“Multicoloured is my favorite color.”
Walter Groupis
Born in Berlin in 1883; Walter Groupis was the lead architect and designer behind the now famous Bauhaus. Groupis, always the innovator was never one to settle for one train of thought or the other.
He used to respond “Multicoloured is my favorite color.” when, as a child, somebody asked about his favourite color.
A consummate collaborator he had an inclusive view of life’s possibilities.
The inspiration for The Bauhaus movement sprung from his time on the western front during the first world war. Realizing that “the old stuff was out” – the only way possible for him was to begin a new. Using the Bauhütte, a medieval stonemasons’ collective, a group comprised of expert craftsmen and artists working together towards a common goal.
The initial manifesto of the Groupis Bahaus stated: “Together let us desire, conceive, and create the new structure of the future, which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like the crystal symbol of a new faith.”
Throughout the years he procured a variety of multitalented teachers. Those included László Moholy-Nagy, Marcel Breue, Paul Klee, Johannes Itten, Josef Albers, and Oskar Schlemmer.
While he had plenty of artistic egos to compete with, he saw creative differences in opinion as its own art form.
Gropius imagined the Bauhaus as a place of creative discussion, a healthy debate was in its essence art.
The school dissolved its tensions between artists with now-famous costume parties.
While there were several other progressive art schools in Europe none of them held a candle to Bauhaus’s commitment to creative expression and freedom.
The whole concept of the art school as a place of rebellion started here.