bauhaus

In my many years of Art History classes, Bauhaus is one of those movements that was always skimmed over, or skipped entirely.  This suprises me a little bit, as even a cursory investigation into the movement makes it apparent that Bauhaus paved the way for all modern industrial design and architecture.  I would still today, almost 100 years after the school's inception, consider the style of design prominent in Bauhaus art, architecture, and design, very modern.  It's about simplicity and functionality, something that perhaps lost popularity around the 50s, when, in the US at least, people were living out their "American Dream."  Simplicity and functionality weren't necessarily what we were looking for then, and I think that industrial design strayed away from Bauhaus ideals, but more recently - in the last 20 years or so, I can definitely see Bauhaus influence in modern design.  From 1919 until 1933, when the Nazis shut down the school, Bauhaus worked toward an ideal unity: the Bauhaus artist would be able to combine creativity of design with functionality and industry.  Bauhaus was almost a way to keep a creative element in a place where machines had eradicated one-of-a-kind, handmade practical objects.  The goal was to combine architecture and industrial design in a way that was economical, functional, and visually appealing.  Really a fascinating idea.  This is something I'd like to research more.