bauhaus

art as life

learning resource
Front cover: contents
Edmund Collein, Extension to the Prellerhaus.
From 9 Jahre Bauhaus: Eine Chronik (9 years
Bauhaus: a Chronicle), a set of works made at a glance  3
for Walter Gropius on his departure from the exhibition map 3
the school, 1928. Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.
Photograph: Markus Hawlik © Ursula key words  5
Kirsten-Collein key people 7

introduction to the exhibition 9

introduction to the learning resource  10
a creative revolution 12
why the bauhaus still matters 13

imagining utopia  15
1. Activity: Make Your Manifesto
2. Activity: Reflecting on Utopia
3. Activity: Reorganising Reality

the school that changed everything 17

4. Activity: Shadow Maps
5. Activity: The Invisible Tool
6. Activity: Picturing the Utopia an Object
was Designed For
7. Activity: Make a Celebration
8. Activity: Make a Gift

unlearning 21

experiment and play 23 Farkas Molnár, Design for a single-family house, 1922
9. Activity: Make a Sculpture of Contrasts Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin
Photograph: Markus Hawlik

going back to basics 25

a. citizens of the universe  25

10. Activity: What Voice Do Letters Speak In?
11. Activity: The Bare Necessities of Type
12. Activity: Making Masks

b. speaking without words  29

13. Activity: Take the Colour-Shape Test
14. Activity: Hearing Pictures and Seeing Sound
15. Activity: Take a Line for a Walk
16. Activity: A World in a Painting
17. Activity: The Writing on the Wall
18. Activity: Words Without Meaning
19. Activity: Colour Light Play

c. form = function  35
20. Activity: Remaking the Game

curriculum links 37
places to visit  38

1 2
at a glance upper level lower level

3 17 18 9
13

1 2 16 15 6 7 12 5

10 11 14 7 8

20 19

the exhibition map

1. Activity: Make Your Manifesto 6. Activity: Picturing the Utopia 10. Activity: What Voice do 14. Activity: Hearing Pictures 18. Activity: Words Without The activities can be done
an Object was Designed For Letters Speak in? and Seeing Sound Meaning at home, work, school or
2. Activity: Reflecting on Utopia college, before or after your
7. Activity: Make a Celebration 11. Activity: The Bare Necessities 15. Activity: Take a Line for 19. Activity: Colour Light Play visit to Bauhaus: Art as Life.
3. Activity: Reorganising Reality of Type a Walk
8. Activity: Make a Gift 20. Activity: Remaking Many of the activities refer
4. Activity: Shadow Maps 12. Activity: Making Masks 16. Activity: A World in the Game to works in the exhibition,
9. Activity: Make a Sculpture of a Painting although please do not carry
5. Activity: The Invisible Tool Contrasts 13. Activity: Take the Colour- out practical work in the
 Shape Test 17. Activity: The Writing gallery itself.
on the Wall

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key words Gesamkunstwerk – ‘total work of art’
in which all art forms are integrated.
Avant-garde – meaning at the vanguard
of culture, avant garde refers to the pioneering Pedagogy – the philosophy, strategies and
artistic movements of early twentieth-century methods of a particular style of teaching.
modernism. The most influential avant-garde
movements for the Bauhaus were Expressionism, Preliminary course – every student, regardless
Constructivism and Dada. of existing skill or training, needed to pass through
this course in creative experiment before going
Bauhaus – the name of the school, but also its on to a specialist workshop to train in making
creative and educational philosophy, methods artworks and products. The preliminary course is
and styles. The Bauhaus was founded in the city also referred to as the basic or foundation course.
of Weimar in Germany in 1919. It moved to
the city of Dessau in 1925 and then to Berlin in Unlearning – the Bauhaus pedagogical style
1932, where it was closed down by the National that aimed to replace received knowledge with
Socialists in 1933. knowledge gained from experiment and
personal experience.
Bauhauslers – staff and student members of
the Bauhaus. This term may include the families Workshop – each student who had passed
of the staff who also lived at the Bauhaus. The through the preliminary course then joined a
programme of public events for this exhibition specialist workshop to train for three more years.
includes talks by those who lived at the Bauhaus Each workshop was taught by a leading avant-
as children. garde artist in collaboration with a technical or
craft specialist. The workshops included weaving,
Friends of the Bauhaus – The Bauhaus wood, metal and ceramics.
pioneered a new model of a modern democratic
university based on collaboration between
disciplines. It drew important supporters who lent
their name to its cause by officially becoming
Friends of the Bauhaus. Albert Einstein was
among them.

All Bauhaus students were required to work through the segments of the
curriculum wheel, passing from the basic (preliminary) course to the vital
core at its centre – contributing to the total building.

Walter Gropius, Diagram of the Bauhaus curriculum, 1922

Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin © DACS 2012

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key people As creative autonomy was important at the Lyonel Feininger László Moholy-Nagy
Bauhaus, there were as many education methods (1871 – 1956 New York, USA) (1895 Bácsborsód, Hungary – 1946 Chicago, USA)
bauhaus directors as there were masters. In the first years of the (Bauhaus years 1919 – 1933) (Bauhaus years 1923 – 1928)
Bauhaus, rather than refer to teachers and pupils,
Walter Gropius the terms apprentices, journeymen and masters/ An established artist in Weimar, Feininger’s Moholy-Nagy directed the preliminary course and
(1883 Berlin, Germany – 1969 master craftsmen were used, with exams at each woodcut image of a cathedral is the main metal workshop for five years from 1923, while
Massachusetts, USA) stage of progression. As a result, a number of illustration of Gropius’ founding manifesto for the his own work focused on experimental film and
outstanding journeymen became masters. Bauhaus in 1919. One of the schools first masters, typography. He published a series of Bauhaus
‘The ultimate goal of all art is the building! he directed the printmaking workshop until 1925 books to promote their ideas, which included
The ornamentation of the building was Josef Albers and his children were also students at the school. salient publications by both Klee and Kandinsky.
once the main purpose of the visual arts, (1888 Bottrop, Germany – 1976 Connecticut, USA)
and they were considered indispensable (Bauhaus years 1920 – 1933) Johannes Itten Gunta Stölzl
parts of the great building…’ (1888 Süderen-Linden – 1967 Zürich, Switzerland) (1897 München, Germany – 1983 Zürich,
A furniture designer and educator, Albers (Bauhaus years 1919 – 1923) Switzerland)
The founding Director of the Bauhaus whose was initially a student of Itten’s basic course (Bauhaus years 1919 – 1931)
manifesto of 1919 set the vision and curriculum in Weimar, before teaching the preliminary As one of the first Bauhaus masters Itten made
for the school. His influences remained course in Dessau from 1923. He soon became a significant contribution to the Bauhaus. He Stölzl began as an apprentice on the preliminary
throughout the duration of the school. master of the glass workshop, which he devised and taught the preliminary course, as course, glass and wall painting workshops. As
taught until the Bauhaus closed in 1933. well as directing a majority of the workshops. a skilled weaver, she was appointed master
Hannes Meyer He is said to have had a monk-like presence of form for the Bauhaus weaving workshop
(1889 Basel – 1954 Lugano, Switzerland) Herbert Bayer because of his religious conviction. in 1925, and directed the workshop from 1926-
(1900 Haag, Austria – 1985 Santa Barbara, USA) 31 – the only female master at the Bauhaus.
‘The people’s needs instead of the need for luxury!’ (Bauhaus years 1921/2 – 1928) Wassily Kandinsky Her graphic textiles designs remain influential
(1866 Moscow, Russia – 1944 Paris, France) and still look contemporary to this day.
Gropius appointed Meyer as Director of A Bauhaus apprentice for four years, Bayer (Bauhaus years 1922 – 1933)
the Bauhaus, Dessau in 1928, where his was appointed director of the printing and Oskar Schlemmer
communist-leaning leadership was effective advertising workshop in 1925. He designed Kandinsky was a master of painting at the (1888 Stuttgart – 1943 Baden-Baden)
and productive although he was removed the famous ‘universal typeface’ of simple Bauhaus for most of it’s existence, teaching (Bauhaus years 1921 – 1929)
from office in 1930 for political reasons. looking letters that is so familiar to us now. workshops on wall painting then free painting.
From 1922 to 32 he taught the abstract Schlemmer is perhaps best known for his Bauhaus
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Marianne Brandt form and analytical drawing component of stage work including extraordinary costumes
(1886 Aachen, Germany – 1969 Chicago, USA) (1893 Chemnitz – 1983 Kirchberg, Germany) the preliminary course and his well-known and avant-garde performances. He was one
(Bauhaus years 1924 – 1929) paintings remain influential today. of the first Bauhaus masters, initially leading the
Appointed to replace Meyer in 1930, Mies wall painting, stone sculpture and life drawing
educational style was traditional architectual A product designer, Brandt studied in Moholy- Paul Klee classes. He contributed much to the important
training rather than the forms of learning that had Nagy’s metal workshop and became an expert (1879 Münchenbuchsee – 1940 Muralto, Bauhaus exhibition of 1923 and his ethos was
prospered at the Bauhaus. Despite his careful in technical artistry from lighting experiments Switzerland) centered on the theme of ‘the human being’.
political postioning and moving the school to to functional tea sets. She designed the lighting (Bauhaus years 1920 – 1931)
Berlin, he was unable to save the Bauhaus from fixtures at the Bauhaus School in Dessau and led
closure in 1933. the metal workshop in 1928. Klee was director of a number of the workshops
over the years, including book binding, free
Marcel Breuer sculpture and artistic design, design theory
(1902 Pécs, Hungary – 1981 New York, USA) for weaving and elemental design theory in
(Bauhaus years 1920/1 – 1928) the preliminary course from 1921 to 30. His
playful approach to creative work is evident
Breuer was a student of Gropius’ carpentry both in his celebrated painting career as well
programme until 1924, when he came to lead as the hand puppets made for his son, Felix.
the workshop until 1928. His tubular steel ‘club
chair’ (1925) remains an icon of Bauhaus design
as it was the first chair of its kind for domestic use.

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an introduction to the exhibition an introduction to the learning resource
Bauhaus: Art as Life explores the world’s most famous modern art The Bauhaus school encouraged its students to be independent in
and design school. It is the biggest Bauhaus survey staged in the UK thought and spirit, and to enrich their whole life through creative
in over 40 years. From its avant-garde arts and crafts beginnings, experiment. Inspired by them, the ideas here are designed to help
the Bauhaus shifted towards a more radical model of learning you make your own way through Bauhaus: Art as Life, and devise a
uniting art and technology. A driving force in the development of self-led tour for yourself, friends or students.
Modernism, it sought to change society in the aftermath of World
War I, to find a new way of living. This major Barbican Art Gallery The exhibition is set out loosely in order of historical events, and
exhibition presents the pioneering artistic production that makes up grouped by connected ideas and themes. This resource focuses
the school’s turbulent fourteen-year history from 1919 to 1933 and on creative learning ideas, most of which you can explore through
delves into the subjects at the heart of the Bauhaus – art, design, multiple examples. For that reason the order of this resource doesn’t
people, society and culture. directly follow the order you’ll encounter artworks in the gallery.
For a map of the exhibition that shows the location of the artworks
Bringing together more than 400 works, the exhibition features a discussed here, see ‘At a Glance’ on page 3.
rich array of painting, sculpture, architecture, film, photography,
furniture, graphics, product design, textiles, ceramics and theatre This learning resource sets out key Bauhaus ideas: reorganising
by Bauhaus masters including Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, reality, unlearning, stripping back to basic principles and
Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feininger, Walter Gropius, Wassily celebrating life. The school’s approach centred on unlocking the
Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Mies van creative potential of individuals so that they could work at their
der Rohe, László Moholy-Nagy, Oskar Schlemmer, Joost best on collaborative projects. Their ideas changed our world. The
Schmidt, Gunta Stölzl as well as students such as Anni Albers, discussion and activities that follow are designed to help us explore
Marianne Brandt, T. Lux Feininger, Kurt Kranz, Xanti whether Bauhaus ideas still have value and power for us.
Schawinsky and Alma Buscher.
Emma Ridgway, Creative Learning curator, and Cathy Haynes,
Bauhaus: Art as Life is a Barbican Art Gallery exhibition produced independent curator and educator (writers)
in co-operation with Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin/Museum für Gestaltung,
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

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 a creative revolution In Europe at that time, high art was considered
separate from everyday life, and largely reserved
Can you imagine a different way of life in the for the rich. Industry and capitalism were taking
future? How do you want things to go? What do over from craftsmanship and manual skill.
you want to make happen? Gropius believed that to change things, creative
workers needed to learn in a new way. He was
We live in a time of great transformation and active in the education debates of his day and
uncertainty. Right now a revolution in education was influenced by the English artist and activist
is gathering force. Public cultural institutions are William Morris (1834 – 96), whose idea that
placing learning events on an equal platform to the arts could significantly improve people’s
the arts and the objects they show, lead educators experience of life is still influential today. When
are calling more loudly for creative teaching thinking about combining crafts and artistry,
methods and innovations in digital technology Morris looked back to the mediaeval guild system,
are giving us new ways to educate ourselves. where craftsmen worked together on improving
This is in response to dramatic changes taking their skills and joint creative production. The past
place in technology, economics, politics and the is not better than the present, but recognising
environment. Each of us has a role in responding what’s changed, and why, can sometimes help
to the challenges that these changes bring. Our us to imagine a better future. This is long term
creativity is the most powerful resource we’ve got. thinking, which propels revolutionary ideas.
Learning creatively – throughout our life, not just
at school, university or work – sparks our ideas The Bauhaus and its creative education methods
and develops our skills for helping to shape the teach us that we need to be highly aware of our
future. If you think the world is perfect already, present environment and circumstances before
stop reading now. If not, are you ready to be part we can improve them. To continually renew our
of a creative revolution? understanding of the present, we must keep
unlearning the old ideas that we no longer need.
To learn creatively is to actively draw lessons from We can do this by asking questions about the
Otto Umbehr (Umbo), Josef Albers and students in a group critique at the Bauhaus Dessau, 1928–29 the culture that’s around us. It is to be critically deep assumptions lying beneath our beliefs and
The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation aware of the stories that are being told in the actions. We can do this through play, experiment
© Phyllis Umbehr/Galerie Kicken Berlin/DACS 2012
arts and in the media. It is also to be self-directed and gathering experience for ourselves, without
in what we learn – not to be told what to think following a predetermined plan. Learning
or do, but to learn for ourselves by questioning creatively in these ways is not traditional
assumptions and creating new things. To adapt education, where knowledge is learned by rote.
to the changing world, there are ideas we’ll need It is a continuous form of learning that we can do
to ‘unlearn’ – things we might have been taught for ourselves – alone or with others – and we can
that could be outdated, too rigid, or comfortable do it all our life.
but stuck. Unlearning is an art-school skill
designed to help us experience the world afresh.
It complements expertise and mastery and is
against learning by heart. To unlearn involves re-
imagining things as if starting from the beginning,
to strip away influences and habits of mind, then
to experience things in the present, reflect on how
they are and imagine how they could be different.

Imagination isn’t confined to children, artists or

visionaries. We can each be rich in imagination
and take responsibility for how we interpret the
past and shape the present. Those who drive
change do it by imagining and believing in an
alternative future reality. Walter Gropius (1883
– 1969), founder of the Bauhaus School in 1919,
had a vision for how the arts – painting, sculpture,
design, theatre, weaving, architecture – should
work together to improve the way we all live.

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why the bauhaus still matters outside our present and looking back in. It lets
us see what else might have been and still might
The Bauhaus was an attempt to make a new life be, rather than feeling tugged along by forces
for everyone at a time when the old certainties of that we think are outside our control. Letting our
community, work and belief had been shattered. imaginations roam history for ideas can help
After World War I, society was divided and in us expand our vision for how we might actively
conflict. Young people, especially, faced the change the present to create a better future.
future alternatives of unemployment or grim and
unrewarding work. Workers short on time, energy The Bauhaus project remains unfinished. The
and resources had been reduced to buying poor- National Socialist militia forced the school to close
quality mass-produced goods and entertainment in 1933. Many of its staff and students were under
rather than creating them for themselves. attack and left the country. They took Bauhaus
ideas with them and gave them new life in other
Like the slapstick character that Charlie Chaplin places. The exuberant potential of these ideas
plays in Modern Times (1921), the creative spirit has yet to be fully explored. We can still take
of the worker was becoming trapped in the inspiration from them. But does that mean we
machine. As the English philosopher Bertrand should simply imitate the Bauhaus style?
Russell argued in the 1930s, the pressure in
industrial society to measure every activity by how Rather than looking for the Bauhaus spirit in
productive we are reduces us to machines: without tubular-steel chairs and white cuboid buildings,
the space and time to pursue curiosity and play we’re more likely to find it in today’s online
for our own pleasure throughout our lives, we collaborative economy of sharing knowledge
can’t flourish or fulfill our human potential. online, the rise in educational gaming and the
grassroots use of social networking sites that have
But Russell saw industry as the way to free us inspired nonviolent protest around the world.
all, because it could reduce working hours. He
hoped it would liberate us from a life of passive
consumption into one of creative action. The
Bauhaus, too, saw technology as potentially
liberating. It aimed to merge art, science and
technology to transform the possibilities for a
better collective life.

Back in 1919, under such overwhelming

circumstances, many people may have felt that the
task of changing the state of things was just too
big. But rather than feel defeated, the Bauhaus
transformed the spirit of its age. It turned art
and design into philosophy and social action. It
made creativity the medium through which we
adapt and shape reality, rather than just record
it. And it saw that the urgent challenges of its
time demanded collaboration and conversation
between people from all backgrounds and
specialists from all fields. T. Lux Feininger, Sport at the Bauhaus/Jump over the Bauhaus, c. 1927
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin © Estate T. Lux Feininger
The exhibition invites us to imagine life at the
Bauhaus. This is not about indulging nostalgia
and simply admiring the past for its own sake,
but seeing its ideas as still alive with potential.
In the 1930s the German philosopher Walter
Benjamin encouraged us to engage deeply with
those moments of the past that resonate with our
own. Imagining the past and empathising with
the people who lived it gives us a way of standing

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imagining utopia 1. Activity: Make Your Manifesto c. Write a pamphlet like Gropius’s. Start by Why do you think that is? What happens to
imagining what the future would look like if utopian visions once you try to make them real?
What do you call something when there isn’t To a greater or lesser extent, all of us live under the changes you want to make to the world Is it worth trying to build a utopia even if you don’t
already a name for it? How do you find the words the direction of a manifesto. Each ruling political actually happened. know whether you’ll succeed?
to bring something entirely new into being? party’s manifesto shapes policy and law on
everything from how and what we are taught at –– Draw a picture of your ideal world and What do you believe is stopping you from trying
When the visionary architect Walter Gropius school to our right to copy and share ideas. This describe it in words in a way that will inspire to change your world? Who can you ask to help
was invited in 1919 to merge the Academy of exercise is about creating the manifesto that you others to get excited about making it happen. you? How can you let them know you want their
Fine Arts and the School of Applied Arts in want to live under, which may differ from the ones Before you start, ask yourself: If your nation or help and encourage them to believe in your
Weimar, he could have done the usual thing we have been given. It is a big task and takes time. town was organised around these ideas, what vision?
and called it an Academy of Art and Design. But It can be done alone, in pairs or a group. And it would it look like? What would the buildings be
Gropius’s masterstroke was to express his vision in can be returned to and reshaped again and again like? What do people do there? Does everyone 3. Activity: Reorganising Reality
a single word that could be applied to everything in response to changing ideas and reality. eat together? Are there schools? What makes
from its mass-produced products to its education them better than schools today? And so on. An exercise in collage-making based on analysis
methods to its college band. The word ‘Bauhaus’ Gropius’s enduring question was ‘How do of examples in the exhibition.
is made up of bau, which means building in the we want to live?’ How would you answer? –– Once you’ve worked out what it is and how
sense of creating, and haus, which means both What do you want to put in your manifesto? to make it happen, give your vision a name. Collage is a technique that can be used to
house and spiritual home. In one powerful word, Make up an inspiring name for it if the right question how things are. This is done by
Gropius had given form to his radical vision for A manifesto is a way of getting other people word doesn’t already exist (as Gropius did with reorganising newspaper and magazine images
merging all artistic fields and integrating them excited about your idea for how things could ‘Bauhaus’). Remember, the right name will draw to question the truth of the stories presented in the
with everyday life through the collaborative be better. It is a powerful way of explaining your others to look at the manifesto. An unappealing press. See Marianne Brandt’s collage It’s a Matter
activity of building. ideas and persuading others to get involved too. name will draw less interest. of Taste, for example. The picture is a comment
To make your manifesto, first work out what on the belief that women choose certain kinds of
Gropius first introduced the word Bauhaus in you want to change about everyday life. Start –– Describe how you’re going to make this world work because it suits their taste. Brandt’s ironic
1919 in his manifesto for the school. The manifesto by making a list of things that you think should happen by asking yourself what everyone combination of title and image exposes that they
begins with a visual expression of Gropius’s ideals change, for example, ‘I don’t think people should would have to do. For example, to end poverty, weren’t given a choice.
by Lyonel Feininger. Inside, on page two, Gropius fight each other’ or ‘Everyone in the world should would you make rich countries send food to
writes a text in response to the image, calling for have enough to eat’. Don’t be put off by the belief those in famine, or would you have them help Look closely at the collages in the exhibition.
‘a new building of a new future, which will be that your dream of change is too big. Throughout those countries grow their own crops? What Examine how the artists have taken pictures from
everything in one structure’. Then on page three history, from votes for women in political elections, are the benefits and pitfalls of your strategies? the magazines and newspapers of the day and
he sets out his plan for how this is to be achieved. the end of apartheid in South Africa to the How can you get round them? reorganised them.
legalisation of gay marriage in some US states,
Other manifestos were created at the school. people have changed the world in ways that were d. Finally, ask other people to read your How are the different pieces placed in new
One made by students in 1922 contained a line previously thought impossible. manifesto. Do they agree with you? Ask them to relationship and tension with each other? What
that the Bauhaus would adopt as its guiding explain their response to it. Do they have ideas is the effect of different styles of images being
mantra: ‘Art and Technology: A New Unity’. The After you’ve worked out what you want to change, to add to yours? Use debate and conversation placed together?
Bauhaus manifestos were attempts to bring the decide how you’re going to persuade others in this way to develop your ideas and refine
school’s vision into reality. They were expressions to join you in making it happen. Here are three your manifesto. What meaning does that give them? For example,
of a utopia, an ideal world of the future. To strategies for how you could do that. Choose the does tension in the composition point to political
imagine such a new world, we need to examine one you think will be the most effective way to win 2. Activity: Reflecting on Utopia tension in real life?
and understand the one we live in now. This is why others’ support.
so much of the work at the Bauhaus was based A discussion and reflection exercise in the gallery Are there lines of direction in the composition?
on testing ideas through experience. The most a. Write your manifesto in the style of protest that complements the manifesto-making activity What effect do they have? For example, do they
powerful utopian ideas are based on what might banners and T-shirt slogans. For example, above. They can be done in either order. give a sense of movement?
really be possible. ‘no more war’ or ‘end poverty’. These
messages are powerful, short and direct but Look out for examples of the Bauhaus identity Make a collage from images that you’ve cut from
don’t leave space to explain how to make in the exhibition. What do they say about the magazines and papers to make a picture story
change happen in detail. Bauhaus? How do they change over time? What that shows something that concerns you about life
does that suggest about how the Bauhaus school today, or that shows how life ought to be.
b. Make a poetic, philosophical appeal to changed?
people’s imaginations for how things could
change, inspired by the civil rights leader The Bauhaus manifesto gives a vision of a
Martin Luther King who began his world- ‘utopia’, that is, an imaginary world designed to
changing speech with ‘I had a dream…’ show how our present could be better. The word
utopia means both ‘good place’ and ‘no place’.

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the school that changed living in utopia 4. Activity: Shadow Maps 5. Activity: The Invisible Tool
everything
The Bauhaus buildings were designed to enable As well as shape, colour and texture of surface, Everything about Bauhaus life was designed
better ways of life. The main buildings had big the effects of light were thought to be as much to set people free, from women’s dresses to
Gropius had a radical vision for what art and sociable corridors. The Masters’ Houses included a part of the architecture of Bauhaus buildings the way a door opens. In 1926, Breuer created
artists could be. The old art academies had kept shared communal spaces between families. These as concrete and steel. For this reason, Meyer’s a ‘film strip’ that showed what the Bauhaus
a strict partition between the fine arts (sculpture buildings brought to life the modernist architect architectural designs include maps of the aimed for. The work presents ‘a history of
and painting) and applied arts (architecture Le Corbusier’s influential idea of the house as a changing position of the sun over the seasons sitting’, with each chair depicted becoming
and design), and between theory and practice. ‘machine for living’. This replaced the industrial and the buildings’ exposure to its light. lighter and more streamlined as the centuries
But at the Bauhaus, painters and sculptors were machine, which limited the potential of its workers, pass. The final strip shows a person seated
encouraged to work in the fields of architecture, with an architectural machine that liberated life. Inspired by Meyer, make a study of how sunlight on nothing but air. It illustrates how we might
textiles, theatre, dance, film, furniture, graphics, It also reorganised the hierarchy of lived space to and shadow fall into a room or over a building. feel once our tools have become so perfect in
advertising and photography. Gropius was be more democratic. The traditional structure of their function that we no longer notice them.
inspired by the idea, taken from opera and a planned city is a fan shape organised around You can do this on different scales:
theatre, of the ‘total work of art’, where all art a centre of power, for example, the palace. The This exercise is inspired by Breuer’s invisible
forms work together. For him, making a building Bauhaus later develops machine-like motif: the –– stand a pencil upright (with its base in tack) in chair. Select an everyday tool. It could
was the ultimate way to create a ‘total artwork’. grid, which has no centre. a window. be a phone, a kettle, or a social network
site. Think about what it lets you do.
Much school activity was directed towards the But such a strong formal idea did not mean that –– choose a window through which sunlight is
joint project of actually making a building. the spaces were cold and inhuman. We tend to throwing a bright reflection on the floor. What is its function? What power does it give you?
What’s more, this building was an experiment in think of Bauhaus architecture as uniformly white, If it was replaced with a super power or animal
expanding human potential. The total artwork setting the tone for modernist architecture later in –– find a strong shadow from a building. power, what would that be? For example,
wouldn’t stop at integrating art forms. It would the twentieth century. But Bauhaus architectural without your phone would you be able to listen
merge art and life too. All the Bauhauslers – designs made dynamic and playful use of colour –– Then mark the movement of light by to someone in another city with just your ears?
students and teachers – cooperated to transform to create spatial effects and a sense of movement. tracing its shadow on paper or chalking Make a drawing of that super power.
everyday existence by redesigning everything in Here is a description from the plan for the Dessau around it on the ground every hour.
their new community from the floor plan to the building: Is there a difference between this ideal
doorknobs. At the end of the day, take a photograph of super power and what the tool lets you
Directional arrows and lines indicate routes to your drawing. do in real life? If so, what is it?
It wasn’t until the Bauhaus relocated in 1925 from the workshops and departments, each bearing
Weimar to the city of Dessau that it could finally a characteristic colour. The design differentiates How does making this drawing increase For example, does your social network
build its own purpose-designed community. between load-bearing and non-bearing surfaces, your awareness of the shifting light? site let you describe yourself in the
The school building was constructed and fitted thereby endowing the architectonic tension with way you would most like to?
by the Bauhauslers. It included a canteen, a lucid expression. The spatial effect of the colours Does changing light have an effect on your
theatre, houses for students and faculty to live is heightened by the application of a variety of mood? If so, how does it make you feel? Or does it limit your choice and
in and a flat roof that accommodated games materials: slick high-gloss, polished, granular, and emphasise some things over others?
and performances. We might expect so many rough plastered surfaces, dull matte and high- Do you think light should be thought of as a
hands to make a patchwork of a result. But the gloss coats of paint, glass, metal, and so on.* building material just like stone and wood? Why? If so, why does it do that?
Russian writer Ilya Ehrenburg wrote that the new
Bauhaus building seemed ‘cast of one piece In reality this plan wasn’t followed in full. But the Is the building you are in right now designed How does that affect the way we think
like a persistent thought’. A Bauhausler later masters coloured their Dessau homes with their to make the best use of light? Is there about ourselves and our friends?
remembered that when one of the woven textiles own distinctive choices. Kandinsky opted for black anything in its design that you’d change?
especially designed for the director’s office was and gold interiors. What would be better? Make a list and/or draw
later changed for another, the room lost its feeling a picture of how your tool could be improved.
of completion.

* From the Bauhaus building’s ‘chromatic orientation plan’, quoted in

‘Function and Color in the Bauhaus Building in Dessau’ by Monika
Markgraf in Bauhaus: A Conceptual Model, Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin et al
(ed.s), Hatje Cantz, 2009, p.197.

17 18
6. Activity: Picturing the Utopia 7. Activity: Make a Celebration Would you run a party like this again? If so, what
an Object was Designed For would you do differently?
A theatre design activity resulting in either a real
A longer noticing and drawing activity. or an imaginary social event. 8. Activity: Make a Gift

This task is designed to help you detect the utopian The Bauhauslers celebrated anything that gave A craft activity that can done alone or in a group.
dreams hidden inside ordinary household objects. them a cause to throw a party, from colleagues
receiving citizenship to the birth of a child. Parties The Bauhauslers gave each other a lot of gifts.
Select one of the older objects in your marked important events and helped to release Often they were artworks or furniture that they’d
home, especially one that looks a bit out of social tension and to build bonds between made in the workshops. One teacher made
place amongst your things – for example, teachers and students. Festivals such as kite and individual certificates for her students by hand.
a lamp, table, radiator or picture. lantern processions also created links with the On Gropius’s 44th birthday, all the Bauhauslers
local community. added their lip-prints to a card. The newest
Look at the object away from the other things students’ kisses are all out of kilter with the
that are usually around it. Put it against a blank The parties and celebrations became artworks neat grids of their trained seniors. On Klee’s
wall or piece of paper if that helps. Handle it and and total theatre in themselves. For example, 50th birthday, some Bauhauslers even hired an
make a sketch of it to really get a sense of it. for the ‘White Party’, everyone was given the aeroplane to drop a large parcel of presents into
loose theme of spots and stripes. For their most his garden.
Now think about what kind of person spectacular party, the ‘Metal Party’, guests wore
this object was designed for. tin foil and metal objects. They entered the room You might not be able to hire a plane, but what
in tin toboggans and clattered up the stairs on present can you make to surprise someone with?
What kind of life would they have? steps that were rigged to make different metallic It doesn’t have to be their birthday. It could be
chimes. The walls were covered in metal plates, another special event. For example, has someone
What would they like to do for fun? like distorting mirrors. you care about achieved a challenge they were
worried about? Celebrate what they’ve done
What would they wear? Taking inspiration from this, plan your own by making them a card or a present. This could
Lucia Moholy, Walter Gropius’s director’s office, 1924–25 celebration. Decide what your theme will be. be an individual gift or one you involve other
What would they like to eat? Reprinted in Neue Arbeiten der Bauhauswerkstätten, 1927
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin
What kind of costumes will you suggest your people with, so you express your gratitude or
© DACS 2012 guests wear? Leave it open enough to give them congratulations as a group.
What would their home look like? room to be really playful. Make sure it’s easy to
do with cheap materials and scrap. How does it feel to give a gift or card that you’ve
What would their other belongings made yourself?
and furniture look like? What themed music will you play? Plan how will
you decorate the space. What was the reaction of the person who
What colours, shapes and patterns received it?
would the furniture have? Design your flyer and poster to advertise the
event. Do you think they valued it more or less because
Next, draw that person beside the it was hand made?
object you’ve already sketched. If you hold the party in real life, notice how your
guests interpret your instructions. What should we value more, the time someone
Then draw in their home around has put into making something by hand or the
the person and the object. Do they dress up and act the way you expected? money they spent on it? Why?
For example, does your shy friend act more
Compare your drawing with your confidently when in costume? Does someone Do we value money too much some times?
real home. How different are they? you think of as a safe dresser wear the most Give examples to explain your answer.
What do the differences tell you? outlandish outfit in the room?

What does that say about their personalities?

Does it reinforce or undermine how you thought

about each person before they came?

How does it feel to let other people play with your

ideas and take them on as their own?

19 20
unlearning Every Bauhaus student started with the
preliminary course: a period of creative
At the traditional fine art academies students experiment. Through repeated exercises they
would have spent their training copying paintings were trained to unlearn rigid habits gained, for
and sculptures by the Old Masters. The closest example, from specialising as a painter. Such
students got to that at the Bauhaus was to habits could block perception by emphasising
experiment with tracing over reproductions of Old what you see over other sensations, and by
Master paintings, analysing them geometrically building up routine ways of looking. The
and mathematically to explore their fundamental preliminary course aimed to train students to
forms. In other words, rather than bow down unlearn their received knowledge and bad
to the old authorities, the Bauhaus took their habits, and relearn through their own experience.
masterpieces apart and reassembled them into Unlearning focused on the body and on sensory
something completely fresh. This impulse to get experiment, reconnecting body and mind. Albers
back to something more basic behind traditional called this ‘seeing by doing’.
forms was driven by a scepticism towards the old
regimes of knowledge and power. This scepticism The preliminary course was influenced by Asian
largely came from a distrust of the culture of the philosophies that, unlike the Western tradition,
past that had allowed or even led to mass conflict do not perceive a split between body and mind.
on an unthinkable scale. In response, the school Itten began his classes by focusing on the whole
wanted to give its students the chance to start body. He would lead the students in stretching and
again, to get back to a lost innocence, through the breathing exercises like those done in Yoga. After
method of unlearning. this they would do a quick-fire expressive drawing
exercise to wake up the mind and senses. For
example, they would be asked to draw a dramatic
scene, such as a storm. The idea was not to draw
what they saw directly, but make what they saw
flow through the whole body, and let that feeling
drive what they made or drew.

Itten would train his students’ sensory perception

by having them touch a range of textures with
their eyes closed. ‘In a short time’, he wrote,
‘their sense of touch improved to an astonishing
degree’. Moholy-Nagy, who later taught the
preliminary course, developed touch panels –
‘charts’ of textures – that his students used to test
their responses to different sensations. He argued
that touch is our primary sense, but the most
neglected by the language of art, and particularly
under threat in modern times, no doubt
because experience of the world was becoming
increasingly filtered through text and image.

That the methods of unlearning were seen as

a challenge – or even a threat – to mainstream
society and education is clear: middle-class
German parents would tell their children, ‘If you
don’t behave, I’ll send you to the Bauhaus’.

Johannes Itten, Colour sphere in seven light stages and twelve tones,
from Bruno Adler, ed., Utopia. Dokumente der Wirklichkeit (Utopia:
Documents of Reality), 1921
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin
© DACS 2012

21 22
experiment and play 9. Activity: Make a Sculpture of Contrasts

Bauhaus students were as likely to work with scrap as with A longer sculpture and drawing exercise.
traditional art materials. For example, they would experiment with
wire mesh, cardboard, plastic, tinfoil, matchboxes, glass and sheet Itten thought that all forms can be reduced to a
metal. Albers describes how his students tested the properties of series of oppositions. For example, colour, marks,
paper ‘by sewing, buttoning, riveting, typing … pinning’ and many texture can be described as large or small, thick
other ways of fastening it. He explained that through these activities: or thin, surface or line, horizontal or vertical, a lot
‘we do not always create ‘works of art’, but rather experiments; it is or a little, straight or curved, long or short, broad
not our ambition to fill museums: we are gathering experience’. or narrow, smooth or rough, sharp or blunt,
hard or soft, see-through or opaque, continuous
Why was it so important that students should play with materials or broken up, and so on. Itten would guide his
without needing to complete an artwork or product? One answer students to make sculptures from things that they
is that it was a way of unlearning the need to measure all human found lying around that played on these contrasts.
activity against its usefulness for war, for industry, or for the market. He believed that this was the way to discover
In the philosophical tradition of Friedrich Schiller and Jean-Jacques the basic laws of creativity that would help his
Rousseau, Bauhaus education placed its focus on the innate talents students throughout their lives.
and fascinations of the student, rather than assessing them against
a standard measure of knowledge imposed from outside. It also Try making a sculpture from scraps that plays
emphatically encouraged collaboration rather than competition. upon a contrast of qualities. (Note that the
Bauhaus workshops always used everything up
Free experiment fuelled the ‘possibilities for free creativity’, wrote and never left waste.)
Albers. He believed that learning how to invent through the process
of discovery was the basis of ‘training for every kind of design’. If you do this as a group, first create your own
This learning, he said, was best done through ‘undisturbed, sculpture away from the group. Then come
uninfluenced’ experimentation. It meant beginning by working together to discuss and choose whose sculpture
with the material in a ‘purposeless, playful’ way with the hands. has the best range of contrasts within it.

These lessons in free experimentation carried over into the different Then sit down together to draw that sculpture
specialist workshops. For example, Stölzl led her students away to explore its contrasts further.
from the tradition of making a woven picture by encouraging
them to experiment with weaving as a technology. To do this they What did you experience during this process?
used a handloom, even though their designs would be produced What did you learn?
by machine. This hand-led experimentation resulted in radical
compositions that would not have come from simply drawing Has making this study enhanced your awareness
a design onto paper. of the difference in materials around you in every
day life? If so, how?
Breuer, too, applied the lessons of Bauhaus experiment to his
product designs by exploring the potential of existing materials and Do you think it’s possible to discover the basic
technology, and collaborating with others from different specialisms. laws of creativity from repeatedly doing this
For example, the inspiration for his tubular-steel chairs came from experiment? Do you think such laws exist?
a bicycle frame. He then called on the help of the local aeroplane
factory to help him develop his designs.

23 24
going back to basics a. citizens of the universe

Bauhaus attempted to pare back form and After the horrors of war, many at the Bauhaus
function to its basic elements. It wanted to scrape actively resisted expressions of national identity

Bauhaus
away false ideals and inessential elements from and hoped to create a world in which borders
art and design that had accrued over history. between people no longer mattered. They also
wanted to make design universally legible by
As you explore the exhibition, you’ll see the removing cultural associations and national
different ways in which Bauhauslers attempted to symbols from the design of objects. In this way,
do this. There is a striking contrast, for example, design became a form of social action and a
between subjective, expressive works that are philosophy of identity.
intended to affect us like a kind of lightening
conductor for primordial experience, and those If you look at some of the examples of Bauhaus
that try to use scientific objectivity to refine and advertising in the exhibition, you’ll see figures
give life to the ‘true’ principles of form. wearing masks or with their identifying features
blanked out through negative exposure. This is
This section explores three Bauhaus strategies for one way in which the Bauhaus experimented
liberating form and function by going back to with removing racial or national identity from its
basics, and suggests activities to put their ideas design. Another is Bayer’s attempt to strip back
to work. lettering to its essential geometric forms, removing
all trace of handwriting or cultural symbol. He
wanted to clean away anything that wasn’t 10. Activity:
essential to the alphabet’s most basic function: What Voice do Letters Speak In?
to translate sound into graphic marks. He even
refused to give his Universal typeface capital A craft and typography exercise that requires the
letters, arguing that there is no capital letter in use of a computer and printer, or copying by hand
the spoken word. He hoped his simplification of from a type book.
lettering would make be easier for machines to
print, and for everyone to read and use. How successful was Bayer in creating a visual
‘voice’ for the Bauhaus? To find out, compare
By doing this he was taking an active stance examples of his Universal typeface in the
against the most commonly used German exhibition with how the word ‘Bauhaus’ looks
typeface, Fraktur, which had become associated when written in the typeface Fraktur, above.
with a nostalgic German national identity, and
increasingly with National Socialist ideas. Imagine if the Bauhaus had used Fraktur.
Would that have affected how it saw itself?

What kind of school would it have been if its

graphic identity had been Fraktur?

Type the word(s) for your favourite food. Change

it to a typeface that fits it well. Then copy it and
change it to a second typeface that fits it badly.

Look at them together. What feelings and ideas

come to mind when you look at the first, then
the second? How does type design affect the
meaning of the word? When you next read a
menu, think about whether the typeface matches
the kind of food it offers.

The neuroscientist Leonard Mlodinow argues that

the typeface a menu is set in, not just the way it is
described, actually affects how we taste the food.
In your experience, do you think he is right?

25 26
Josef Albers, Bauhaus lettering set, 1926-31 Erich Consemüller, Lis Beyer or Ise Gropius in B3 club chair by Marcel Breuer wearing a mask by Oskar Schlemmer and a dress fabric designed by
© The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London 2012 Lis Beyer, c. 1927 Herzogenrath, Berlin. On long-term loan to Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Bestand Museen © Estate of Erich Consemüller

11. Activity: The Bare Necessities of Type Cover the bottom half of a word, what effect 12. Activity: Making Masks What do you feel when you wear it? How do
does that have? What happens when you cover others react to you? How does it feel to watch
A typography exercise that does not require the top half? An activity is based on analysis of the works in others and be watched? Do you feel more or less
a computer. the exhibition followed by a making exercise and free? Why?
Now, taking inspiration from Albers’ alphabet, a simple social experiment.
Albers also developed an alphabet that simplified experiment with how few shapes you need to
its form dramatically. Look at his cut-out lettering make up the letters of your name. Try to keep Look for examples of masks in the exhibition.
in the exhibition. Each letter is created simply by your shapes and combinations as simple as Why do you think they are being used? What do
combining two or more of the ten forms that make possible, while making sure other people can they say about the person wearing them? What
up the top line. still read the letters. character do they have?

As a warm up exercise to start thinking about How much detail can you loose before the letters Make a simple mask from a circle of paper with
how much or how little we need to see of ordinary become meaningless? holes for your eyes. Draw on it if you like. Fix string
words to be able to read them, try this quick or elastic through holes in the sides and tie it
experiment: loosely round your head.

27 28
b. speaking without words 13. Activity: Take the Colour-Shape Test

The painter Kandinsky believed that art should A simple drawing activity that is ideal for doing
conjure up in us an experience ‘beyond the in the exhibition, using a photocopy of the
reach of words’, rather than giving a picture triangle, square and circle below for each person.
of something that can be named or described. To discover the basic building blocks of what he
Through this he hoped to find a basic form of thought of as a pre-verbal language, Kandinsky
communication that speaks to us at a more tried to establish a universal human association
primary level than words. For him, this kind of between basic shapes and colours.
abstract art was an attempt to resist words and
pictures and replace them with effects that worked He had varying success. On one occasion
directly on the body and the mind. he attempted to prove it with a collective
psychological test. He gave all members of the
Bauhaus the following questionnaire to fill in. It
contained a triangle, circle and square. The task
was to colour each in with the primary colour that
each shape seemed to suggest.

Try Kandinsky’s test yourself.

Fill each shape opposite with the colour you most

associate with it.

29 30
Now look at the works by Kandinsky in the 14. Activity: Hearing Pictures and
exhibition. Seeing Sound

Most respondents agreed with Kandinsky’s colour A choice of composition and drawing exercises.
choices. Do your colours match his?
Kandinsky believed that the experience of sound,
Do you think we do all associate the same colours colour and shape were connected by sensation.
to shapes? Or is it possible that everyone who He could hear colour and made ‘polyphonic
filled in Kandinsky’s questionnaire was already paintings’ – that is, pictures that made him feel
influenced by his own well-known colour-shape as if he was hearing them as music.
combinations?
Make a piece of music for a picture in the
Kandinsky tried to detach colours and shapes exhibition – tap out its rhythm and make a tune
from representing anything that could be named. that follows the shapes, colours and moods of
But still he described blue as heavenly and yellow the painting.
as earthy. Do you think it’s possible for an image
ever to be completely free of seeming to look like Or, listen to a piece of music and see if you can
something else? When you look at Kandinsky’s draw it. What shape is it? Does it have patterns
pictures in the exhibition, do the abstract shapes and colours? How do your marks on the page
remind you of anything? What associations do show its rhythm?
they have for you?
How do these experiments change your
Look at the other colour experiments in the experience of the artwork they are based on?
exhibition – for example, those by Gertrud Do you look at the other artworks differently now?
Arndt. Do the colour and shape combinations If so, how?
create effects that aren’t real, such as depth or
movement where it doesn’t really exist?

Try experimenting with putting different colour

combinations together yourself. What effects can
you find?

Wassily Kandinsky, Circles in a Circle, 1923

Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950
© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2012

31 32
15. Activity: Take a Line for a Walk 16. Activity: A World in a Painting 18. Activity: Words Without Meaning

A simple drawing exercise. A storytelling activity you can do in the gallery. A quick and easy spoken word exercise you can
do anywhere.
Klee approached abstraction differently from his Examine a painting by Klee. Look at what he does
fellow painter Kandinsky. Where Kandinsky would with the paint. Is it scratched and scraped? Is the In a volume of his poetry, Kandinsky invites us to
often explore his subject with several studies perspective realistic? Are the forms familiar? Does repeat words until they lose their meaning and
before he made a finished work, Klee would it represent something outside of itself that’s real? are experienced as abstract sound. Try it out with
never make a study. Instead, famously he would Or is this a world of its own? a word you use every day.
often begin a composition simply by starting a
line on the page and following where it went. He Describe what happens in this picture. Who lives Does the experiment work?
described this process as ‘taking a line for a walk’ in it? What happens there?
(Pedagogical Notebook, 1925). This walk was How do you feel when you hear the word now?
just for itself, setting out with no particular aim in 17. Activity: The Writing on the Wall
mind. 19. Activity: Colour Light Play
A craft and design exercise that can be done
Make a mark on the page and let it flow. Where using a computer and printer, newspaper and a A craft and theatre activity with an optional
are you going to take it for a walk? If you see a photocopier, or simply paper and pen. music element.
shape start to form, will you finish it? Or will you
move on and follow the line just for itself? Look at the works in the exhibition by Hajo Rose. Notice how many works in the exhibition play with
He typed letters in repeated formations to create light. What is their effect as you walk through the
When you’ve finished your drawing take time to designs for cloth and wallpaper. By clustering gallery?
reflect on it. them into patterns that play with their shapes
rather than what they represent, the letters and One of the most significant experiments with
How did it feel to work this way? Give three words numbers lose their meaning. light is Reflecting Colour Light Play for which
that describe your experience. Kurt Schwerdtfeger choreographed projected
Play with type in this way and see what patterns coloured light to make spatial forms and moving
Did you draw differently from usual? Did it feel you can make. patterns. These created abstract effects that were
liberating or restricting to work this way? designed to be enjoyed as a theatre show.
If so, how? What happens when you look at letters only
for their shapes and how they work together as Experiment with everyday materials to create
patterns, rather than what they mean as words? light effects. Pierce a piece of card with holes in a
pattern. Make a larger opening in the card and
Are they still letters, or do they just become cover it with a clear plastic sweet wrapper. Cover
shapes? Do they still have their old meaning, another opening with clingfilm. In a darkened
do they get new meaning or do they have no room, shine a torch behind the card onto a wall.
meaning? Why?
What effects can you create?
What light does this exercise throw on this
challenging philosophical question: Can light be a theatre show in itself? Do you need
What is the connection between language to make a story to go with it to enjoy it, or does it
and reality? have its own kind of fascination? How would you
describe this?

What happens if you play different kinds of music

during the same part of the show? For example,
a sad folk song followed by a fast upbeat
electronic track. How does the change in music
change your experience?

33 34
 20. Activity: Remaking the Game

A game design exercise that can be done as

a craft or computer-based activity.

Can you apply Hartwig’s techniques to another

board game you play?

Start by thinking about what changes to the

game would make it easier to understand. Make
sketches of your ideas by trying out different
designs on paper. For example, design new
symbols for the game’s pieces that make it clearer
what they do (without making it too easy to play).

Try taking out anything from your design that you

don’t need to play the game. See how simple you
can make it. You may need to keep redrawing it to
see how far you can pare it back.

When you’re happy with your new design, redraw

the board. Next make new models of the playing
pieces from whatever materials you have to hand
(Blutack, modelling clay, cardboard shapes with
drawings, and so on).

Josef Hartwig, Chess set (model XVI) with cardboard box designed by Joost Schmidt, 1923–24. 32 pieces: pear wood, cardboard and paper Test it out by getting your friends to play it with
Centre Pompidou, Paris. Musée National d’Art Moderne /Centre de Création Industrielle. Gift Clarence Westbury Foundation © DACS 2012 you. Ask them whether the changes are working
for them and gather their suggestions.
c. form = function The sphere on the queen shows that this piece is
highly mobile. The bishop, in contrast, is carved Later, tweak your design to make it even better.
In the nineteenth century the furniture designer with a cross. The primary meaning of the cross
and social visionary William Morris argued is that it makes diagonal movements. Its older How does it feel to play the game with your new
that we have become ‘the tools of our tools’. religious meaning is no longer central. design?
He believed that the industrial machine was
making people into slaves, either as workers or You don’t need to know the rules of chess to grasp Does your design change the game’s meaning
consumers. Inspired by him, the Bauhaus wanted quickly what movement each piece can make. in any way? How?
to liberate people by refining the function of tools This means that it’s no longer a game limited to
until they could no longer notice them. those who’ve been taught its rules. In theory this is
a game that everyone can play.
Hartwig’s chess set is a clear example of form
stripped back to match its function as closely Hartwig experimented with a number of different
as possible. The design ignores the traditional designs. The later versions even remove the little
ornamentation and figurative elements that plinth beneath each piece. Gone, too, is the
you would normally see on a chess set. Instead, traditional velvet-lined wooden box with a place
the chess pieces have simple shapes and are for each piece in order of aristocratic importance.
designed to show how they move across the In Hartwig’s cheap cardboard box the pieces slot
board. Looking at the set in the exhibition, see if snuggly together without hierarchy: the pawns are
you can work out what kind of movement each no longer at the bottom.
piece makes by how it looks.
The associations with war and power are erased
from this game of chess and replaced with a
fresh set of possibilities. If the old games of chess
trained us for battle strategy, this new design
imagines a future of equality, and of play, not war.

35 36
curriculum links Art and Design – all activities places to visit contemporary references

This resource focuses on Bauhaus pedagogy Citizenship – activities: Make Your Manifesto, buildings Changing Educational Paradigms
and creative learning, rather than its practical Reorganising Reality, Make a Celebration, Make by Ken Robinson, 2010
workshop techniques such as textiles, engineering a Gift, Making Masks, Remaking the Game The Bauhaus Building, Dessau, Germany Robinson’s witty animated talk about the need
and metal work. The creative and reflective For visitor information visit the website for radical changes in education today
activities we have suggested here are intended to Design and technology – all activities
sit across subject areas so you can tailor them to Lawn Road Flats, Hampstead, London Rethinking Learning: the 21st Century Learner
your teaching agenda. Drama – activities: Make Your Manifesto, Make Where Gropius, Breuer and Moholy stayed. Wells by the MacArthur Foundation, 2010
a Celebration, Making Masks, Words Without Coates designed the flats and Breuer designed A short video on the value of learning from the
In his seminal 2009 book Visible Learning, John Meaning, Colour Light Play some of the furniture. It was one of the few US creative foundation
Hattie explains how teaching has most impact modernist buildings in London at the time.
when both the learning intentions and success English and Modern Languages – activities: Visible Learning A synthesis of over 800
criteria of a challenging task are made very Make Your Manifesto, The Invisibile Tool, What Impington Village College, Cambridgeshire meta-analyses relating to achievement
clear by the teacher, followed by lots of peer Voice Do Letters Speak In?, The Bare Necessities Gropius designed it with Maxwell Fry. They by John Hattie, 2009
discussion and practical involvement, resulting in of Type, The Writing on the Wall, Words Without were commissioned by the local chief education Hattie’s big book of evidence about what is
achievements that are new to the students. This Meaning officer. This rural college was designed to be (and isn’t) effective in teaching
is close to a description of Bauhaus pedagogy an education and arts centre for the whole
at its best. We can draw on its ideas to expand Geography – activities: Make Your Manifesto, community, from children to the elderly. It Imagination, How Creativity Works
our own learning and teaching styles. In today’s Reorganising Reality, Shadow Maps became a model for modernist school-buildings by Jonah Lehrer, 2012
terms Bauhaus may be referred to as experiential constructed after the war in the UK. A vital new book on how our brains work and
learning, with an emphasis on co-learning. History – activities: Make Your Manifesto, how to make creativity work for you
Although as an education professional you can Reorganising Reality, Picturing the Utopia an The Red House (National Trust), Bexley
draw your own conclusions about the success of Object was Designed For, What Voice Do Letters This is the only house that William Morris Mindsets: on how the two mindsets influence
those methods when you see the exhibition. Speak In? designed himself. It is considered one of behaviour and achievement
the most important influences for modernist by Carol Dweck, 2011
This is an exhibition of great richness and depth. ICT – activities: Expanding New Technology, The architecture: Morris intended that nothing would Psychologist Dwecks’ ‘mindset’ concept is
The ideas and activities offered here can only ever Invisible Tool, Picturing the Utopia an Object was be included that didn’t have a purpose or provide paradigm shifting
present a small sample of its potential. You may Designed For, Remaking the Game ornamentation without reason. It was purpose-
find you are inspired to create your own activities built to include spaces for communal living, play, Cognitive Surplus, Creativity and Generosity in
and exercises in response to the exhibition. Music – activities: Make Your Manifesto, Words work and reflection. a Connected Age
Without Meaning, Colour Light Play by Clay Shirky, 2010
historical references Shirky shows that we are changing how we use
our time and technology today
Bauhaus-online
The world’s biggest Bauhaus online resource Play is more than fun
by Stuart Brown, 2008
Bauhaus: Art as Life A talk on Brown’s significant insights about play
The catalogue of the exhibition being essential to our lives

Weimar Republic Source Book Cultural Learning Alliance

A book of original documents from 1915 – 1933 UK’s current campaign for cultural learning
in English The UKs leading campaign with resources and
links to cultural institutions

How Technology Evolves

by Kevin Kelly, 2006
Kelly’s ideas on technology have been
influential for decades

You know more than you think you do: design as

resourcefulness and self-reliance
by Emily Campbell, 2009
A clear statement of why learning about design
remains important for citizens today

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booking cafes / packed lunches
If you have brought packed lunches you can eat
booking a group visit in the Stalls Floor Foyer (Level –1), the Main Foyer
Contact the Groups Booking Line (Level G) or outside on the Lakeside where there
Tel: 020 7382 7211 are plenty of picnic benches and tables. Barbican
(line open 10am–5pm, Mon–Fri) Foodhall, just off the Foyer on Level G, offers full
Fax: 020 7382 7270 meals as well as sandwiches, drinks and also
Email: groups@barbican.org.uk children’s meals. It is not suitable for large groups.
Groups are welcome, although we would
encourage you to avoid weekends and the busy further information
period of 12.30 – 2pm. A maximum group size of Medical assistance and full evacuation staff are
about 20 is suggested. available at all times. The Creative Learning
department has a full CRB child protection policy.
exhibition admission prices If you would like to see the full policy and risk
Standard: £10 online/£12 on the door assessment information, please contact Creative
Concessions: £7 online/£8 on the door Learning on 020 7382 2333.
Secondary school (groups of ten or more) £6 each
Age 13–17 £6 online/£7 on the door contact
Ages 12 and under free We would welcome feedback on this learning
resource and the exhibition. Please send your
online feedback to Creative Learning administrator.
barbican.org.uk/artgallery T: 020 7382 2333 F: 020 7382 7037
phone E: creative.learning@barbican.org.uk
0845 120 7511 (9am – 8pm daily)
in person credits
Art Gallery Ticket Desk Written by Emma Ridgway and Cathy Haynes
Open daily 11am – 8pm (except Wed 11am–6pm Copy Edited by Melissa Larner
and Thu 11am–10pm)
barbican guildhall / creative learning
planning your visit Barbican Centre
Silk St
how to find us London EC2Y 8DS
Nearest tube stations: Barbican, Moorgate, T: 020 7382 2333
St Paul’s, Liverpool Street. F: 020 7382 7037
Nearest train stations: Liverpool St, Farringdon, E: creative.learning@barbican.org.uk
City Thameslink, Barbican, Moorgate.
Coach: there is a setting down and picking up
point in Silk St. Parking is limited to the metered
bays in Silk St and Fore St. For further information
contact 020 7606 3030, asking for Parking
Services.

disabled visitors
For full Access information please visit
barbican.org.uk
You can also call or email the Barbican Access
Manager on access@barbican.org.uk,
020 7382 7348.

cloakrooms
There is a free cloakroom on Level 3 by the Art
Gallery. The City of London
Corporation is the
founder and principal
funder of the
Barbican Centre

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