Bauhaus • group 4

4. Gender played a interesting role at the Bauhaus. While they did allow women into the school, women themselves were limited in which they were allowed to study.  During the early 1920’s women were designated to arts such a basket weaving, textiles, and generally traditional females arts. Machine work and most of the forerunners of the Bauhaus were seen as masculine work and activities that were only suited for men, as women had more “delicate skill sets”. It wouldn’t be until the end of the 1920’s that women were allowed to take on more arts in Bauhaus.

5. During the period of 1925-1928. Constructivist principles were largely depoliticized at the Bauhaus.  It was necessary for the school’s survival that is deemphasize the radical politics that has played a role in the adoption of Russian Constructivism. In later decades, the political commitments of many members of the faculty and student body would be written out of history. There was a political contradiction at the Bauhaus, which was the simultaneous embracing of communist ideology and a adoration of the capitalists industries that stood as icons of the modern age. Technological utopia was the idea that united two contradictory beliefs. The Bauhaus was essentially a liberal institution because many of the right-wing conservatives were against them.

6. The “ Essence of New Typography” is clarity. This puts it into the direct opposition to the old typography; whose aim was beauty and whose clarity did not attain the high level we require today. Sans Serif allowed for many typeface markers to minimize don’t design, such as Herbert Bayer who sought to reduce the alphabet into clear and simple forms and removed all capital letters were incompatible in design because two totally different symbols would represent the same sound.  Other typeface creators were influenced past typeface creations. Eric Gill was such an example, citing types used in Old Catholicism as well as Bayer’s own design. Sans Serif fonts were embraced because they create a cleaner appearance and quick legibility, focusing on functionality.