ブックタイトル桑沢デザイン研究所 教員研修会 研究レポート No.45 2017

概要

桑沢デザイン研究所 教員研修会 研究レポート No.45 2017

Substances of ColourThe three-day studio (23?25 March 2017) is readdressingthe Bauhaus teaching concepts ofWassily Kandinsky in the context of the Bauhausdesign education essentially based on a renewedunderstanding of arts and crafts. In his teachingand his art works Kandinsky manifested a path ofmodernist abstraction, which allowed for discoveringand exploring colour as material and substance withunique qualities and meanings beyond functionsof representation in illusionistic paintings. Accordingto Kandinsky’s understanding of colour as a substance,all other kinds of design material could beregarded as materials with special values as well.The studio especially focused on the elementaryclasses in Dessau, which included analytical drawing,work with abstract form elements and a colour seminaraccording to Kandinsky’s concept. His lessons inthe preliminary course were compulsory for studentsfrom 1922 to 1930. The analytical drawing instructionwas based on the elementary shapes of circle,square, triangle and rhombus and was an essentialpart of the Bauhaus’s design-oriented teaching. Kandinsky‘scolour seminar went hand in hand with theintroduction to abstract form elements and to the relationshipof colour and form. Together the courseswere intended to enable the students to perceive andinterpret colour and shape and to undertake abstractionas the basis for independent synthetic design.An essential example to be explored in the studiowas the form and colour study of Erich Mende, StillLife (1928).In a synthesis of artistic expressions, from 1912 Kandinskyhad also aimed in his ?abstract stage compositions“at the combination of sounds and colours. InDessau he re-addressed and expanded those studies.Here he could stage his work Pictures at an Exhibitionat the Dessau Theatre in 1928. And in 1927 hehad already completed and updated his compositionViolet from 1914, which then received the sobriquet?A romantic stage play“. The studio discussed Kandinsky’sabstract stage composition, one of his laterprojects, as a ?total work of art“in relation to hisrational teachings in synthetic design and structuredvisual compositions.One of the main issues of the studio was to explorehow far the rationalistic-theoretical but also the artistic-practicalteachings of Kandinsky can still provideinspiration or starting points for a basic education inart and design today. To explore that, some historicalexercises were to be re-produced and re-done, butmodified in experimentation. The studio in particulardiscussed colour not only as a material for compositionbut as a substantial structure in several systemsand dimensions of usage and meaning. Finally thestudents transformed their experiences into a groupperformance of a re-interpreted scene of Kandinsky’sstage composition Violet as a demonstration of ?substancesof colour in motion“.Bauhaus Open Studio exercises in Dessau:? Introduction: Substances of Colour at the Bauhausand Kandinsky’s Violet, form and colour exercises.? Colours: Use the round coloured stickers to expresshow you feel today.? Group the images: Form groups of three, thencombine the cardboard images you prepared to createa large image. All together, form a big boat shapeinspired by the Japanese Ukiyo-e style.? Elements: Cut out the cardboard shapes to createmore abstract shapes.? Colours and shapes: Choose a colour. Repeatcombining and cutting out the shapes to examine thecolour scheme and analyse the shapes further.? Elements of a boat: Arrange and analyse the coloursand the shapes of all the abstract elements tocreate a boat shape, which will be a key element tore-stage a scene from Violet. Everybody is to developbigger“stage”elements of their own and attach handlesto them to control the movement of the abstractshapes.? Rehearsal: Rehearse the performance using theelements with their handles, sound and light.? Performance: Final performance and video recording,photo shooting.97