New Bauhaus (Chicago)

New Bauhaus (Chicago)
Name	New Bauhaus (Chicago)
Established	1937
Type	Art and design school
City	Chicago
Country	United States
Founder	László Moholy-Nagy
Closed	1944 (reorganized)

New Bauhaus (Chicago) was an experimental art and design school founded in Chicago in 1937 that sought to transplant and adapt the principles of Bauhaus modernism to the United States. The school operated as a short-lived but catalytic institution that linked European avant‑garde figures to American industrial, photographic, theatrical, and architectural practice. Its faculty, students, and pedagogical methods contributed to the emergence of postwar design education and shaped networks across Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Institute of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, and Illinois Institute of Technology.

History

The New Bauhaus was established by László Moholy-Nagy after his departure from Weimar and exile from Nazi Germany. Moholy‑Nagy secured initial backing from Marshall Field, Julian Levi, and patrons associated with the Art Institute of Chicago and worked closely with administrators from School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Herald and Examiner to create the school. It opened in 1937 as the New Bauhaus in rented space and drew visiting lecturers from Paul Klee-influenced circles, émigré practitioners, and American modernists. Financial difficulties led to closure and reorganization in 1938, after which Moholy‑Nagy founded the Chicago School of Design, later renamed the Institute of Design, which affiliated with Illinois Institute of Technology in 1949. During this evolution the institution intersected with institutions such as Black Mountain College, Columbia University, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and the Guggenheim Fellowship community.

Philosophy and Curriculum

The school's pedagogy synthesized ideas from Bauhaus masters like Walter Gropius, Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee with American industrial practice connected to Adolph Loos-influenced architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright's organic principles. Emphasizing the unity of art and technology, courses integrated studio practice in photography, typography, sculpture, industrial design, and stage design alongside workshops in metalsmithing, weaving, and experimental film influenced by Man Ray and Vladimir Tatlin. The curriculum encouraged collaboration with industrial partners such as Sears, Roebuck and Company and design commissions from Standard Oil and fostered theoretical inquiry referencing texts by Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, and John Dewey. Instructional methods included preliminary courses in perception and materials, transformative exercises in form and color, and project studios addressing real‑world commissions similar to programs at Bauhaus Dessau.

Key People and Founders

Principal founder László Moholy-Nagy anchored the school’s vision, supported by patrons like Marshall Field and allies such as Walter Paepcke and Julian Levi. Faculty and visiting instructors included notable émigrés and American modernists: György Kepes, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s collaborators, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Alfred H. Barr Jr., Irene Bayer, Alison Smithson-era figures in discourse, and photographers linked to Roy Stryker projects. Administrators and supporters drew from networks involving Philip Johnson, Mies van der Rohe, Alexander Calder, and critics at The New York Times and Artforum. Students and early staff later connected to pedagogical and institutional nodes such as Institute of Design (Chicago), Carnegie Museum of Art, and Museum of Modern Art programming.

Influence and Legacy

Despite its brief initial phase, the school acted as a conduit between European modernism and American postwar design, influencing programs at Yale School of Art, Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alumni and faculty advanced fields in graphic design, industrial design, photography, and architecture, contributing to corporate branding at General Electric, display design for New York World's Fair, and exhibition design at Smithsonian Institution museums. The Institute of Design’s Bauhaus lineage shaped curricula adopted at Ulmer Hochschule, Royal College of Art, and informed theoretical debates in journals like Art Bulletin and Design Issues. Its methods influenced practitioners such as Dieter Rams and informed the discourse surrounding International Style and Mid-Century Modern aesthetics.

Campus and Facilities

The original New Bauhaus occupied rented exhibition and studio spaces in downtown Chicago near cultural sites including the Art Institute of Chicago and performance venues on Michigan Avenue. Subsequent incarnations moved into purpose‑built facilities and workshops equipped with darkrooms, carpentry shops, print studios, and film laboratories, later consolidated at the Institute of Design campus that associated with Illinois Institute of Technology and buildings designed by Mies van der Rohe. Facilities supported collaborations with local manufacturing firms in the Midwest and hosted exhibitions coordinated with institutions like Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Notable Alumni and Faculty

Prominent faculty and alumni linked to the New Bauhaus and its successors include György Kepes, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Billy Apple-era conceptualists, Tomás Maldonado-affiliated theorists, and designers who joined firms such as General Motors, Herman Miller, and IBM. Graduates went on to teach at Carnegie Mellon University, Yale University, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, and curate shows at Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art, while shaping commercial design work for Crate & Barrel and exhibition projects at Chicago Architecture Center.

Category:Art schools in Illinois Category:Modernist architecture Category:Design history