Walter Gropius, Bauhaus buildings, Dessau, 1926.
Photo by R.Petschow. Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin.
Abstraction in Architecture
The relationship between abstract art and Modernist architecturewas particularly strong in the early twentieth century. Many painters paidhomage to architectural principles in their abstract compositions. Some,such as Kazimir Malevich in works he called architectonics, went sofar as to experiment with three-dimensional extrapolations of ideas firstexplored in paintings.
A number of artistic groups and movementsevolved around the formation of polytechnic schools, which taught theintegration of art, architecture, and design. The most famous of these wasthe Bauhaus, founded in Weimar, Germany in 1919 by architectWalter Gropius. His design for the school s buildings inDessau (constructed in 1926), a series of interlocking geometricforms around a central matrix, embodies the transformation of an abstract,planar composition into a functioning, three-dimensional form. One of thegreat landmarks of the twentieth century, Gropius' Bauhausbuildings exemplify the primary tenets of Modernist architecture:the celebration of industrial materials and construction techniques, andthe banishing of ornament and handcrafted elements in favor of a sleek,machinelike aesthetic.
The Museum of Non-Objective PaintingAbstraction in the Twentieth Century
Abstraction in:
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