An Exploration into Lazlo Moholy-Nagy's 14 Bauhaus Books in Relation to Visual Culture
ation into 14 bauhaus books Choose EITHER a key image OR one of the other lecture or seminar images from the Making Modernities unit. Discuss it in relation to its historical context(s) including, where relevant, the theme of modernity.
When analysing 'the 14 bauhaus books ' by Lazlo Moholy-Nagy (see figure 1) in relation to it 's historical context, at least 5 components have to be considered. These are: the image itself; the movement it is part of; the artist, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, that made it; the bauhaus- the institute it was produced for and where the artist taught - and how these parts have changed or influenced modern times. My argument is that all of these separate components, the main being the movement of Modernism, made life better for the International populations that welcomed it, through the universal progression that modernism once promised.
14 Bauhaus Books is not a 'pretty ' image. The dirty red mixed with the hard texture of the metal type is not pleasing to the eye for any viewer. But then again it is not meant to be pleasing, the image is a brochure cover, nothing more. Although by todays standards it is crude in design, vaguely relating to the brochure that it covers, which does go into detail about some new typographical forms, it was rather advanced for 1929 as it was a Modernist piece – rejecting decoration. No longer focussing on decoration produced a new language of design that could be understood by everyone, including workers in modern industry. Moholy-Nagy followed his own teachings on typography fully, stating that:
“Letters should never be squeezed into an arbitrary shape...like a square. A new typographic language must be created combining elasticity, variety and a fresh approach to the materials of printing....” (Naylor, 1968, p.127)
This approach to communication through printed material can still be seen today, particularly in adverts which have a very short amount of time to impact on and communicate to an audience. A
When analysing 'the 14 bauhaus books ' by Lazlo Moholy-Nagy (see figure 1) in relation to it 's historical context, at least 5 components have to be considered. These are: the image itself; the movement it is part of; the artist, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, that made it; the bauhaus- the institute it was produced for and where the artist taught - and how these parts have changed or influenced modern times. My argument is that all of these separate components, the main being the movement of Modernism, made life better for the International populations that welcomed it, through the universal progression that modernism once promised.
14 Bauhaus Books is not a 'pretty ' image. The dirty red mixed with the hard texture of the metal type is not pleasing to the eye for any viewer. But then again it is not meant to be pleasing, the image is a brochure cover, nothing more. Although by todays standards it is crude in design, vaguely relating to the brochure that it covers, which does go into detail about some new typographical forms, it was rather advanced for 1929 as it was a Modernist piece – rejecting decoration. No longer focussing on decoration produced a new language of design that could be understood by everyone, including workers in modern industry. Moholy-Nagy followed his own teachings on typography fully, stating that:
“Letters should never be squeezed into an arbitrary shape...like a square. A new typographic language must be created combining elasticity, variety and a fresh approach to the materials of printing....” (Naylor, 1968, p.127)
This approach to communication through printed material can still be seen today, particularly in adverts which have a very short amount of time to impact on and communicate to an audience. A
Bibliography: Greenhalgh, P (Ed.) (1990) Modernism in Design, London: Reaktion Gropius, W. (1956) The Scope of Total Architecture, New York: Harper and Row Naylor, G. (1968) Bauhaus, London: Studio Vista Whitford, F. (1984) Bauhaus, London: Thames and Hudson Antonio, J. (2009) 'Seagram Building '. Retrieved January 18th, 20112 from www.flickr.com Herlihy, J. (2012) 'Rietveld: Shroder- Shrader House '. Retrieved January 17th, 2012 from www.bc.edu Malgo, D. (2010) 'Lecture 4 '. Retrieved January 15th, 2012 from www.contemporarypractice.wordpress.com Mellon, A. (2001) '14 Bauhaus Books '. Retrieved January 17th, 2012, from www.artstor.com McAnerney, D. (2010) 'Grow on Trees '. Retrieved January 18th, 2012 from www.sunrype.ca Riley, B. (2010) 'OP Art History Part I: A History of Perspective inArt '. RetrievedJanuary 17, 2012 from www.op-art.co.uk