Bauhaus, Artist Animal, Curation.

Bauhaus, Cramsie Ch 13

Overall what I enjoyed and took away from this chapter was an understanding of the history of the Bauhaus in more detail than I knew before. In art history classes I've learned a bit here and there about pieces that have come out of the institution but never quite all the phases the school went through over the course of its being. The following are excerpts from the text that stood out...

"The idea of providing a general introductory course to teach the fundamental aspects of art was not new, but it was through the Bauhaus that such a course became the standard feature of art education in Europe and the United States during the second half of the twentieth century ... He saw the main purpose of the 'Basic Course', as being to free the students from any prior learning so that heir own individual nature could emerge." 191

"They took up what, at that time and in that place, were highly unusual practices, such as fasting, acupuncture or frequent gargling and garlic eating." 191

"Gropius's socialist belief in community and the role of art in binding communities together required his students to engage with the world around them, not retreat from it." 191

"The primary aim for this new kind of design was for it to be functional, or, as he put it, to find the 'right form for the stated function'..." 192

"A new emphasis on commercial art and advertising, rather than fine-art printing, brought the workshop a new status, which was reflected in its new name: 'The Printing and Advertising Workshop'." 194

"Moholy-Nagy called this arrangement an example of 'typophoto', a form of design he considered to be 'the most visually exact rendering of communication' ... In typophoto, however, they should be seen, heard and listened to." 194


"It was born out of the twin recognition that the cold, hard purity of mechanical reproduction could have a special form of beauty of its own, and more than that, that by breaking free of the human prejudice and artfulness that plagued the painter's hand, these new methods of image making could come closer to revealing the world as it really was." 195

"Today, most adult handwriting is so unpracticed it looks primitive, almost childlike." 196

"Why is there for one sound, for example 'a', two signs 'A' and 'a'? One sound, one sign. Why two alphabets for one word, why double the number of signs when half would achieve the same?" 198

"...exclude from their symbols any 'details which do not improve the [symbols'] narrative character'." 200

"Over time he [Jan Tschichold] was t hone his mastery of this kind of dynamic, balanced asymmetry to such an extent that even the most free-form and minimal arrangements were suffused with a sense of harmonious equilibrium." 203




Artist Animal, Steve Baker

Baker made good points in his statements, however it's hard to completely agree or disagree with them. They seem to be provocative where as they are taking a firm stance on one end or the other of an opinion which is helpful to form your own opinions but it's a bit confusing to put into context against what we're taught in school and from past history. However, I do understand the points being made and their supporting details, I appreciate the way they turn my thoughts in another direction to consider what is at hand. These quotes from 'On Artists and Intentions' 90-91 and 'On Relevant Questions' 180-181 show what I mean:

"It is neither theoretically necessary nor desirable to make psychologistic assumptions concerning the intentions of the photographer; it is the pre-constituted field of discourse which is the substantial 'author' here: photograph and photographer alike are its products and, in the act of seeing, so is the viewer." 91

"...complex of texts, rhetorics, codes, woven into the fabric of the popular preconscious." 91

"intention is a word I should use as little as possible." 91

"...the word intention refers 'to pictures rather more than to painters'." 91


"There are no good answers if the question is not the relevant one." 181

"Art consists in the shaping of just such 'precious tools for thinking'." 181




Curating

What I plan to do over Spring Break for the curation project is to write a detailed but moderately brief description of what the space I've deigned is and is meant to teach you. I want to make a book with this description as well as the images I've chosen and show an example of how it would look in the room. My overall idea for this is to create a sort of catalogue for the exhibit.