The Bauhaus art school was established in 1919 in the Weimar Republic (1919-33) as a pedagogical experiment fusing theory and practice. It had a broad impact in Germany and abroad in the transcultural movement of ideas, people and art works. "Bauhaus Imaginista: Corresponding With" at The Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (MoMAK), surveys German, Japanese and Indian developments in the style of Bauhaus as part of a wider collation of international exhibitions and research in preparation for next year's centenary anniversary in Berlin.
The first Bauhaus director, Walter Gropius (1883-1969), sought to foment broad social and cultural change. Originally conceived as a student recruitment tool, his "Bauhaus Manifesto" — printed on the verso of a title page featuring the "Cathedral" woodcut by Lyonel Feininger) — is on display. It called for synthesizing crafts with fine arts while recognizing the symbolic and material relevance of handmade objects to redress their public alienation engendered by capitalism's industrialized mass produced goods.
The Bauhaus curriculum included the usual disciplines considered as "fine art" — architecture, painting and sculpture — but also woodcarving, cabinetry, ceramics, weaving and metalwork. More importantly, however, provision was made for technological advancement in handicraft and industrial design. The approach was buoyed by esotericism: the inclusion of 12-tone music, synesthesia, occultism, yoga and Indian philosophy.