Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: art. This is a book based on the art school and architectural/artistic movement called bauhaus.
I don’t always like getting pushed out of my reading comfort zone except when I do.
For both CBR17 Bingo AND my local library reading game respectively, I had to read a book on art. And like other subjects where I don’t have much of an interest in, I grab something that’s quick and digestible. This one clocked in under 200 pages and had plenty of pictures.
But I do appreciate art history, even if I’m not an expert on the subject. I think art explains a lot of how societies function and in fewer places is that more clear than in the bauhaus movement. The book mostly describes the school that produced the style: Bauhaus in Weimar Germany. “Bau” means to build in a strict sense but it has a more nurturing connotation. That’s what the school was aiming for and I think it worked it effectively.
Bauhaus really does feel like a good summation of art during the Weimar Germany era. You have its focus on clean lines, where every line has a point as Kandinsky, perhaps the most famous person associated with Bauhaus, noted. Even the beautifully designed Bauhaus homes are built with purpose and livability in mind.
At the same time, the abstract nature of many visual bauhaus works suggests the same confusion and transition that followed the dangerous years post-WWI and predated the rise of the Nazis. And in a way of bringing new life out of what died: it was the Nazis who made bauhaus famous post-WWII because they shut down the school and dismissed and destroyed the work as a byproduct of Bolshevist decadent yada yada yada anti-Semitism.
A good intro book if you’re into the movement or want to learn more. Or if you just want an easy book about art history.