On Sunday afternoon, I went to the ‘Still Undead’ exhibition at the Nottingham Contemporary for a bit of art culture in my life. The exhibition is based upon how Bauhaus ideas and teaching was used in Britain in the 1920s-1990s, via pop culture and art schools.
Now, as doing an Art Foundation Diploma last year, and now studying a fashion course, you’d think I’d have a solid knowledge of the Bauhaus and what it’s all about ... wrong. I’ve heard the term floating about but never properly looked into it, which would have made my life a whole lot easier than sitting there pretending I knew what it was. The Bauhaus was a German art school operational in 1919-1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts and was famous for the approach to design that is publicised and is still taught today. It was founded upon the idea of creating a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ (a ‘total’ work of art) in which all the arts would eventually be brought together. The approach stressed function and directness over ornamentation and asymmetry and regularity over symmetry. Only line, shape and colours mattered. Anything else was unnecessary and could, therefore, be reduced.
After gaining this basic art knowledge, the exhibition itself showed me physical examples of the Bauhaus approach being used. It features work from 50 artists, narrating how the Bauhaus legacy has been transmitted and transformed over the years. The exhibit begins with experiments in light and sound created by Bauhaus students and teachers. This was interesting to see the use of geometric shapes within the designs, creating a clear focus. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Bauhaus closed, and a number of masters and students came to Britain. After WWII, Bauhaus methods reshaped British art schools through a new approach to artistic training known as Basic Design. This was emphasised through intuition and experimentation, colour and material.
The exhibition was split into different eras which made it visually easy to follow how the method has progressed over the years, whilst seeing the clear inspiration and similarities between the galleries. At the beginning of the 1960s, the young generation began to reimagine the aims of the Bauhaus for an era of consumerism and commercial design. The graphic designs and installations show the social progression through the use of primary colours and geometric shapes, which was interesting because despite all the creations having the same ideology behind them, their outcomes were all so different.
My favourite gallery of the exhibition was the focus of the 1970s and 80s, where youth culture looked back to the early 20th century avant-gardes for inspiration. This section of the exhibition is a mixture of performance, music and graphic design, which fashions the spirit of Bauhaus parties and theatre. I think the colours in this specific section really popped, especially the interlocking shapes and repeating pattern of a piece of artwork that I forgot to take down the name of because I’m rubbish and got too excited about the pretty colours. However, it is shown to the right here, so admire all its colourful beauty.
I really liked this exhibition and it fully solidified in my brain what the Bauhaus was and how it still influences art today. I think it was interesting to see it in all its forms, whether it was clothing or installation, you could see the basic foundations of the ideology. This will also help me when analysing a fashion photograph or any piece of art, making my knowledge wider and be able to eloquently explain in detail what it is portraying. So, thank you, Bauhaus and your art!
(exhibition is open until 12 Jan 2020 so you've got bags of time to go have a look, but make sure you do!)
Comentarios