Die Form: Zeitschrift für gestaltende Arbeit (5.1930)

tage that his work has proved that he regards the
Problems of modern form as a unit, a whole, and
is no specialist in a specialized department. He
acknowledges the social, technical and economic
preliminaries of all artistic work, and one was justi-
fied in expecting from him that he would organize
the exhibition, not as an end in itself, but as a
demonstration. The completed exhibition shows
that Gropius has justified the confidence of the
Werkbund. Above all the judgments of the French
press and the remarks passed by foreign visitors
show that this close connection with technical, eco-
nomic and social questions was visible in the ex-
hibition. It is natural that Gropius should have sum-
moned as assistants his former colleagues from the
Bauhaus, Marcel Breuer, Herbert Bayer and Moholy-
Nagy, and this has imparted a certain unity to the
whole exhibition. However one may speak of ob-
jective conditions, there can be no denying that a
stylistic uniformity runs through the whole exhibi-
tion. Too much concentration on the stylistic ele-
ment has led to a certain elemsnt of subjective in-
justice, as for instance, the glass case for jew-
ellery, of which no one can maintain that it pays
any regard to what is to be exhibited within; conse-
quently one may say that it is developed beyond its
proper function. The transparency with its lettering
belonging to the dia-positives is a case in point. It
is not only much too small, but so arranged that
one must twist one's head around in order to read
the inscription for every picture. Such small defects
occur easily when an attempt is made to achieve
stylistic unity. This stylistic unity also tempts the
organisers to exercise too strict a selection or at
least too one-sided, and to reject everything which
does not fit into the narrow domains of the style
favored, but it also strengthens the impression made
by the exhibits as a whole.

The strongest impression is made by the great
hall, which contains the rooms designated in the
catalogue as 1 to 3. The unity of effect is to be
ascribed above all to the fact that the arrangement
was regarded as a task in itself, so to speak, an
architectural problem. The rooms are intended to
represent a ten-story dwelling-house, an apartment
hotel or boarding-house. The model of the house
is also on exhibit, and we reproduce it on page 283.
Gropius himself arranged the common room, Breuer
a study and two living-room divisions. The bridge-
like erection of Tezett grids in the center is a
demonstration of the use of material, which in this
exhibit has moreover the advantage of enabling the
visitor to survey the whole rooms in bird's eye view.
It is doubtful, however, if the book gallery built up
of Tezett grids in the common room is desirable
for interior use, on account of its dust-harboring
properties.

The other rooms must necessarily be less ef-
fective, since the concrete fulfilment of a task is

lacking, and once more we see the ocular proof of
the fact that an exhibition which shows only in-
dividual exhibits can never excite so keen an inter-
est as the Solution of definite problems in the form
of an exhibition, since such scattered exhibits lack
the impressiveness and the inward content. In spite
of all respect for the vitality with which the most
interesting problems have been approached in these
supplementary rooms, one cannot escape the feel-
ing that all these questions have only been ap-
proached, dealt with sufficiently to form an interest-
ing exhibit, but that the thoroughness and con-
centration is lacking, to which the concrete problem
must always force those who deal with it. This is
a new and earnest warning as to the way in which
the tasks set by the exhibition "The New Era"
must be approached. We certainly owe to the
Bauhaus group many pointers as to new problems
and tasks, but it is now time to take things more
energetically and objectively in hand.

It is good that Munich should be represented by
an excellent piece of work by Vorhoelzer, a small
post-office, an achievement which in every way
commands the greatest respect. It is a pity that
the post-office counters have been utilized as a
bookstall, so that its real purpose cannot be read-
ily recognized.

k Exhibitions are not only intended as demonstra-
tions for the visitors, but also as a kind of report
for the exhibitors themselves and for the group
which acclaims and approves of their work and is
constantly in contact with it. Gropius and his col-
leagues have here accomplished something which
in spite of certain reservations must command
recognition, and one leaves the German rooms with
a feeling of great satisfaction. This satisfaction
must not be understood as a conviction that we
do things better than the others and that we have
done splendid deeds, for these problems are not
a national matter and a great number of workers
with the same ideas and the same tendencies stand
behind this work in all civilized countries. High
ethics have their part in this effort and endeavor to
give every living human being the right and the
possibility of participating in the good gifts of
modern form. The economic attitude of industry is
working at this task, even though its interest may
only be dictated by commercial grounds, and so is
modern intellectualism. That such excellent and in-
expensive objects of daily use are displayed in the
great glass case, is something that is not produced
by art or ideas, but only by the economic structure
of the age, and this close connection of modern
form with the practical course of development is
the striking fact that makes the strongest and
deepest impression which the thinking man carries
away from a visit to this Exhibition.

Translated by E. T. Scheffauer

296