- - The original note follows - -
From: randolph@xxxxxxxxxx (Randolph Fritz)
Subject: The politics of the Bauhaus
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 06:27:08 GMT
In my occasional notice of the Bauhaus and other European modernists
while doing design research, I've begun to wonder if part of the
sparseness and enforced uniformity of their designs is the result of
politics; the sparseness a kind of "dressing down" of buildings, a
deliberate attempt to remove the signs of wealth, and the uniformity
an effort to enforce a kind of equaliity. I wonder if there was
perhaps a large dollop of state socialism in their ideology--it was
popular enough in the time and place of the Bauhaus. I get hints from
the books I've looked at for other reasons--Le Courbusier did designs
for the Soviets in Stalin's period (I do not know how if the Soviets
commissioned or built any of them) and Groupius, in the 50s, referred
to Russia as a democracy.
If anyone knows, or knows any references on this subject, would you
please post or write me. I hope the discussion sticks with design and
the politics that influence it; I hope any political discussions go
instead to talk.politics.*.
Randolph Fritz
randolph@xxxxxxxxxx
From: randolph@xxxxxxxxxx (Randolph Fritz)
Subject: The politics of the Bauhaus
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 06:27:08 GMT
In my occasional notice of the Bauhaus and other European modernists
while doing design research, I've begun to wonder if part of the
sparseness and enforced uniformity of their designs is the result of
politics; the sparseness a kind of "dressing down" of buildings, a
deliberate attempt to remove the signs of wealth, and the uniformity
an effort to enforce a kind of equaliity. I wonder if there was
perhaps a large dollop of state socialism in their ideology--it was
popular enough in the time and place of the Bauhaus. I get hints from
the books I've looked at for other reasons--Le Courbusier did designs
for the Soviets in Stalin's period (I do not know how if the Soviets
commissioned or built any of them) and Groupius, in the 50s, referred
to Russia as a democracy.
If anyone knows, or knows any references on this subject, would you
please post or write me. I hope the discussion sticks with design and
the politics that influence it; I hope any political discussions go
instead to talk.politics.*.
Randolph Fritz
randolph@xxxxxxxxxx