Modernism and Politics
The Bauhaus
In what ways can the life andtimes of the Bauhaus be read as an allegory for the Weimar
Republic itself? (Youwill want to refer back to Peter Gay’s essay on Weimar Culture). In what ways did Gropius’ ambivalence – his ambivalence toward architecture andhis ambivalence toward academicism – shape the Bauhaus in its early years? Discuss how, under Gropius’ tenure as director from 1918-1928, theater and extracurricular activities supplanted architecture as the vehicle through which Bauhaus students and teachers expressed their most creative energies? What is the “Bauhaus Theaterof Human Dolls” as described by JulietKoss? Andtowhat extent werethese “Bauhaus evenings” – both planned and impromptu theatrical
spectacles,with their various masks and costumes,group formations, gender capers andplay with androgyny – imitating, commenting on, and
critiquingemerging standardized mass cultural forms?(You may want torefer back toKracauer’s essay “The Mass Ornament” (read “Cults of Distraction” only)).In 1928,whenGropius and those loyal tohim were forced out of the Bauhaus,and Hannes Meyer, and then Mies van der Rohe,assumed the directorshipof the school, what changed? In the final years of the Bauahus what was gained and what was lost?
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