Walter Gropius, Bauhaus buildings, Dessau, 1926.
Photo by R.
Petschow. Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin.
Abstraction in Architecture
The relationship between abstract art and Modernist architecture was particularly strong in the early twentieth century. Many painters paid homage to architectural principles in their abstract compositions. Some, such as Kazimir Malevich in works he called architectonics, went so far as to experiment with three-dimensional extrapolations of ideas first explored in paintings.
A number of artistic groups and movements evolved around the formation of polytechnic schools, which taught the integration of art, architecture, and design. The most famous of these was the Bauhaus, founded in Weimar, Germany in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius. His design for the school s buildings in Dessau (constructed in 1926), a series of interlocking geometric forms around a central matrix, embodies the transformation of an abstract, planar composition into a functioning, three-dimensional form. One of the great landmarks of the twentieth century, Gropius' Bauhaus buildings exemplify the primary tenets of Modernist architecture: the celebration of industrial materials and construction techniques, and the banishing of ornament and handcrafted elements in favor of a sleek, machinelike aesthetic.
The Museum of Non-Objective PaintingAbstraction in the Twentieth Century
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