During this week’s lecture, we explored the topics of Bauhaus, Russian Constructivism and De Stiji.

De Stiji:

The Stiji is an art movement which began in the Netherlands in 1917 at the end of WW1, which heavily influenced the birth of this movement and its beliefs about design and how it should be. This movement is characterised by its abstract geometric style and primary colour palette, with elements of grey, white, and black.

The artists in the movement, such as Piet Mondrian, Bart Anthony van der Leck and Vilmos Huszár ,

aimed to discover universal laws of balance and harmony in art.

The members of this movement stayed away from naturalistic forms and subjective interpretation. They believed that beauty came from the purity of the art and aimed to produce works that are in “universal harmony”.

This mentality, being a reaction to the horrors of WW1, is incredibly interesting to me.

• Theo Van Doesburg:

Russian Constructivism:

Russian Constructivism is a post-WW1 art movement and direct development of Futurism, and had a major impact on both the Stijl and Bauhaus styles of design. This influence is clearly seen in both the movements, the limited colour palette, simple shape and line used and the ideology behind it.

This movement, just like De Stijl, was a response to the past popular design work; however, russian constructivism was made for industrial design as it would better support the newly communist Russia.

The use of photography and collage in this movement reminded me of popular post-modern designs, such as the Sex Pistols “God Save the Queen” Album cover. However, this use of it clearly feels alot more structured and industrial, which surprisingly I love.

Bauhaus Documentary:

Coming up to the end of the lecture, we were tasked with watching the BBC Bauhaus documentary on YouTube.