Bauhaus and beyond

The Bauhaus masters on the roof of the Bauhaus building in Dessau. From the left: Josef Albers, Hinnerk Scheper, Georg Muche, László Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Joost Schmidt, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Gunta Stölzl and Oskar Schlemmer.

The Weimar Republic in Germany 1918-1933 was despite huge social, political and economic challenges a time of flourishing art and culture.

Germany was the country with the most advanced science, technology, literature, philosophy and art - 1920's Berlin was at the center of the Weimar culture.

The Bauhaus school began with an utopian definition: "The building of the future" was to combine all the arts in ideal unity. The school existed in three German cities (Weimar, Dessau and Berlin) under 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, when the school was closed by its own leadership under pressure from the Nazi regime.

There are many things to be learned from the Weimar culture. You will find out more about Bauhaus by visiting the portal Bauhaus online: bauhaus-online.de/en

I just want to share a few lines about a great photographer and filmmaker who in 1923 was appointed as instructor of the foundation course at the Bauhaus. His name is  László Moholy-Nagy - born in Bácsborsód to a Jewish-Hungarian family. His cousin was the conductor Sir Georg Solti. He attended Gymnasium (academic high school) in the city of Szeged.

Moholy-Nagy created 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. 

Learn more about László Moholy-Nagy, where to watch exhibitions etc :

The Moholy Nagy Foundation (news section)

Moholy-Nagy, László
American (b. Hungary, 1895-1946)
Stage set for "Madam Butterfly," State Opera, Berlin, 1929
Photography Collections Online
http://www.geh.org/

Callahan, Harry
American (1912-1999)
Chicago Alley
Photography Collections Online
http://www.geh.org/

It is fascinating to explore the history of photography. When making the research about Moholo-Nagy, I found a relation between him and the great Harry Callahan; In 1946 Callahan was hired by László Moholy-Nagy to teach photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago.

Mr Urbano