Bauhaus, Revisited: Complicating the Legacy of the German Art School

Elizabeth "Libby" Otto, executive director of the UB Humanities Institute, discusses the Bauhaus — widely considered 20th-century Europe’s most influential art institution — in a National Humanities Center podcast. Otto, who was awarded a highly prestigious fellowship with the National Humanities Center, has published extensively on the Bauhaus.

The description of the podcast states, "Otto maps the aesthetic and intellectual lineage of Bauhaus, paying special attention to the many figures — especially women — who’ve been overshadowed by more celebrated colleagues like Josef Albers and Marcel Breuer, the father of Brutalism. She also addresses origin myths animating the movement, such as the influence of World War I on Bauhaus founders. With attention to questions of gender and sexuality, Otto explores how the legacy of the war complicated ideas of masculinity in Germany during this era, inflecting the idea of the 'artist engineer.'"

Listen:

https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/otto-bauhaus-revisited/