causing the glass lamp shade to break. Since 1980, the company Tecnolumen has been producing the only authorized version of this Bauhaus classic.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O.Berg
The revolutionary chess set
This chess set designed by Josef Hartwig in 1923 is another icon of the Bauhaus style. He replaced the traditional monarchic and religious figures of the game with minimalist, abstract forms, inspired by the pieces' different board moves. The packaging was just as carefully designed by Joost Schmidt.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O.Berg
From handicraft to industrial product
At the beginning, Bauhaus furniture designs were hand-made pieces. Marcel Breuer's slatted chair, created in 1922, was the first one to be produced with standardized components and to go into serial production. Marcel Breuer was also the one who designed the steel tubular furniture featured in this picture.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O.Berg
Well-designed objects as a fundamental right
Bauhaus designers aimed to revolutionize people's everyday lives. They worked with clear lines in opposition to the musty style of the Biedermeier period. Industrialization also allowed the serial production of objects with flexible components, creating new standards for the general population.
Image: AYRBRB
A new photo based on an old one
Photographer Adrian Sauer, in collaboration with Wilfried Kuehn, reconstructed the interior of the Bauhaus Direktorenhaus, inspired by a historical photo from 1926. Color photography did not exist at the time, so they had to research the colors that would have been typically used to recreate this office and produce their own photos.
Image: VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2016
Bauhaus for everybody
All you need is 25,000 Lego blocks to build this Bauhaus sideboard. Originally designed by the Dutch furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld in the 1920s, the contemporary designers Kuniko Maeda and Mario Minale created a limited five-piece edition reproducing it with the famous building blocks.
Image: Vitra Design Museum, Jürgen Hans
Inspiration Bauhaus
The exhibition "The Bauhaus - It's All Design," held at the Art and Exhibition Hall in Bonn until August 14, illustrates the influence of Bauhaus on the following generations of designers. "Pipe table and chair" (2009), by the German-Serbian star designer Konstantin Grcic, combines the concepts of the time with today's aesthetics. The design is clear, functional - and hopefully comfortable.
The exhibition "The Bauhaus. It's all design," held at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn, explores how the cultural institution founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1919 still influences artists and designers nearly a century later.
The students of the Bauhaus school learned how to combine art and technology with concepts of psychology and ergonomics to create objects of daily use that aimed to transform society. This multi-dimensional approach was revolutionary at the time, demonstrating that design is part of all areas of life. The Twitter hashtag associated with the exhibition, #allesistdesign (everything is design) underlines this idea.
The works of modernist designers such as Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feininger, Walter Gropius and Wassily Kandinsky meet those of contemporary creators such as Olaf Nicolai, Adrian Sauer, Enzo Mari, Lord Norman Foster, Opendesk, Konstantin Grcic, Hella Jongerius, Alberto Meda and Jerszy Seymour.
The exhibition explores the social and historical context that allowed this movement to emerge. Beyond the classic Bauhaus icons, many other objects on show demonstrate how art, craft, technology, and industry were combined in new ways.
"The Bauhaus. It's all design" also examines how the school influenced spatial organization and typography. It contributed to creating its own myth by developing strong forms of communication. Beyond well-known minimalistic and geometric Bauhaus objects, these creators were interested in developing social interconnections, a concept which is at the heart of current discussions in design.
