Early Modernism
DEUTSCHER WERKBUND, Germany, Munich 1907 was important in the development of modern architecture/industrial design, and the Bauhaus school of design. Peter Behrens 1868-1940 1907, age 39, AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gessellschaft) retained Behrens as artistic consultant. Werkbund Exhibition, Cologne 1914 Groupe Exhibition, Weissenhof Estate 1927 DE STJIL, (THE STYLE) Netherlands 1917 Piet Mondrian 1872-1944 Gerrit Rietveld 1888-1964 Theo van Doesburg 1883-1931 J.J.P. Oud 1890-1963 After van Doesburg’s death(1931), De Stijl stopped, the group did not survive.
German association of architects, artists, designers, and industrialists.
The Werkbund was founded in 1907 in Munich existed through 1934
then re-established after World War II in 1950.
state-sponsored effort to integrate traditional crafts and industrial mass-production techniques
(to put Germany on a competitive footing with England and the United States.)
The organization included twelve architects and twelve business firms.
The architects include Hermann Muthesius, Henri van de Velde, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Peter Behrens,
Theodor Fischer, Josef Hoffmann, Bruno Paul, and Richard Riemerschmid.
German architect and designer.
studied painting in his native Hamburg
worked as a painter, illustrator, book-binder in artisanal way.
frequented the bohemian circles and was interested in subjects related to the reform of life-styles.
He designed corporate identity (logotype, product design, publicity, etc.)
Behrens’ work for AEG was the first large-scale demonstration of the viability and vitality of the Werkbund’s initiatives and objectives (the first industrial designer in history)
Behrens designed the A.E.G. Turbine Factory.
From 1907 to 1912, he had students and assistants, and among them were Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris (also known as Le Corbusier), Adolf Meyer, Jean Kramer and Walter Gropius (later to become the first director of the Bauhaus.)
Bruno Taut’s best-known building, the prismatic dome of the Glass Pavilion familiar from black and white reproduction, was a brightly colored landmark. Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer designed a model factory for the exhibition. Henri van de Velde designed a model theatre.
Estate built, all memebers participated 1927.
included architects:
Peter Behrens, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
De Stijl proposed ultimate simplicity and abstraction, both in architecture and painting.
Advocate Materialism and Functionalism
De Stijl is derived from the name of a journal published by the Dutch Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian, Gerrit Rietveld and J.J.P. Oud.
father and uncle, Fritz Mondriaan, both qualified drawing teachers,
principals of abstraction down to squares and rectangles
Mondrian co-founded De Stijl group, later the journal, in which he published his first essays defining his theory: “neoplasticism”.
In 1916, Rietveld studying architecture, started his own furniture factory
Red and Blue Chair in 1917, but changed its colours to the familiar style in 1918 after he became influenced by the ‘De Stijl’ movement, of which he became a member in 1919, became an architect the same year.
In 1924 he designed his first building the Rietveld Schröder House
The design seems like a three dimensional realisation of a Mondrian painting.
painter, designer, writer, and critic
his early work is in line with the Amsterdam Impressionists influenced by Vincent van Gogh both in style and subject matter.
changed in 1913 after reading Kandinsky’s autobiography ‘Rückblicke’, adopts more spiritual level in painting, belives abstraction is the only logical outcome
studied under Theodor Fischer (Werkbund)
met Doesburg and became involved with the movement De Stijl.
contributed to the influential modernist Weissenhof Estate exhibition.
The De Stijl influence on architecture continues