"The complete
building is the final aim of the
visual arts. Their noblest function was once the
decoration of buildings.
Today they exist in
isolation, from which they all can be rescued only through the conscious, cooperative
effort of all
craftsmen.
Architects,
painters, and
sculptors must recognize anew the composite
character of a building as an
entity. Only then will their work be
imbued with the architectonic
spirit that it lost when it became a "
salon art." The old
art schools were unable to achieve this
unity and, after all, how could they, since art cannot be taught? They must be absorbed once more by the
workshop.
This world of
designers and
decorators, who only draw and paint, must finally become one of
builders again. If the young person who feels within him the
urge to
create again, as in former times, begins his
career by learning a
handicraft, the unproductive
artist will, in the future, no longer remain condemned to the creation of
mediocre art, because his
skill will redound the benefit of the
handicrafts, in which he will be able to
produce things of
excellence.
Architects,
sculptors,
painters, we must all turn to the
crafts!
Art is not a
profession. There is no essential difference between the
artist and the
craftsman. The artist is an
exalted craftsman. In rare moments of
inspiration, moments beyond the
control of his
will, the
grace of heaven may cause his work to
blossom into art. But
proficiency in his craft is essential to every artist. Therein lies a source of creative
imagination.
Let us create a new
guild of craftsmen, without the class distinctions that raise an
arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist. Together let us conceive and create the new
building of the
future, which will
embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one unity and which will rise one day toward
heaven from the hands of a million workers, like the
crystal symbol of a new faith."
Walter Gropius, The Bauhaus manifesto, 1919