Bauhaus , or "house of architecture," Germany's premier school of avant-garde art and architecture, stressed a functionalism in design and art. Offering courses in painting, theater, handicrafts, typography, and architecture, the cutting-edge academy strove to link technological think-tanks with the skills... [more]
Bauhaus , or "house of architecture," Germany's premier school of avant-garde art and architecture, stressed a functionalism in design and art. Offering courses in painting, theater, handicrafts, typography, and architecture, the cutting-edge academy strove to link technological think-tanks with the skills of creative artists. Attacked by Hitler's regime early on, the school was shut down in 1933. Although the school supported no theatrical tradition itself, its vivid visual influence impacted staging and set design for decades to follow, while its spirit of creative functionality impelled playwrights to incorporate its sleek, well-designed aesthetic into their own works. With the Bauhaus dictum of "form follows function" in mind, the trick for subsequent dramatists was to focus on what they were trying to say instead of how they were going to stage it. This motto would haunt the plays of Brecht, the Absurdists, and the Existentialists, the philosophic heirs to the Bauhaus throne.
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