bauhaus

The Bauhaus style emphasizes function and form in design, and is typified by elemental geometric shapes in painting. It has an industrial-based aesthetic that stands in opposition to the superfluous by its use of frugal, nonrepresentational patterning. Initially the Bauhaus set out to unite art and technology, with particular interest in enhancing people’s lives through the aesthetics of their surroundings. In the 1930s Boston became the refuge of the founder of the Bauhaus, architect Walter Gropius. The Bauhaus influence, with its emphasis on clarity and geometric design, is felt in Boston’s architecture. Gropius’s private residence, which embodies the Bauhaus philosophy, stands in Lincoln, Massachusetts. A classic of Bauhaus style, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s kinetic sculpture, “Light-Space Modulator,” (1923-30, reconstructed in 1970) is housed in Harvard’s Busch-Reisinger museum.