Walter Gropius Quotes

“A modern, harmonic and lively architecture is the visible sign of authentic democracy.”

“Architects, sculptors painters, we all must return to the crafts! For art is not a 'profession'. There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman.”

“Architecture begins where engineering ends.”

“Art itself cannot be taught, but craftsmanship can. Architects, painters, sculptors are all craftsmen in the original sense of the word. Thus it is a fundamental requirement of all artistic creativity that every student undergo a thorough training in the workshops of all branches of the crafts.”

“Capitalism and power politics have made our generation creatively sluggish, and our vital art is mired in a broad bourgeois philistinism.”

“Children should be introduced right from the start to the potentialities of their environment, to the physical and psychological laws that govern the visual world, and to the supreme enjoyment that comes from participating in the creative process of giving form to one's living space.”

“Good architecture should be a projection of life itself, and that implies an intimate knowledge of biological, social, technical, and artistic problems.”

“How can we expect our students to become bold and fearless in thought and action if we encase them in sentimental shrines feigning a culture which has long since disappeared?”

“However often the thread may be torn out of your hands, you must develop enough patience to wind it up again and again.”

“If your contribution has been vital there will always be somebody to pick up where you left off, and that will be your claim to immortality.”

“Let us together create the new building of the future, which will be everything in one form: architecture and sculpture and painting.”

“Limitation makes the creative mind inventive.”

“One of the outstanding achievements of the new constructional technique has been the abolition of the separating function of the wall.”

“Only work which is the product of inner compulsion can have spiritual meaning.”

“Society needs a good image of itself. That is the job of the architect.”

“Specialists are people who always repeat the same mistakes.”

“The Bauhaus fights imitation, inferior craftsmanship and artistic dilettantism.”

“The Bauhaus strives to bring together all creative effort into one whole, to reunify all the disciplines of practical art – sculpture, painting, handicrafts, and crafts – as inseparable components of a new architecture.”

“The fear that individuality will be crushed out by the growing 'tyranny' of standardization is the sort of myth which cannot withstand the briefest examination.”

“The greatest responsibility of the planner and architect, I believe, is the protection and development of our habitat.”

“The mind is like an umbrella. Its most useful when open.”

“The strong desire to include every vital component of life instead of excluding part of them for the sake of too narrow and dogmatic an approach has characterized my whole life.”

“The ultimate aim of all creative activity is the building!”

“The ultimate, if distant, aim of the Bauhaus is the unified work of art – the great structure – in which there is no distinction between monumental and decorative art.”

“Theo van Doesburg wanted to teach in the Bauhaus in 1922. I refused, however, to appoint him since I considered him to be too aggressive and too rigidly theoretical: he would have wrought havoc in the Bauhaus through his fanatic attitude, which ran counter to my own broader approach.”

“Today the arts exist in isolation, from which they can be rescued only through the conscious, cooperative effort of all craftsmen. Architects, painters, and sculptors must recognize anew and learn to grasp the composite character of a building both as an entity and in its separate parts.”

“Under trees, the urban dweller might restore his troubled soul and find the blessing of a creative pause.”

“We want to create the purely organic building, boldly emanating its inner laws, free of untruths or ornamentation.”

“Wherever I go I make others feel good, and by doing this, I create life. I am a sting, and a dangerous instrument!”

“With but a few exceptions, we don't have this personal study under masters any more. Craftsmanship has sunk very low. We no longer have any universally creative persons who are able to guide young learners not only in technical matters but also, at the same time, in a formal way.”