prehaus, haus, and post-hausshifting models in foundation art teaching

dan collins

ara 598asu | artcore september 6 2013

bauhaus historyThe Bauhaus was born in 1919 after Walter Gropius was invited to combine the schools of art and craft in Weimar, Germany.

Ordinary craftsmen as well as famous artists such as Paul Klee and Vassily Kandinsky were hired to teach.

Gropius felt that an understanding of materials, which was taught in workshops that included metalwork, carpentry, interior design, construction, and furniture making, must be mastered before architecture. His goal was to create: 

A clear, organic architecture, whose inner logic will be radiantand naked, unencumbered by lying facades and trickeries; we want an architecture adapted to our world of machines, radios and fast motor cars, and architecture whose function is clearly recognizable in the relation of its forms (Stokstad 1981).

PREHAUS, HAUS, AND POSTHAUS

Bauhaus Walter Gropius1926Dessau, Germany

bauhaus history: not monolithic

Three different geographic locations with different curricular emphases:

• Weimer (1919 - 1925) • Dessau (1925 – 1932) • Berlin (1932 – 1933)

Three different architect-directors:

• Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928, • Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930 and• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 until 1933

Weimar (1919-1925) Dessau (1925 – 1932) Berlin (1932 – 1933)

Bauhaus History: Weimar (1919 – 1925)

The school had its roots in an arts and crafts school founded in 1906 and directed by Belgian Art Nouveau architect Henry van de Velde, a Belgian..

Bauhaus History: Berlin (1932 – 1933)

In late 1932, Mies rented a derelict factory in Berlin to use as the new Bauhaus with his own money. The students and faculty rehabilitated the building, painting the interior white. The school operated for ten months without further interference from the Nazi Party. In 1933, the Gestapo closed down the Berlin school. Mies protested the decision, eventually speaking to the head of the Gestapo, who agreed to allow the school to re-open. However, shortly after receiving a letter permitting the opening of the Bauhaus, Mies and the other faculty agreed to voluntarily shut down the school

PREHAUS, HAUS, AND POSTHAUS

Bauhaus Walter Gropius1926Dessau, Germany

Bauhaus History: Dessau (1925 – 1932)

Bauhaus Vorkurs history: not monolithic.Three different geographic locations with different “foundations coordinators”:

• Weimer (1919 – 1925) Johannes Itten wrote the original Vorkurs emphasizing material discovery and personal expression.

• Dessau (1925 – 1928) Lazlo Moholy Nagy rewrote the Vorkurs to emphasize integration of art, technology, and industry. Albers assisted.

• Dessau (1928 – 1933) Josef Albers directed the Vorkurs.

• Berlin (1932 – 1933). Albers was assistant director in Berlin under Mies.

Johannes Itten at Weimar (1919-1925)

Lazlo Moholy Nagy Dessau (1925 – 1928)

Josef A;lbersDessau (1920 – 1931)Berlin (1932 – 1933)

Bauhaus Curriculum

Abenakt = evening act gruppe werk = group work ; werkstatt =

From 1919 to 1922 the school was shaped by the pedagogical and aesthetic ideas of Johannes Itten, who taught the Vorkurs or 'preliminary course' that was the introduction to the ideas of the Bauhaus.

[Itten was heavily influenced in his teaching by the ideas of Montessori, Pestolezzi, Franz Cižek and Friedrich Fröbel.

Bauhaus Vorkurs History: Johannes Itten 1919-1922

Note “spiritual” clothing

Itten was trained in teaching elementary students using Froebel’s methods—including the famous Froebel “gifts” (sets of blocks and other manipulables which also had a great impact on Frank Lloyd Wright’s and Buckminster Fuller’s development)

Bauhaus Vorkurs History: Johannes Itten 1919-1922

Friedrich Froebel (1782 – 1852) was the inventor of the modern Kindergarten and Froebel “Gifts” including his famous Froebel Blocks.

In 1923, Moholy-Nagy replaced Johannes Itten as the instructor of the foundation course at the Bauhaus.

This effectively marked the end of the school’s expressionistic leanings and moved it closer towards its original aims as a school of design and industrial integration.

He coined the term “the New Vision” for his belief that photography could create a whole new way of seeing the outside world that the human eye could not.

While studying at the Bauhaus, Moholy’s teaching in diverse media — including painting, sculpture, photography, photomontage and metal — had a profound influence on a number of his students..

Bauhaus Vorkurs History: László Moholy-Nagy 1923 - 1928

Note “worker” clothing

Before enrolling as a student at the Bauhaus in 1920, Josef had been a school teacher in his hometown of Bottrop, in the northwestern industrial Ruhr region of Germany

Once he was at the Bauhaus, he worked primarily in stained and sandblasted glass, first making glass assemblages from detritus he found at the Weimar town dump, then sandblasting glass constructions and designing large stained-glass windows for houses and buildings. He also designed furniture, household objects, and a typeface, and developed a keen eye as a photographer.

In 1925 he was the first Bauhaus student to be asked to join the faculty and become a "master" there. By 1933, when pressure from the Nazis forced the school to close, Josef Albers had become one of its best-known artists and teachers.

Bauhaus Vorkurs History: Josef Albers 1928 - 1933

Note “spats”

“Modernist” Foundations (20th c.)

1. Top down teaching model (“sage on the stage”)

2. Design solutions free of context

3. Passive acceptance of ideas

4. Static elements and principles

5. Drive towards simplicity, clarity of design

6. Western focus exclusively

7. Discipline centric

8. Subjective response sufficient

9. Unexamined “universal” meanings accepted without careful weighing of evidence

10. Single discipline

11. Skill based

12. One size fits all

13. Resolved, independent, fixed “codes”

14. One schedule fits all

15. Personal expression (only)

16. Individual intelligence

17. Uni-modal with single pathway for navigation

18. Emphasis on “singular point of view”

19. Single “right” answer

20. Analog. Continuous. Unique.

21. Broadcast. Professionally produced. TV.

“postHaus” Foundations (21st. C.)

1. Bottom up “participatory” ( “guide on the side”).

2. Context driven

3. Active questioning

4. Dynamic elements and principles

5. Formal and conceptual complexity.

6. Range of historical and cultural sources

7. Student and/or community centric

8. Subjective response + objective analysis

9. Scrutinized “local” meanings and judgments from weighing multiple pieces of evidence

10. Interdisciplinary in scope

11. Idea based

12. Custom tailored

13. Open-ended, dependent, open-source

14. Thin slicing of schedule for best fit (Kallish)

15. Empathy with other points of view

16. Collective intelligence - Socially engaged

17. Multi-modal with the ability to follow the flow

18. Emphasis on “negotiation” and “relationships”

19. Multiple contingent possibilities

20. Digital. Discrete. Commensurable.

21. Broadband. Co-created content. Wikis.

How many of us are ONLY echoing the “Elements and Principles” of Arthur Wesley Dow or Johannes Itten’s “theory of contrasts” and not the integrated curriculum and responsibility to the broader social context that the original Bauhaus espoused?

While many Bauhaus ideas were integrated into American popular culture, the reception of these ideas reduced “a complex and multifaceted phenomenon to a simple formula,” most often made visible in architecture. Bauhaus ideas in America mainly become associated with a well-known stylistic “look,” while the context, writing, and teaching of the master educators of the Vorkurs were largely buried by time.

--Fern Lerner, Foundations for Design Education: Continuing the Bauhaus Vorkurs Vision, Studies in Art Education, Spring 2005.

The irony of our “Bauhaus Foundations” is…

What’s Your Teaching Philosophy?

John Dewey,

X

X

X

Lucy Lippard

Elliot Eisner

What’s Your Teaching Philosophy?

X

X

X

Student Centered (Personal Growth / Self-Actualization)

Friedrich Froebel – Developed the modern Kindergarten and “Froebel Blocks.”Maria Montessori - independence, freedom within limits, respect for child’s natureJohannes Itten – Developed the first Vorkurs at the Bauhaus (1919 – 1922)John Dewey – Child-centered learningJean Piaget – Stages of human development

Discipline Centered (Art for Art’s Sake)

Clement Greenberg – Modernist art criticLazlo Moholy Nagy – Led the Vorkurs from 1923 – 1928 at the BauhausMies Van Der Rohe – Director of the short-lived Berlin Bauhaus (1932 – 33)Josef Albers – Led the Vorkus from 1928 - 1933

Society Centered (Socially Engaged Art – SEA)

Walter Gropius, Founding Director, Bauhaus (?)Lucy Lippard – Environmental/Social Activist and Art CriticJudy Baca – Muralist in So Cal. represented darker side of racial inequitiesTim Rollins – Kids of SurvivalPablo Helguera (Handbook: Education for Socially Engaged Art)

Art Educator, June King McFee wrote in 1978 of “the arts as reflectors and modifiers of a social change.” The kind of “multivariant problem-solving” she advocated would include: “the visual as well as the conceptual, the affective as well as the intellectual, the social as well as the physical, and the aesthetic as well as the economic. Monumental changes are needed in education to prepare students to think multivariantly in these dimensions…

McFee, J.K. (1978). Art abilities in environmental reform. Art Education, 31(4), 9 – 12.

Foundations for a 21st c. Curriculum

A 21st century curriculum needs to be responsive to the dynamic and emergent conditions and requirements of its culture. The objective elements (line, shape, texture, value, etc) and principles (unity, emphasis, balance, rhythm, scale/proportion, etc.), while relevant to studio practice, provide little foundation in those skills and strategies (“markers for success”) that are essential in our shared and increasingly interconnected world. Rather than providing recipes that effectively echo “modernist” standards and assumptions, a 21st century curriculum should provide the critical and empathetic skills key to operating successfully in any media, circumstance, modality, or cultural context.

Foundations for a 21st c. Curriculum

Dan Collins, MFA, PhDartCORE CoordinatorSchool of ArtArizona State UniversityTempe, AZ 85287-2505

dan.collins@asu.edu