The Bauhaus Group

September 15, 2009
An art historian offers six largely flattering portraits of key members of the famed Bauhaus group that flourished in Germany in the 1920s, then died when the Nazis enforced their own definitions of art and its functions.

Weber (Le Corbusier: A Life, 2008, etc.) profiles some of the most iconic figures in modern-art history, including Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, who, the author demonstrates, were fine friends, not rivals. The journey begins with Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus school, and this section provides the rough structure for the subsequent ones. General comments about his significance segue into a biographical sketch and a detailed examination of his career at the Bauhaus, followed by another quick summary of the subject's post-Bauhaus career and death. Weber quotes liberally from correspondence, provides a wealth of illustrations and offers his running assessment of each person's contributions to art history. The author clearly admires—even reveres—these six figures. Klee"brought the liberating spirit of surrealism to the Bauhaus"; Kandinsky"altered the course of world art." Weber reserves his most intimate praise for Josef and Anni Albers, whom he befriended late in their lives and whose eponymous charitable foundation he now directs. The author, in fact, was the executor of Anni's will, and relates an uncomfortable anecdote about the odd pleasure he took in informing actor Maximilian Schell that Anni had excluded him from mention or bequest. In the final 200 pages Weber adopts the first-person voice, becoming a character in the story.

A rigorously researched and often fascinating history that morphs into memoir.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 15, 2009
Weber (executive director, Josef & Anni Albers Fdn.; "Le Corbusier: A Life") offers a cross section of the personal lives of six artists and architects of the Bauhaus. Walter Gropius, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Josef and Anni Albers, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe are each described, with special attention paid to the fortitude, ambition, or passion for art that characterized their tenure at the school. Much has been written about the Bauhauslers, but Weber adds his personal recollections of the Alberses, whom he first met as a student in the 1970s. The chapters on them and their views on the other four subjects are the most engaging; elsewhere, the strict focus on the years before and during the Bauhaus excludes much fascinating post-1933 history, and the exhaustive detailing of repetitious episodes bogs down the narrative. VERDICT The sheer volume of text may overwhelm readers interested in the often tumultuous lives of the Bauhauslers, but those who persevere, or make use of judicious skimming, will be rewarded for their efforts.Amy Trendler, Ball State Univ. Libs., Muncie, IN

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 1, 2009
German architect Walter Gropius envisioned an art school where the distinctions between craft, art, and industry were blurred. The Bauhaus opened in 1919 in Weimar, Germany, and transformed art forevermore. In this romping, empathic, groundbreaking group biography, the prolific, best-selling, and commanding Weber tells the dramatic stories of Bauhaus stars Gropius, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Josef Albers, and deeply conflicted and stoic Anni Albers. Wife to Josef and a brilliant textile artist, Anni is Webers guiding light, although the celebrated femme fatale, Alma Mahler, the torment of Gropius life, provides fierce competition. Weber knew the late Alberses and has long served as director of the Albers Foundation. His personal perspective enhances his appreciation for the Bauhaus vision of art as a moral template for life. Weber writes incandescently of prophetlike Klees passion for nature and unique imagination, traces aristocratic Kandinskys journey into the spirituality of abstraction, and captures Mies tenacity and spectacular inventiveness. Guided by Anni to a secret stash of Josefs early works, Weber now presents the master of subtle variations as a man of fiery passion. A grand synthesis of biography, art history, and interpretation, Webers dazzlingly detailed suite of Bauhaus lives greatly enriches our understanding of modernity and art.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)