Gropius, Walter. The Theory and Organization of the Bauhaus (1923)

Armstrong, Helen. Graphic Design Theory: Readings From the Field, Princeton Architectural Press, 2009. Pages 32-34, 44-49. 

Questions / Prompts 

Here are the questions to which you should respond in your reading response:

  • According to these authors, what is missing from the art of the past?
  • What role should typography, photography, and other media play in shaping a new kind of art? 
  • What role should language play in art and design?
  • What sort of new strategies or ideas will be necessary for future art forms? 
  • What should education or “the academy” teach artists about their field?

Reading Response 4

From the readings, I think the missing piece from the art of the past was the freedom to explore different fields of arts and how to use them outside of learning. “The academy” isolated artists from exploring and experimenting with the arts instead they force them to do what they deemed was appropriate. By isolating these artists they were limiting their abilities and depriving their art of any passion or life. Art can’t be mastered through schooling alone, but by practicing and applying the foundations as well as breaking those foundations to create something entirely new. 

Through the use of typography, photography, and other such media their role in shaping a new kind of art allows for a new way of expression. These mediums have a near-limitless potential in their applications depending on how they’re used alone or together. They also help strengthen the role artists and designers play in society with the ability to communicate their messages to the general public. By experimenting and applying these different kinds of media it creates new visual literature and language that could lead to universal communication. 

By having language in art and design, it gives meaning to the works instead of it being a nice-looking image it becomes something more a message to the audience that the creator is trying to express. With the ever-changing and constantly growing mediums within the art field, language is able to become a more exact rendering of communicating. 

Having a good sense of individuality but also knowing how to collaborate with a community are necessary for future art forms. We are now in a society where being able to communicate with the entire world is in our grasps. With this artists and designers have access to express their messages globally through their work. Being able to know how to communicate their message accurately is important when standing on the global stage for all to see. 

Through their education, aspiring artists should be taught the foundations of a variety of fields within art. They should have the freedom to choose which field suits them the most and be able to experiment to develop their skills. Being able to apply and practice their knowledge allows them to further express their inner visions through their own hands.

Hypothesis / Annotations

  1. Idea: No longer can anything exist in isolation.
  2. Definition: Dilettantism
  3. Idea: For this reason, the basis of collective education must be sufficiently broad to permit the development of every kind of talent.