Herbert bayer(April 5, 1900 – September 30, 1985)

widely recognized as the last

living member of the

Bauhaus

graphic designer, painter,

photographer, sculptor,

art director, environmental designer,

interior designerarchitect,

About BauhausBauhaus “house of construction”

a school in Germany, operated from 1919 to 1933,

that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was

famous for the approach to design which was

associated with the radically simplified forms, the

rationality and functionality of design that it

publicized and taught.

founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar and then

moved to Dessau in 1924 where Gropius

designed this iconic building.

Joost Schmidt poster for the 1923 Bauhaus

Exhibition in Weimar, Germany

The first proclamation of the Bauhaus declared: "Archiects,

painters, and sculptors must recognize anew the composite

character of a building as an entity... Art is not a 'profes-

sion.' There is no essential difference between the artist and

the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman... Together

let us conceive and create the new building of the future,

which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting

in one unity and which will rise one day toward heaven from

the hands of a million workers like the crystal symbol of a

new faith."

This initial statement reflected a nostalgia for the guild sys-

tems and collective community spirit that built the great

Gothic cathedrals, as well as the socialist thought then cur-

rent in Germany and throughout much of Europe. Suspicion

of this political attitude caused antagonism toward the

school among the more conservative elements in Weimar, an

antagonism that finally in 1925 drove the Bauhaus to its new

home in Dessau.

Life of Herbert bayerBorn on April 5, 1900 in a village near Salzburg in Northern Austria.1900

1919

1921

1921

1925

1928

1938

1946

1974

1985

Took up an apprenticeship with the architect and designer Georg Schmidthamer in Linz,.Produced his �rst typographic works.

Worked at the Darmstadt artists' colony as assistant to the architect Josef Emmanuel Margold.

Enrolled as a student at the Weimar Bauhaus.Initially attended the pre-course under Johannes Itten.Then attended a workshop on mural painting, lead by Wassily Kandinsky.

Completed training.Appoined head of the newly created workshop for print and advertising at the Dessau Bauhaus.

Moved to Berlin.Worked as a graphic designer in advertising and as an artistic director of an advertising agency called "Studio Dorland". Devoted his time to the design of exhibitions, painting and photography. Became art director of "Vogue" magazine in Paris.

Emigrated to the US.Arranged the exhibition "Bauhaus 1919-1928" at the New York Museum of Modern Art.

Moved to Aspen, Colorado.Worked as a painter, graphic designer, architect and landscape designer. Worked as an artistic consultant for several companies and institutions, including the "Container Corporation of America", the "Atlantic Rich�eld Company". Design consultant for the Aspen cultural center and member of the art board for the information bureau of the United States of America.

In 1974 the artist moved to Montecito, California.

Died.

Works of Herbert bayerAlthough Bayer considered himself primarily a painter, it was only in the early 1960s that he began to exhibit more consistently. Throughout his career he combined geometric and organic abstract forms in an imaginatively sugges-tive way in works.

In his photography his approach was similarly anti-narrative, focusing on the geometric abstract formations to be found in the real world.

In his constant belief in the need to integrate all aspects of artistic creativity into the modern industrial world, Bayer was a true spokesman for the Bauhaus ethos, as well as its last surviving master.

As head of the typography workshop (1923–1928), Bayer developed his own vision of graphic design. Few designs apply the rules of a system in strict allegiance to modern principles of reductive functionalism to the same degree

as Bayer’s design for a universal typeface. Derived from a �xed set of streamlined elements, the face was meant to

serve any and all purposes. The letters reain their ele-gance and consistency throughout.

Universal-Alfabet vs. ITC Bauhaus. Above, P22 Bayer Universal. This 1997 digital font approximates letters drawn by Herbert Bayer at

the Bauhaus, c. 1926. Below, ITC Bauhaus Demi, �rst released in 1975. This is a more stylized typeface, less tightly based on Bayer’s

drawings. Note the gaps in the letters a, b, d, e, g, p, and q. ITC Bau-haus also includes uppercase letters (not pictured).

Universal typeface (1925)

German political and economic vicissitues of the 1920s involved tremendous in�ation. Her-bert Bayer was given the task of designing cur-rency in largedenominations. This design makes useof Bayer’s preferred black and red ink, rule, and sans serif type, overprinted in bold orthogonal arrangements. This, strikingly modern, design withoutportraits and extraneous information leaves only the base of value and identi�cation of the issuing authority. Bayer’s simple design pre-vents the bills from becoming useless in times of major politcal change, with no attatchment to a politcal �gures or parties.

German inflation currency

(1923)

The functionalist aesthetic thatcharacterizes modern design is exempli�ed by the approach developed at the Bauhaus. This poster was designed by Bayer, while teaching at the school, for an exhibition of the modern abstract painter Wassily Kan-dinsky. Kandinsky aspired to a graphic mode that would be analogous to musical composition: rhythm, tone and harmony. The formalist, geometric graphics of the 1910s and 1920s came to be completely identi�ed with their period. Bayer’s design expresses a similar sensibility. All of the ele-ments are geometric, except for the photo-graph which is machine-made. Bayer’s ap-proach shows modernism in a mature phase of development. The bold formalism of rule, type, and blocks sets up an active dialogue with the sheet’s edge at every point that registers an angle.

Poster for Wassily Kandinsky’s exhibition and 60th Birthday

(1926)

Self PortraitBefore a Mirror

or“Humanly impossible”

– 1932

The Lonely Metropolitan

– 1932

In Search of Times Past

-1959

Our Allies Need EggsYour Farm Can Help

-1942