The Bauhaus in Australia

The Bauhaus in Australia[1]

The Bauhaus institution began to gather a popular following in Australia in the 1930s with the appearance of Walter Gropius’s The New Architecture and the Bauhaus (1935).[2] The illustrated book resulted in lectures and lecturers, news articles in the popular press, book reviews and lectures from Bauhaus partisans. Prior to his 1935 publication, a search of the literature suggests the modest engagement with the Bauhaus ethos was restricted to the architectural and design press. It is not clear how the Bauhaus came to the attention of the trade press in the late 1920s. After 1954, Gropius attended the RAIA Convention, Sydney and his profile grew to celebrity proportions.

1928

 Anon. [Florence Taylor][3] “Freak House Design.” Futurism in Germany.” Building. 12 July 1928. pp.53-55. Illustrated. Discussion of work of Dessau Bauhaus. “Now flat blocks have intruded their businesslike, rectangular forms on the scene, in a manner destructive of previous conceptions of domestic architecture, and such is the influence of the flat block, together with industrial buildings, machine methods and post-war kinks in man’s cerebellums, that all previous routes are being deviated from in the architecture of the home.” (p.53)

Anon. [Francis Taylor]. “Freak House Design. A German Movement for Cheap Housing.” Construction and Local Government Journal, 15 August 1928, p.13-18. Illustrated. Reprint of Anon. [Francis Taylor] “Freak House Design. Futurism in Germany.” Building. 12 July 1928. pp.53-55, with an additional serving of vituperative description, now extended to Austria and the Netherlands.

Henry Pynor.[4] “Visit old countries for new ideas for your home. A brief note on the aims and ideals of The Bauhaus, the centre of the latest movement in Modern Design.” The Home, 1 October, 1928, pp.48-49. “The Bauhaus in Dessau is the centre of the movement in this country, a laboratory for research in all crafts and architecture; an organized attempt to reduce all these to basic principles, to disassociate the building arts from privilege and luxury and to solve practically and economically the new building problems” (p.48)

1936

 Anon. [Morton Herman?] “The New Architecture and the Bauhaus.” Building, 13 January 1936. pp.101-103. Book review of Walter Gropius, The New Architecture and the Bauhaus. Faber & Faber. “The new architecture had to commence by being stark and formal in order to seek standards. This is a reaction from the welter of copying and adaptation of styles which had ceased to have significance in relation to modern building.”

Anon. “Production of Houses in Factories.” Launceston Examiner, 25 March, 1936, p.12. A précis of Walter Gropius’s book, The New Architecture and the Bauhaus. featuring generous excerpts.

Anon. “New Architecture.” The Canberra Times, 22 August 1936, p.2. Reportage on a lecture by M.J. Moir on “modern trends in architecture” before the Society of Arts and Literature,[5] Canberra. Moir recommends Bruno Taut's Modern Architecture", Gropius’s The New Architecture and the Bauhaus, The_Modern House by F R S Yorke, Architecture Here and Now by Ellis and Summerson with a passing mention of Le Corbusier and other authors.

John and Ray Oldham give a series of lectures in Perth, WA for the Workers Art Guild (CP Australia) in 1936 on the Bauhaus instructor Moholy-Nagy’s work.[6]

1938

anon. “Dahl Collings Returns.” Sydney Morning Herald, 17 November 1938, p.22. Illustrated. Interview on her return to Sydney. "I worked on every kind of interior design during the five months I was with that most

modern store, Simpsons, Piccadilly," said Mrs. Collings. "Professor Moholy Nagy, the Hungarian who came there from the Bauhaus, his German Art School, was In charge, and based his display work on a modern conception never before seen in london. Now London has lost him, and he has gone to Chicago.”[7]

1939

"...R. Haughton James, who had recently established a Design Centre in Federation House, gave a lecture on the curriculum and organisation of the Bauhaus [in 1939]. It was probably the first time that the work of that important school had been publicly discussed in Sydney."[8]

R. Haughton James published a major feature in Sydney Ure Smith's 1939 magazine Australia National Journal,  "The Designer in Industry." Plentiful references to the Bauhaus and on one page, sets out the entire bauhaus curricululm.[9]

1940

George Teltscher attended the School of Arts and Crafts, Vienna, later studying at the Bauhaus 1921-23. He later immigrated to England where he was interned and deported to Australia aboard the vessel Dunera arriving in 1940. While interned at Hay, he designed "camp currency" printed locally. He returned to England to take up a teaching career, later taking a teaching post in Nigeria.[10]

His influence in Australia is negligible.

1945

Anon. “A modern museum of living art.” Sydney Morning Herald, 13 October 1945, p.8. A review of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. “America was earlier less enterprising than Europe In helping to promote the so-called international style of architecture but she has more than made up for cautious conservatism in recent years, helping to extend, improve, improvise upon and technically perfect the severely functional approach of the Bauhaus founders. One of the leaders of the trend in America is the Museum's Department of Architecture, whose recent show, "Built in the U.S.A., 1932-1944," afforded a panoramic view of the style in America.”

1952

Anon. “Mass Production to cut building costs.” Brisbane Courier-Mail, 12 November 1952, p.3. Reportage of an address by Peter Stephenson (of Stephenson & Turner) to the Australian Architectural Convention, Brisbane. “Mr. Stephenson said motor car and plane manufacturers could adapt their techniques to the production of building components, such as joinery, cupboards, walls, plumbing, and windows.”

1953

Anon. “He has changed the face of the world.” Sydney Sun-Herald, 25 October 1953, p.73. Profile of Walter Gropius on the announcement of his 1954 visit to Australia. “Mr. Peter Stephenson, of the firm of Stephenson and Turner, architects, of Barrack Street, was a selected student under Professor Gropius two years ago. "Walter Gropius," he said last week, "is more than an architect and designer. He is a great humanist with a complete philosophy of life, and a man of "absolute integrity. "He was, of course, the first to preach that you cannot run away from the machine age; you must come to amicable terms with it. […] "He has an enormous love of nature and enjoys living intensely, in spite of one of the saddest expressions I have ever seen.”

1954[11]

“The Bauhaus Building.” Adelaide, The Advertiser, 7 April 1954, p.18. Photograph and caption (“The Bauhaus Building.”) of multistory building. No accompanying text.

Anon. “Professor Walter Gropius and Mrs Gropius were guests of honour…”. Sydney Morning Herald, 6 May 1954, p.6. PROFESSOR WALTER GROPIUS and Mrs. Gropius were guests of honour last night at a party given by architect Harry Seidler in his Sulman prize-winning home built for his parents at Turramurra. Mr. Seidler, with Mr. Peter

Stephenson, are the only two architects now practising in Australia who studied under Professor Gropius when he was head of the School of Architecture at Harvard University. Mr. Stephenson, who is acting as the professor's aide while he attends the Fourth Australian Architectural Convention to begin in Sydney on Monday, was among the guests…”.

Walter Gropius visit to Australia, 1954-55. Keynote speaker at 4th Architecture Conference, Sydney.[12]

1957

Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack. “The Bauhaus. The beginnings.” Quadrant, vol.1, no.2 Autumn 1957. Summary history of the Bauhaus with insights into the student and faculty profiles.  This appears to be Hirschfeld-Mack’s first attempt to draw attention to his Bauhaus experiences.

POST 1960

Gallery A exhibition, "The Bauhaus. Aspects and Influence.” Gallery A, Catalogue 26 [1961]. Featured essay on Bauhaus by Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack. Summary history of the Bauhaus with excerpts from the curriculum and abbreviated biographies of selected staff members. Some modest illustrations.

Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack. The Bauhaus. An Introductory Survey. Longmans, 1963, 54 pp. Illustrated. Introduced by Professor Joseph Burke, Fine Arts, Melbourne University, Afterword by Sir Herbert Read.

“Gropius, the Bauhaus and The Future.” Lecture by Jack Pritchard. Bulletin. NSW RAIA Bulletin, February 1969, p.1.

 “The Bauhaus in the 1930s.” Lecture, Professor Hinterberger, 17 April 1998. Sothebys, Queen Street, Woollahra.

FELLOW TRAVELLERS

A selection of Australian designers and architects known to have a direct association with former Bauhaus faculty and/or institutions.

Arthur Baldwinson. (b.1908) Worked as Walter Gropius’s assistant while at Gropius and Fry, London, 1935-1937. Signed drawings by Baldwinson for Gropius and Fry practice in State Library of NSW Collections. Arthur Baldwinson. 1908-1969.   Studied architecture at Gordon Institute of Technology, Geelong. Travelled to England in 1932, worked with Raymond McGrath. Later worked with Maxwell Fry who formed a partnership with Walter Gropius in 1935. Baldwinson became Gropius's fulltime assistant until Gropius emigrated to the USA in 1937 with Baldwinson returning the same year.

Dahl Collings. (b.1909) Trained at Sydney Technical College, she worked as a freelance designer in London in the 1930s. Here she met the former Bauhaus teacher Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. He offered her work in his latest design team for a commission to develop the interior design and corporate identity of Simpson's, Piccadilly, London. She also introduced the master designer to the Australian graphic artist Alistair Morrison who also joined the team. Through this commission and the association with Moholy-Nagy, Dahl's husband Geoff, Alistair Morrison and Dahl herself were introduced to the Bauhaus methodology.[13] The 1950 film, By Design, produced and directed by Geoffrey Collings illustrates these designers’ debt to this pervasive modernist philosophy

Kjell Grant (Kell). Born Scotland, studied at the Royal College of Art, UK, then three years study at the Chicago Art Institute with Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.[14]

Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack. (1893-1965) Influenced by Oscar Schlemmer (later taught theatre arts at Bauhaus) he entered the school in 1919. Studied under Joseph Itten, Paul Klee, Lionel Feininger, left school in 1926. Left Germany, interned in London, sent into exile in Australia on the “Dunera”. Interned in Australia in 1940 but released in 1942 to teach at Geelong Grammar, Geelong, Victoria. Taught there for 15 yrs, retiring in 1957.[15]

Harry Seidler. (1923-2006) Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts. Graduate degree 1946. Arriving in Australia in 1947 following advanced study with Walter Gropius at Harvard Graduate School of Design.  Worked as assistant to Marcel Breuer in the former Bauhaus lecturer's New York practice. Rose Seidler House. His first Australian work was a family complex of three houses on an estate in Wahroonga.[16]

Peter Stephenson. (1921-2006) Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts. Graduate degree 1952. Amongst his earlier works on return from the USA was the ICI House, Sydney and the nuclear reactor building, Lucas Heights, NSW. He retired from practice in 1975.

A selection of Australian designers and architects known to have lectured, curated or promoted Bauhaus ideals but appear to have no direct association with former Bauhaus faculty and/or institutions.

Janet Dawson (b.1935) Coordinator of exhibitions at Melbourne’s Gallery A. The Bauhaus exhibition of 1961 was developed by Clement Meadmore.[17]

David Foulkes Taylor. (b.1929) West Australian designer, studied with Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack at Geelong Grammar.

R. Haughton James (1904-85). After arriving in Sydney in 1939, founding the Design Centre in Sydney with Geoff and Dahl Collings. James lectured on Bauhaus philosophy consistently throughout his career.  Bernard Smith states in his autobiography that "...R. Haughton James, who had recently established a Design Centre in Federation House, gave a lecture on the curriculum and organisation of the Bauhaus. It was probably the first time that the work of that important school had been publicly discussed in Sydney."[18]

R. Haughton James also published a major feature in Sydney Ure Smith's 1939 magazine Australia National Journal called "The Designer in Industry." he makes constant reference to the Bauhaus and on one page, sets out the entire Bauhaus curricululm.[19]

Alistair Morrison. (b.1911) Noted graphic artist and associate of Dahl Collings. (b.1909) Trained at Sydney Technical College, she worked as a freelance designer in London in the 1930s. Here she met the former Bauhaus teacher Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. He offered her work in his latest design team for a commission to develop the interior design and corporate identity of Simpson's, Piccadilly, She then introduced the Australian graphic artist Alistair Morrison who also joined the team. Through this commission and the association with Moholy-Nagy, Dahl's husband Geoff, Alistair Morrison and Dahl herself were introduced to the Bauhaus methodology.

John Oldham. (b.1907) West Australian architect. Active in the Workers Art Guild in West Australia. Lectured on Bauhaus architecture and the famous Bauhaus lecturer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy in 1936 with Ray McClintock Oldham.[20] Oldham also participated in the Studio of Realist Art (SORA), Sydney, an institution associated with the Communist movement in Australia.[21] Oldham seems to have learned of Bauhaus from periodicals and seemed to be most attracted to the Bauhaus fusion of politics and design.

Sydney Ancher. (1904-1979). Studied at Sydney Technical College. Travelled to England in 1930. Travelled to the continent in 1931. Studied the Weissenhof project, Stuttgart, 1931 Building Exhibition, Berlin.  Richard Apperly and Peter Reynolds state that he was attracted to the doctrine and style of the modernists Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier.[22] After 1952, he formed a partnership with assistants to become Ancher, Mortlock and Murray.

Acheson “Best” Overend. (b.1909) Tasmania, studied at Swinbourne Tech, later Melbourne Univ. Worked with Serge Chermayeff, Raymond McGrath, Eric Mendelsohn in the UK. Federal counselor of the IDCA and state Chairman of IDCA from 1964. President RAIA 1967-68. Lectured to RMIT students in 1933 on "Design and Industry.

ends/ Revised edition 27 October 2016

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[1]http://baldwinsonaustralianmodernism.blogspot.com.au/

[2] The New Architecture and the Bauhaus was published by Faber & Faber with a translation from the German by P. Morton Shand.

[3] Florence Taylor (b.1879) One of Australia’s first female architects and joint publisher of Building Publishing Company.

[4] Henry Pynor (b.1902) was a Melbourne architect who toured the USA in the early 1920s, returning to Sydney to practice ca.1928. It has been suggested he visited the Bauhaus, Dessau.

[5] M. J. Moir, a Canberra architect, was the manager of the Capitol Theatre. His spouse, “Nance” Moir was also an architect working as Moir and Sutherland and died in a motor accident in 1953.

[6] Julian Goddard, et al. Aspects of Perth Modernism 1929-1942. UWA Centre for Fine Arts, p.17. The author suggests the Oldham’s drew on Moholy-Nagy’s The New Vision, Norton but authorities assign an English language publication date of 1938. Perhaps they were familiar with Gropius’s 1936 book.

[7] Other Australian designers that found their way into the orbit of Moholy-Nagy includes Melbourne designer Kjell Grant who studied with Moholy-Nagy in Chicago (Design Australia, No. l, 1967), Gerard Herbst, the RMIT lecturer and designer who also had contact with him in Germany.

[8] Smith, Bernard. The Boy Adeodatus. Allen Lane. 1984, p.283.

[9]James, R. Haughton. "The Designer in Industry." Australia National Journal. vol.1:1939. pps. 87-91.

[10] Roger Butler, editor. The Europeans. Emigre Artists in Australia 1930-1960, Nadtional Gallery of Australia, 1997, p.15.

[11] The media storm surrounding Gropius’s visit to Australia has been covered by Judith O‘Callaghan, ”When Gropius came to Sydney [and Melbourne],“ in Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand: 31, Translation, edited by Christoph Schnoor (Auckland, New Zealand: SAHANZ and Unitec ePress; and Gold Coast, Queensland: SAHANZ, 2014), 287–298.

[12] See Judith O‘Callaghan, ”When Gropius came to Sydney [and Melbourne],“ in Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, pp.287–298.

[13] Caban, Geoffrey. A Fine Line. A History of Australian Commercial Art. Hale & Iremonger, 1983, pps. 71-72.

[14] "Group Furniture Combines Wood and Aluminium." Architecture Today. December 1964, January 1965. pp.30-35.

[15] Daniel Thomas. "Hirschfeld-Mack. Art and Australia. Winter 1993. pps. 518-20.

[16]  "Studio Flat, Harry Seidler, Architect." Art and Design. Ure Smith, 1:1949. p.26.

[17] The 1961 Bauhaus exhibition and related issues is surveyed by Andrew McNamara. “The Bauhaus in Australia.” Modern Times, Ann Stephen, et al. Powerhouse Publishing, 2008. pp.2-15.

[18] Smith, Bernard. The Boy Adeodatus. Allen Lane. 1984, p. 283.

[19] Caban, Geoffrey. A Fine Line. A History of Australian Commercial Art. Hale & Iremonger, 1983, pps. 71-72.

[20] Goddard, Julian. "John Oldham." in Aspects of Perth Modernism 1929-1942. Centre for Fine Arts, University of West Australia, 1986. p.39.

[21] McQueen, Humphrey. The Black Swan of Trespass. Alternative Publishing Cooperative Ltd. 1979, p.72.

[22] Richard E. Apperly and Peter Reynolds, 'Ancher, Sydney Edward Cambrian (1904–1979)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/ biography/ancher-sydney-edward-cambrian-9348/text16413, 1993.