MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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A reputation restored
An excellent book on the Bauhaus movement rightly highlights the significance of Hannes Meyer, one of its most revolutionary but neglected figures, says MICHAL BONCZA
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ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
Bauhaus 1919-1933
by Magdalena Droste
(Taschen, £40)
SIMULTANEOUS with the cataclysm of WWI exposing the bankruptcy and decadence at the heart of European politics, the 1917 October revolution in Russia emphatically demonstrated that radical political change with a global significance was on the agenda.
In western Europe, little changed politically. But an interrogation of how societies operate continued, with the Bauhaus school and movement in Germany becoming perhaps its most acute cultural manifestation in a climate of ideological ferment.
Architecture, weaving, furniture shops and domestic appliance and graphic design were all within its wide-ranging remit and each had various degrees of commercial success. The Bauhaus band pushed at the musical frontiers while its theatre group sparked spatial innovation with its groundbreaking designs.
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