Walter Gropius

Architects, painters and sculptors must learn again to know and understand the multi-faceted form of building in its entirety as well as its parts.

Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (May 18, 1883 – July 5, 1969) was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus. Along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, he is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture.

Quotes of Walter Gropius

• The ultimate goal of all visual artistic activity is construction! Architects, painters and sculptors must learn again to know and understand the multi-faceted form of building in its entirety as well as its parts. Only then will they of their own accord fill their works with the architectonic spirit they have lost in the art of the salon. Let us establish a new guild of craftsmen without the presumption of class distinctions building a wall of arrogance between craftsmen and artists. Together let us call for, devise and create the construction of the future, comprising everything in one form: architecture, sculpture and painting.
  • Manifesto (1919)

• Art itself cannot be taught, but craftsmanship can. Architects, painters, sculptors are all craftsmen in the original sense of the word. Thus it is a fundamental requirement of all artistic creativity that every student undergo a thorough training in the workshops of all branches of the crafts.
  • As quoted in Paul Klee, 1879-1940 (2000) by w:Susanna Partsch, p. 47

• The mind is like an umbrella - it functions best when open.
  • As quoted in The Art of Looking Sideways by w:Alan Fletcher, p. 129

• A modern, harmonic and lively architecture is the visible sign of an authentic democracy.
  • In 'The Observer' (London), 'Sayings of the Week'

• Architecture begins where engineering ends.
  • In Architects on Architecture, Speech, Harvard Department of Architecture (Paul Heyer (ed.))

Quotes about Walter Gropius

• This is what has Gropius the director made the w:Bauhaus famous. Not its lamps or its furniture. They are all out of fashion already. But the way of approaching formal problems or material as such, that has made it famous. And the emphasis on material, especially its capacity is my contribution. That was never cleared between us teachers: Kandinsky did what he thought should be done. Klee developed an absolutely different method. Schlemmer developed absolutely something else.
  • Josef Albers, in 'Oral history interview with Josef Albers', conducted by Sevim Fesci, 22 June – 5 July 1968, for the 'Archives of American Art', Smithsonian Institution

External links

• Walter Gropius' house, Lincoln, Massachusetts
• On the Interbau apartments
• Impington Village College — only example of Gropius's work in the UK
• Bauhaus in America is a documentary film made in 1995 that reveals the influence of Gropius and others on American design and architecture.