New Bauhaus / Institute of Design

The New Bauhaus was founded in Chicago in 1937 by the renowned professor, photographer and artist, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. The New Bauhaus stems from the German Bauhaus, a pioneering school of art and design that operated from 1919-1933. The theories and teachings of the Bauhaus, which emphasized a synthesis of numerous artistic disciplines, was most influential in championing Modernist Twentieth Century design, fine art and architecture. After Adolph Hitler closed the German school in 1933, many of the Bauhaus teachers, namely through the efforts of Moholy-Nagy, emmigrated to America to establish and work with the New Bauhaus in Chicago. Industrialist Walter Paepke, chairman of the Container Corporation of America, was an early financial backer of the school, which was originally located in the old Marshall Field Mansion on Chicago’s Prarie Avenue. In 1944, the school was retitled the Instiute of Design (ID) and today resides on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology. (IIT) The school became the first institution in the United States to offer a PhD in design. Much of Moholy-Nagy’s curriculum and ideas were outlined in his extensive 1947 book, “Vision in Motion”. Many important prefessors and designers have taught or studied at the New Bauhaus/ID. These include such artists as Serge Chermayeff, Ivan Cherymayeff, Alexander Archipenko, Buckminster Fuller, Gyorgy Kepes, Richard Koppe, Nathan Lerner, Harry Callahan, Robert Bruce Tague, John Cage and Werner Drewes, among others. Much of the influence on today’s American Modern art, design and architecture may be attributed to the teachings of the Chicago New Bauhaus