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The ultimate aim of all creative activity is a building!
The decoration of buildings was once the noblest function of fine arts,
and fine arts were indispensable to great architecture. Today they
exist in complacent isolation, and can only be rescued by the conscious
co-operation and collaboration of all craftsmen. Architects, painters,
and sculptors must once again come to know and comprehend the composite
character of a building, both as an entity and in terms of its various
parts. Then their work will be filled with that true architectonic
spirit which, as "salon art", it has lost.
The old
art schools were unable to produce this unity; and how, indeed, should
they have done so, since art cannot be taught? Schools must return to
the workshop. The world of the pattern-designer and applied artist,
consisting only of drawing and painting must become once again a world
in which things are built. If the young person who rejoices in creative
activity now begins his career as in the older days by learning a
craft, then the unproductive "artist" will no longer be condemned to
inadequate artistry, for his skills will be preserved for the crafts in
which he can achieve great things.
Architects, painters, sculptors, we must all return to crafts! For there is no such thing as "professional art". There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman.
By the grace of Heaven and in rare moments of inspiration which
transcend the will, art may unconsciously blossom from the labour of
his hand, but a base in handicrafts is essential to every artist. It is there that the original source of creativity lies.
Let us therefore create a new guild of craftsmen
without the class-distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between
craftsmen and artists! Let us desire, conceive, and create the new
building of the future together. It will combine architecture,
sculpture, and painting in a single form, and will one day rise
towards the heavens from the hands of a million workers as the
crystalline symbol of a new and coming faith.
-->WALTER GROPIUS
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