EXPRESSIONISM

REPORT




Submitted by: Maryam Liaquat
Roll # 37


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction 4
2. History and Style 4
3. Legacy 5
4. Definition 5
5. Characteristics 6
6. Expressionism: the Architects 7
7. Expressionism: the Buildings 10
a. Goetheanum 10
b. Bruno Tauts Glass Pavillion 12
c. Guggenheim Museum 13
8. Concept
9. Design
BIBLIOGRAPHY 15




Whatever objections continue to be raised against this type of architecture,
against this style of architecture it is nonetheless both in type and style the
architecture of the future.

~ Rudolf Steiner, Das Ratsel des Menschen, July 29,1916

1. Introduction:

Expression was a movement in fine arts that emphasized the expression of inner
experience rather than solely realistic portrayal, seeking to depict not objective
reality but the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events
arouse in the artist.
The term is generally used to denote the activities of German, Austrian, Dutch
and Danish avant-garde artists during the Interbellum. Expressionist architecture
is particularly difficult to characterize.
The movement has usually been defined in terms of what it is not (rationalist,
functionalist, and so on) rather than what it is
1


2. History:

Expressionism started in paintings and in theatre in 1908. The goal of this style of
art was to express feelings in the most direct and extreme fashion possible.

Many expressionist architects fought in World War I and their experiences,
combined with the political turmoil and social upheaval that followed the
German Revolution of 1919, resulted in a utopian outlook and a romantic
socialist agenda.
Economic conditions severely limited the number of built commissions between
1914 and the mid 1920s, resulting in many of the most important expressionist
works remaining as projects on paper, such as Bruno Taut's Alpine Architecture
and Hermann Finsterlin's Formspiels. Ephemeral (geici) exhibition buildings were
numerous and highly significant during this period.

1
Alan Colquhoun in Modern Architecture, Oxford University of Arts series, 2002
The term Expressionism was originally coined in France in 1901
2
to describe the
paintings of Matisse and his entourage. In 1911, this art-historical designation was
used for the first time in connection with architecture.
3

3. Legacy:

The paintings avoided shadings and colors that gave realistic paintings their
sense of volume and depth. Instead, the Expressionists would use large shapes of
unrealistic, bright colors with dark, cartoon like outlines.

The figures in the paintings often had elongated faces with grotesque
features. The artists used swirling, swaying, and exaggerated brush strokes in the
depictions of the subjects in the paintings.
The buildings will sag and lean as if they are falling over, with the ground tilted
up.

In theater, Expressionism plays had sets that often resembled Expressionism
paintings, with large shapes of unshaded color in the backdrops. The
performances were comparably distorted. During the plays, the actors shouted
screamed, exaggerated their gestures, and moved in choreographed patters
through the sets.

4. Definition:

It was a movement which sought to express emotions rather than to represent
external reality: characterized by the use of symbolism and of exaggeration and
distortion.
4


2
The Paintings of Juline-Auguste Herve exhibited at the salon des Independants, referred as
expressionisms.
3
The term appeared in the catalogue of the Berlin Sezession exhibition of April 1911
4
Collins English Dictionary Complete and Unabridged HarperCollins Publishers, 2003

5. Characteristics:

The style was characterized by an early-modernist adoption of novel materials,
formal innovation, and very unusual massing, sometimes inspired by natural
biomorphic forms, sometimes by the new technical possibilities offered by the
mass production of brick, steel and especially glass.
However, the common characteristics found in this movement are as below.

6. Expressionism: the Architects:

a. Erich Mendelsohn:
One of the most important of the architects who are considered to
be expressionists is Erich Mendelsohn who turned out countless
drawings that are essentially thumbnail sketches of buildings based on
the expressive capacity of form.
He also found music to be a major source of inspiration for his work
and made drawings that in essence expressed the content of specific
musical works.
He may well have taken the words of the poet Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe quite literally: Architecture is frozen music.

These sketches were executed at various times from 1917 to 1936.
i. Eienstine Tower:
The major permanent extant landmark of Expressionism is Erich
Mendelsohn's Einstein Tower in Potsdam.

Einstein Tower in Potsdam-Berlin by Erich Mendelsohn 1919-22

Erich Mendelsohn'ssmall, but powerfully modeled tower, built to symbolize the
greatness of the Einsteinianconcepts,was also a quite functional house. It was
designed to hold Einstein's own astronomical laboratory.
Mendelsohnwas after a completely plastic kind of building, moulded rather than
built, without angles and with smooth, rounded corners
5
.
Even so, this 'sarcophagus (lahit-tatan tabut) of architectural Expressionism' is
one of the most brilliantly original buildings of the twentieth century.
ii. Store in Chemnitz, Germany.


5
Dennis Sharp. Twentieth Century Architecture: a Visual History. p65.
Mendelsohn was also fascinated by the power of light in architecture. This
sweeping curve is the faade of a department store in Chemnitz,
Germany has a very interesting modernist composition, but its effects at
night are quite stunning.

b. Rudolf Stiener:
One of the most important of the architects who are usually named as
expressionists is Rudolf Steiner (1862-1925), a man who called himself a
spiritual scientist.
In his research on Goethe, he became aware of Goethes theory of
color and his plant studies leading to the concept of metamorphosis.


While some scientists believed that Goethes color theory was
unscientific, especially compared to the theory of color as refracted
light, Steiner argued that the poetic truth of Goethes ideas held up
under laboratory conditions and thus have a compelling value that
supersedes initial impression.
Similarly, the theory of plant metamorphosis, which has generally had
more credibility with botanists, is, according to Steiner, more reliable
because it deals with both the physical and the metaphysical aspect
of plant growth.

Goethes idea about metamorphosis was that each stage in the growth
of a plant proceeded out of the previous and into the next according to
principles that suggest that the seed contains its own history and its own
future.

The form is not haphazard but obeys laws of development that are both
inherent and universal.
7. Expressionism: the buildings:
a. Goetheanum
Constructed between 1918 and 1922, the Goetheanum (a building
dedicated to Goethe), was conceived as a double domed
structure in which the larger dome housed the audience and the
smaller dome covered the stage.

The domes intersect, however, and their intersection
formed the proscenium arch. The entire superstructure
was wood.

After the turn of the 20th century, Steiner founded the
Anthroposophical Society in Berlin. Before the outbreak of World
War I, he moved the headquarters of the society to Dornach, a
village outside of Basel, Switzerland.
There he began construction of a building which would house his
School of Spiritual Science.


The sectional model above shows the main auditorium and stage where
lectures and performances would be held. The columns and architrave above
them express the idea of metamorphosis.
Each capital and its section of the architrave bear the effects of the previous
one and affect the succeeding one.
The ceiling was painted in deeply saturated colors that represent the spiritual
world.

The sculptural quality of the form is immediately apparent and quite
dramatic.
The formal quality seems organic and is produced by form work that
depends largely on non-Euclidean geometry.
b. Bruno Tauts Glass Pavilion

The Werkbund Exhibitionof 1914 was held in Cologne, Germany.
Bruno Taut's best-known building, the prismatic dome of the Glass
Pavilion familiar from black and white reproduction, was a brightly
colored landmark.

Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer designed a model factory for the
exhibition. Henri van de Velded resigned a model theatre.
However, a debate was sparked in which Muthesius argued for
industrialized design while van de Velde spoke up for the creative
artist and craftsman.
This structure drew its inspiration from Islamic and Moorish
Architecture and displayed a stark contrast in the design and the
overall aesthetic appeal.

Interior of the Glass Pavilion.
c. Guggenheim Museum
The Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright in NYC has been
called by some expressionistic.

Its wide variance from the standard footprint and organization
coupled with its unusual conceptual basis are reasons for this label.
Is it a building that is expressionistic or is it a rational expression that
uses a geometric basis for form?
d. Milwaukee Art Museum

Some people would argue that the work of Santiago Calatrava is
expressionistic. The addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum is an
example of a Calatrava design that is arguably expressionistic in
form and feeling.


However, this building depicts the basic characteristics of the
expressionist movement showcasing the Profusion of works on
paper, and models, with discovery and representations of concepts
and utilizing the conception of architecture as a work of art.

Bibliography

The Return Of Expressionism And The Architecture, Adrian Sheppard, Fraic ,
Mcgill University, Montreal, Canada.
William J. R. Curtis, MODERN ARCHITECTURE SINCE 1900, Phaidon Press Limited,
London, 1996
Kenneth Frampton, MODERN ARCHITECTURE: ACRITICAL HISTORY, Thames &
Hudson, New York, 1992
Kathleen James, ERIC MENDELSOHN AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF GERMAN
MODERNISM, EXPRESSIONIST ARCHITECTURE, Wolfgang Pehnt, Praeger Publishers,
New York NY, 1973
Peter Gossel and Gabriele Leuthhauser, ARCHITECTURE IN THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY, Taschen GmbH, Koln, 2001
Collins English Dictionary Complete and Unabridged HarperCollins Publishers,
2003
Alan Colquhoun in Modern Architecture, Oxford University of Arts series, 2002