Bauhaus Wall Decorations
The Bauhaus was a progressive German art and design school founded by the architect Walter Gropius that operated from 1919 to 1933. Authentic Bauhaus furniture — sofas, dining chairs, tables and more — and the school’s followers married industrial and natural materials in simple, geometric forms. The goal of the Bauhaus was to erase the distinction between art and craft while embracing the use of new technologies and materials.
ORIGINS OF BAUHAUS FURNITURE DESIGN
- Art and design school established in Germany in 1919
- Promotion of a union of art, craft and technology
- Design intended for mass production
- School’s workshops focused on cabinetry, metalworking, typography, textiles and more
- Informed by De Stijl, Constructivism, Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, and modernism; influenced mid-century modernism, Scandinavian modernism
CHARACTERISTICS OF BAUHAUS FURNITURE DESIGN
- Emphasis on craft
- Simplicity, order, clarity and a prioritization of functionalism
- Incorporation of geometric shapes
- Minimalist and refined, little to no ornamentation
- Use of industrial materials such as tubular chrome, steel and plastic as well as leather, cane and molded plywood in furniture and other products
BAUHAUS FURNITURE DESIGNERS YOU SHOULD KNOW
- László Moholy-Nagy
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- Anni Albers
- Josef Hoffmann
- Marcel Breuer
- Marianne Brandt
AUTHENTIC BAUHAUS FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS
The name Bauhaus is derived from the German verb bauen, “to build.” Under the school’s innovative curriculum, students were taught the fine arts, such as painting and sculpture, as well as practical skills like carpentry and metalworking.
The school moved from Weimar in 1925 to the city of Dessau, where it enjoyed its heyday under Gropius, then Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The period from 1932 to 1933 when it operated in Berlin under Mies was its final chapter. Despite its brief existence, the Bauhaus has had an enduring impact on art and design in the United States and elsewhere, and is regarded by many as the 20th century’s chief crucible of modernism.
The faculty roster at the Bauhaus reads like a who’s who of modernist creative genius — it included such artists as Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and László Moholy-Nagy along with architects and designers like Mies and Marcel Breuer, who became known for his muscular brutalist-style concrete buildings in the postwar years. In 1925, while he was head of the Bauhaus carpentry workshop, Breuer gave form to his signature innovation: the use of lightweight tubular-steel frames for chairs, side tables and sofas — a technique soon adopted by Mies and others. Breuer’s Cesca chair was the first-ever tubular steel frame chair with a caned seat to be mass produced, while the inspiration for his legendary Wassily chair, a timeless design and part of the collection crafted to furnish the Dessau school, was the bike he rode around campus.
Bauhaus design style reflects the tenets by which these creators worked: simplicity, clarity and function. They disdained superfluous ornament in favor of precise construction. Seating pieces such as side chairs, armchairs or club chairs for example, were made with tubular metal or molded plywood frames, and upholstery was made from leather or cane. Above all, designs in the Bauhaus style offer aesthetic flexibility. They can be the elements of a wholly spare, minimalist space, the quiet foundation of an environment in which color and pattern come from one’s own collection of art and artifacts.
Today, from textiles to typefaces, architecture, furniture and decorative objects for the home, Bauhaus creations continue to have an outsize influence on modern design.
Find a collection of authentic Bauhaus furniture on 1stDibs.
1970s British Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Pine
1960s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Metal, Brass
2010s French Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wool, Oak
2010s French Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wool, Oak
2010s French Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wool, Oak
2010s French Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wool
2010s French Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wool, Oak
2010s French Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wool, Oak
1960s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Metal, Brass
1930s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper
Mid-20th Century Ukrainian Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Canvas
1930s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Linen
Mid-20th Century American Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wood
Early 20th Century German Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Cotton
2010s Indian Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wool
1970s Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Resin, Plywood
2010s French Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wool
21st Century and Contemporary American Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Steel
1930s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Metal
Mid-20th Century Czech Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Chrome
20th Century German Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper
1990s Unknown Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper
1990s Italian Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wood, Paint
1920s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Cotton
1920s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper
1940s Czech Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper
21st Century and Contemporary American Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary American Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary American Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Steel
1930s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper
1990s Danish Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wood, Paint
1920s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper
21st Century and Contemporary American Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Steel
1920s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper
1920s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Brass
Mid-20th Century German Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper
21st Century and Contemporary American Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary American Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Steel
Early 20th Century Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Maple, Ceramic
1930s Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Chrome
1930s Czech Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Chrome
21st Century and Contemporary American Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary Russian Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paint
1930s Czech Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Metal, Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Russian Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paint
Mid-20th Century European Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper
1930s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wood, Paper
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Metal
Early 20th Century German Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wood, Paper
1930s Czech Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Nickel
1920s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper
1980s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Porcelain
1980s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Porcelain
1920s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper
1920s German Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper
1940s Austrian Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Wood
1870s German Antique Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Porcelain
1920s Czech Vintage Bauhaus Wall Decorations
Paper