The Bauhaus was inspired by modernism and was anti-war and anti-nationalist. Due to this, it couldn’t be identifiable to a particular identity, it was impartial. This idea is very interesting to me. I had never before thought of how certain art movements could be tied to particular identities or nationalities, but upon reflection it becomes evidently clear.
Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix
Girl in Summer Costume by Hashiguchi Goyō
These two artworks above are clearly tied to the nationalities of the respective artists, not that there is anything inherently wrong with that, but compared with the work below (Tableau I by Piet Mondrian) it can be seen how the artists of the Bauhaus stepped away from showing nationality in their work.
Some key designers of the Bauhaus include:
Piet Mondrian
Theo Van Doesburg
Kasmir Malevich
El Lissitzky
Alexander Rodchenko
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
Herbert Bayer
Kandinsky
Inspired by the work of Jan Tschihold, who was the father of the new typography , the artists of the Bauhaus used sans-serif typefaces, which were functional, understandable, modern and had no national identity.
Futura (sans-serif)
Old English (Serif)
The Bauhaus School was closed by the Nazi’s in 1933, as the artwork was deemed ‘degenerate art’ and not ‘German’ or ‘Aryan’ enough. This goes to show how successful the Bauhaus was in creating modern, ground-breaking designs which transcended national identity, and in the end- threatened fascism.