From Bauhaus to Our House by Tom Wolfe

First published: 1981

Type of work: Architecture and design

Time of work: The twentieth century

Locale: Europe and the United States

Principal Personages:

• Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus school in 1919 and a major architectural theorist
• Le Corbusier, (
• Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, ), a Swiss-born Paris architect and an architectural theorist
• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, an architect and a major advocate of the International Style

Form and Content

On Sunday, April 28, 1974, as the result of an article in The New York Times about a Yale University art exhibition, Tom Wolfe came to an interpretation of the nature of twentieth century art and architecture that would eventually characterize two of his books, The Painted Word (1975) and From Bauhaus to Our House. “Then and there,” Wolfe wrote in The Painted Word, “I experienced a flash known as the AHA! phenomenon, and the buried life of contemporary art was revealed to me for the first time. The fogs lifted! The clouds passed!” The thesis that Wolfe adapted in The Painted Word is that twentieth century art “has become completely literary.” Artists have conformed to the theories of art critics. Thus, painting is a reflection of the current artistic theory or philosophy, instead of philosophy or theory arising from and explaining the nature of art. In the world of art, essence precedes and determines existence and not the reverse. In From Bauhaus to Our House, Wolfe extended this view of art to the world of architecture. Thus, twentieth century architecture is a reflection of a philosophy or theory: The philosophy that explains architecture, according to Wolfe, is Marxism, and that central vision was translated into the major architectural forms of the century.

The format or structure, content, and language of Wolfe’s books are designed to support his thesis. Without pedantry, Wolfe takes his readers on a lighthearted, charming romp through the history of modern architecture. He uses wit, satire, and good humor to poke fun at and deflate the arrogance of twentieth century architectural gurus and pundits and to show how public taste has been shaped and comfort thwarted by the pretension of architects and their minions.

The structure of the book is admirably suited to the task of elucidating the history of architecture since World War I. Logically organized into seven parts, From Bauhaus to Our House begins with an analysis and description of the development of the Bauhaus and its tradition. The description is marvelously evocative of the ambience of the Bauhaus school, the courageous manifesto-wars of the architect competitors, and the visions of brave new worlds that all sought to create. Dominating the Bauhaus was its founder, “the Silver Prince” or “White God No. 1,” Walter Gropius. Almost as important to the movement was Le Corbusier, the rationalist of the movement. Out of this context emerged the theory of architecture that was to dominate Europe and the United States for more than the next half century.

The second part of From Bauhaus to Our House describes American architecture during the period between World War I and World War II. Early in the period, American architects held sway, but according to Wolfe an American “colonial complex” or feeling that anything American was bound to be inferior developed. Into the context of this colonial complex came the advocates of the Bauhaus tradition, who, in the late 1930’s, were fleeing Nazi Germany. They brought the International Style with them and accepted major teaching posts at the nation’s most prestigious academic institutions, enabling them to control subsequent generations of American architects.

The fourth part considers the way that International Style became the single dominant American architectural style since World War II. Especially important was the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Wolfe’s “White God No. 2,” whose buildings seemed to sprout, like mushrooms, throughout the American hinterland. The fifth part describes the work of Edward Durell Stone, Eero Saarinen, John Portman, Morris Lapidus, all apostates who profited from their repudiation of International Style. Despite their success, they encountered the disdain of the style’s advocates and were ostracized by the architectural world. The sixth and seventh parts of the book describe permissible dissent within the Bauhaus tradition and note that such dissent was virtually no dissent at all. Thus, the Bauhaus tradition by the 1980’s remained the single pervasive architectural style in the United States. In the world of International Style, major innovation or deviation was heresy or apostasy. The Bauhaus gospel had banished all sin.

Critical Context

From the 1960’s onward, Tom Wolfe has been one of the most insightful and irreverent social critics in the United States. His analysis of modern art in The Painted Word and of modern architecture in From Bauhaus to Our House fits well with his other works, such as The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965), Mauve Gloves and Madmen, Clutter and Vine (1976), The Pump House Gang (1968), Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers (1970), and The Right Stuff (1979). Through these volumes Wolfe has effectively described the subcultures and varying life-styles of the 1960’s and 1970’s. It is social fragmentation that he has documented, with the accuracy of an insider and the objectivity of an observer. He has brought to his work the wit and good humor of the outsider’s perspective.

Each of Wolfe’s volumes has represented a unique slice of life. For example, in The Right Stuff, Wolfe turned his trained eye to the world of test pilots and astronauts; in The Painted Word, to the art world; and in From Bauhaus to Our House, to the architectural world. As an analyst and critic, he invariably reveals, interprets and joyfully attacks pretension. Thus, From Bauhaus to Our House pounces on architectural pretension, on the clients who acquiesced to the architects, on the arrogance of architects and compounds, on the corruption of American architectural taste, on the rejection of the nation’s native architects, on the sheer dullness of the International Style, on theory dictating practice, and on the curious psychological phenomenon of a country capitulating to foreign architects and to a view of architecture foreign to the United States. Wolfe provides keen observations and perspectives on these and other topics, and his work helps to elucidate the history of architecture. As part of that history, Wolfe’s book provides a useful interpretation that enriches the body of literature in the field. Since most of what has been written comes from writers sympathetic to the International Style, Wolfe’s book is an important contrast and fills a genuine need.

Finally, From Bauhaus to Our House places architecture in a social and psychological context. It shows something of the psychological processes of the artist compound (how ideas were formed and developed, how they became dominant, how toleration was rejected); something of the interaction among compounds; something of the intellectual climate of post-World War I Europe, something of American society, which became so receptive to the International Style; something of the psychology of American patrons and workers; and something of how professional authority can be exerted over nonprofessionals. The books says much about American life and society; it is a gem whose radiance may be savored with delight.

Bibliography

Hoffer, Eric. The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, 1951.

Kaufmann, Edgar, Jr., ed. The Rise of an American Architecture, 1970.

Naylor, G. The Bauhaus Reassessed: Sources and Design Theory, 1985.

Poggioli, Renato. The Theory of the Avant-Garde, 1968.

Rasmussen, Steen Eller. Experiencing Architecture, 1959.

Rose, Barbara. American Art Since 1900: A Critical History, 1967.

Scully, Vincent. American Architecture and Urbanism, 1969.

Wolfe, Tom. The Painted Word, 1975.