Main entry:

Kentgens-Craig, Margret, 1948-

Title & Author:

The Bauhaus and America : first contacts, 1919-1936 / Margret Kentgens-Craig.

Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©1999.

Description:

xx, 283 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes statements by Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 246-272) and index.
1. Call for rejuvenation in America. Political and economic empowerment ; Power, status, and architecture ; The need for housing ; The search for modernity ; Critique of contemporary architecture -- 2. Dissemination of Bauhaus ideas : paths of communication. Implicit information ; Explicit information about the Bauhaus -- 3. Image of the Bauhaus as received in America. Founding ; Phases of existence ; The directors ; The faculty ; Institutional character -- 4. Controversies surrounding Bauhaus architecture. Aesthetic objections ; Politically motivated barriers ; Acceptance and support -- 5. Against the odds : the resolution of contradictions. Suppression of the Weltanschauung and social utopian aspects of the Bauhaus ; Identification with anti-Fascism ; Potential for Americanization ; Expectations of an American renaissance ; Supply and demand ; Open-mindedness and acceptance -- Appenidx: Documents. Arts Club of Chicago, catalogue of the first Bauhaus exhibition in the United States, March 1931 ; United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, Walter Gropius file (Excerpts) ; United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe file (Excerpts).
Current Copyright Fee: GBP15.00 0.
Translation of: Bauhaus-Architektur.
Dust jacket.

Summary:

"The Bauhaus was founded in Weimar in 1919 by the German architect Walter Gropius, moved to Dessau in 1925 and to Berlin in 1932, and was dissolved in 1933 by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe under political duress. Although it existed for a mere fourteen years and boasted fewer than 1,300 students, its influence is felt throughout the world in numerous buildings, artworks, objects, concepts, and curricula."--Jacket.
"After the Bauhaus's closing in 1933, many of its protagonists moved to the United States, where their acceptance had to be cultivated. In this book Margret Kentgens-Craig shows that the fame of the Bauhaus in America was the result not only of the inherent qualities of its concepts and products, but also of a unique congruence of cultural supply and demand, of a consistent flow of information, and of fine-tuned marketing. Thus the history of the American reception of the Bauhaus in the 1920s and 1930s foreshadows the patterns of fame-making that became typical of the post-World War II art world."--Jacket.

ISBN:

026211237X (hc ; alk. paper)
9780262112376 (hc ; alk. paper)
0262611716
9780262611718

Subject:

Gropius, Walter, 1883-1969
Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig, 1886-1969
Bauhaus Influence.
Bauhaus
Architecture, German United States.
Architecture United States History 20th century.
Architecture allemande États-Unis.
Architecture États-Unis Histoire 20e siècle.
Architecture
Architecture, German
Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
Receptie.
United States

Form/genre:

Quotations (texts)
History
Books.

Added entries:

Gropius, Walter, 1883-1969
Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig, 1886-1969

Holdings:

Location: Library main 210396
Call No.: N332.G33 B342 1999
Status: Available