Piet Mondrian was fascinated by Cubism, primarily by the drawings, when he saw it in 1911 for the first time in Paris. The black lines that were the basic element of Cubism overwhelmed Mondrian, and by 1912, he put it over the painting surface like a grille. This had the effect of the lead rods of a church window. The famous series Trees was created. He painted the tree again and again in progressively more abstract fashion until he had arrived at a concise form that was a sort of symbol for a tree. His studies led him in 1915 to paintings that consisted only of a pattern of vertical and horizontal lines. The amazing new thing about this was the even distribution of the symbols on the painting surface. A recognisable centre had disappeared. Now, he could draw an abstract net across the canvas, and, if he wanted, out of this series of lines, he could have the familiar resurface. The uniformity in a painting had been discovered; its complete autonomy. He sought its static strength. He found the solution for the first time in 1918 with a pure screen painting.
At the beginning of the 1920s, he composed a series of masterworks. With their large red, blue, or yellow surfaces, they radiate a suggestive power of a rising, an expansion, and of dynamism in a black lattice net. Besides these, he composed works in whose centre there is a white emptiness and thereby achieves a suggestive radiating power. In the late 1930s, the all-encompassing screen paintings became prominent once again and with them the experiments with controlled coincidence. In New York, he found another item to help him with his sketches. This was adhesive tape. With this new helpful item, it became possible for him to work more quickly and to execute the random distribution of the directed shifts and regroupings more quickly. He could now avoid corrective and time-consuming repainting.
Max Bill, Infinite Torsion (Curva infinita), 1953–1956. Bronze, 125 × 125 × 80 cm.
Openluchtmuseum voor Beeldhouwkunst Middelheim, Antwerp.
The Bauhaus
Rapid technical and economic growth around 1900 resulted in the creation of trade associations in many countries which, in architecture and the crafts, sought greater equality of form.
In the Bauhaus, the goals of the trades associations saw their further advancement. The medieval concept of a synthesis of the arts was re-emerging. The architect Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in 1919 in Weimar. Craftsmen under the direction of renowned artists, who were called ‘masters’, tested out fundamental ideas of shape, colour, material and their interaction. The Bauhaus wanted to put itself at the service of the industrial world and strove for the unity of all craft and artistic disciplines. Painting, sculpture, trades and applied arts were inseparable elements in the art of construction. The artist was to step out of his ghetto and work together with tradesmen and industry. Walter Gropius was successful in engaging artists with the Bauhaus who had already made a name for themselves. The aura of these individuals is the basis even today for the reputation of this school. Among the first were Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, who taught in the workshops for stained glass making and mural painting. In the printing shop was Lyonel Feininger; Gerhard Marcks was in the pottery shop; and Georg Muche was in the weaving mill. Oskar Schlemmer was responsible for both wood and stone sculpture. From 1923 onwards, he was also responsible for the Bauhaus stage, following the departure of Lothar Schreyer. Johannes Itten, László Modoly-Nagy and, finally, Josef Albers taught the introductory and basic courses.
A restructuring took place after the Bauhaus moved in 1926 from Weimar to Dessau. No longer did the basic principles of Johannes Itten, stressing the sensual perception of colour and quality of materials have pride of place, but rather that of basic design. Dynamic strengths and functions of materials were tested.
In the course of their research, the Bauhaus members published diverse essays, including Josef Albers on the non-utilitarian design theory. One verified the utility of modern materials, as well as their functional and aesthetic uses. These experiments were geared towards series production, which was advantageous for industry. Albers wrote:
In an economically oriented time, the chief concern is economical design that is determined by the factors of function and material. Before conceiving the function stands the study of the material.
Independent, constructive thinking is required, and beyond this, the testing of uncommon materials like straw, paper, cellophane, wallpaper, corrugated board, newspaper, wire mesh, labels, razor blades… ‘Thinking is the cheapest form of wear and tear,’ was the slogan. Every element had to be of equal value. Spatial thinking, new perspectives, precise observation, a most refined sense of structure, material, and for surfaces were innovations that lived on in many art genres even after World War II.
The Nazis closed the Bauhaus in 1933. After World War II, an attempt was made at the School of Design in Ulm to continue the Bauhaus traditions. Max Bill, who served at this institution for several years as the rector, had already taught at the Bauhaus from 1927 to 1929. In 1931, he joined Abstraction-Création, and, in 1944, he assumed a teaching position at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich. His sculptures – with the impressive ‘naturally pure’ river, the endless ribbons and the rolling spaces – gave the impression of having sprung from the ‘pure’ flow of a paper web, just as Albers had taught at the Bauhaus.
The Hungarian Alexander Bortnyik opened a private studio for applied graphic arts in 1928 that became known as the Budapest Bauhaus. After fleeing the Nazi regime, Moholy-Nagy, Mies van der Rohe, Albers and Feininger founded the New Bauhaus in Chicago. In the 1950s and 1960s, their ideas influenced the Colour Field and Hard Edge painting styles in America.
In his art, Josef Albers made the reduction of shape and colour vivid with his squares. The square, as the purest of shapes, illustrates the aesthetic power of simplification. Shape in the form of a square recedes into the extreme background. The superimposition of colour layers leads to ever-new transparencies and to ever new and fascinating colour dialogues. Albers chose the nested square form so that the colour quality would appear ‘free floating’ and ‘clearly limited’ in relation to the neighbouring colours and develop a life of its own. In 1950, he began the long series Homage to the Square as a painting, as a silk-screen print or as a tapestry.
The longer we look at Albers’ paintings, the less visible the squares become, and the more visible alone the colour becomes. Albers’ homage to the square is entirely an hommage to colour.
With the constant repetition of one and the same shape, Josef Albers provided a fundamental contribution to the theme of the ‘series’. Albers is, thereby, a pioneer of Concrete Art with their varieties ranging from Op Art and Kinetic Art, as well as Colour Field Painting and its variations.
Oskar Schlemmer, Stairway of the Bauhaus, 1932.
Oil on canvas, 162.3 × 114.3 cm. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Lyonel Feininger, Gelmeroda IX, 1926.
Oil on canvas, 108 × 80 cm. Folkwang Museum, Essen.
In 1921, the Hungarian and former lawyer, László Moholy-Nagy met El Lissitzky in Düsseldorf. He painted his first Constructivist painting, and, in the book he published in 1922 in Vienna, Book of New Artists, he declared his position with respect to the new art. His work at the Bauhaus from 1923 to 1928 was remarkably far-reaching. Moholy-Nagy liked to experiment and looked for new methods in new areas. So it was with coloured light, similar to Man Ray, in photograms and photomontages. And just like the brothers Gabo and Pevsner, he experimented with kinetic space modules.
Oskar Schlemmer sought the synthesis of all the arts. In the area of set design for the theatre, he could develop his ideas of harmony as a reflection of the human soul. The figure of man ought to be the measure of all things on stage as on the canvas. The preoccupation with dance and the theatre allowed him to imagine a new conception of space: space is no longer just expansion,