In celebration of the centennial of the 1919 founding of Bauhaus in Weimar, students conduct a series of material and formal experiments that expand the physical explorations of form, color, texture, and space conducted in the legendary Vorkurs program, taught by Josef Albers from 1923 to 1933. In addition, the seminar examines the writings and works of Anni Albers, which explore the technique of weaving and the role of textiles in architecture, as well as Herbert Bayer’s and László Moholy-Nagy’s installations and graphic experiments as they relate to perception of space and surface. Readings of period texts mine material techniques and effects and set the conceptual apparatus of “structure,” “texture,” and “index” to describe them. The seminar includes field trips to the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Bethany and to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The seminar concludes in an exhibition of student work in spring 2019 in the North Gallery.
