Bauhaus diaspora
About the project
Bauhaus Diaspora: Transforming Education in Art, Design and Architecture investigates the impact of European artists, designers and architects in Australia and New Zealand across half a century from the 1930s to the early 1970s. The project presents the first overview of cross-disciplinary approaches to art, architecture and design education brought by modernist émigrés from Germany and central Europe, as well as returning expatriates.
The project investigates the impact of those approaches by analysing curriculum changes and institutional innovations transformed by the presence of what might be called the 'second-generation Bauhaus in Australasia'. These ideas were transformed in and by their new context. It involves a social vision for the arts, design and architecture, based upon a systematic approach that breaks down separate component areas of a field (eg, visual arts to colour studies linked to broader perceptual awareness) and integrates the results within a wider interdisciplinary framework.
The ARC-funded team of Dr Ann Stephen, Professors Philip Goad, Andrew McNamara, Harriet Edquist and Isabel Wunche will publish Bauhaus Diaspora and Beyond (MUP & Power, 2019) alongside the touring exhibition Bauhaus Now!
Featured image (top of the page): adapted from Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, Farbenlichtstiele, 1923