Bauhaus

An accessible history of the Bauhaus, tracing the ideas behind its conception and its highly influential teaching methods.

The aesthetic of our contemporary environment, including everything from housing estates to furniture and newspapers, is partly the result of a school of art and design founded in Germany in 1919, the Bauhaus. While in operation for only fourteen years, shut down by the Nazis in 1933, the school left an indelible mark on design and the practice of art education throughout the world.

Placing Bauhaus into its sociohistorical context, Frank Whitford traces the ideas behind the school’s conception and describes its teaching methods. He examines the activities of the teachers—who included eminent artists such as Paul Klee, Josef Albers, and Wassily Kandinsky—and the daily lives of the students.

Reissued and revised to mark the centenary of the founding of the Bauhaus, this is an accessible introduction to perhaps the most significant design movement of the last hundred years.

About the Author

Frank Whitford was born in 1941 and educated at Wadham College, Oxford, the Courtauld Institute, London and the Freie Universitat, West Berlin. After a career as a journalist and a cartoonist, he taught at University College London, and then in Cambridge, where he is still attached to Wolfson College. Well known as a broadcaster and lecturer, he was for many years Tutor in Cultural History at the Royal College of Art, London. His other books include Klimt and Bauhaus (also in the World of Art Series); Oskar Kokoschka, A Life; Expressionist Paintings and the prize-winning Japanese Prints and Western Painters.