Britain Vs the Bauhaus: modern design in the 1930s

Staatliches Bauhaus was an art school founded under the Weimar Republic by the architect Walter Gropius. From 1919 to 1933 its tutors combined crafts and the fine arts in a radical new approach to design education. Less well known is the influence of the Bauhaus and other German design schools on design and art education in Britain in this period. As the impact of the economic ‘Slump’ of c.1929-34 hit British manufacturing sales, many in local and national government believed that Britain’s struggling industrial base could be improved by better design education. This lecture looks at the work of the key artists involved in this: including Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Roger Fry; and at Unit One – formed by Paul Nash in 1933 to promote modern art, architecture and design.

Julia Musgrave

Julia qualified as a chemical engineer and her first career was in IT, but she decided to have a complete change of direction and took up the study of art history, studying at the Courtauld Institute and the University of Glasgow. She gained her PhD for her research into the shaping of art society in the earlier part of the 20th century, including the involvement of the Bloomsbury set. Julia now teaches art history at the City Literary Institute (City Lit) and the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution (HLSI) in London.

Image:Isokon Building, Hampstead, London, 2006, Creative Commons license

The Arts Society Southampton's talks are held on the second Monday of the month Oct - June at 19.30; the bar opens at 18.45.  Membership of the Society  is £46 annually for all nine lectures; visitors are also welcome and pay £8 on the night at the venue.  More info: www.theartssocietysouthampton.org.uk