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.Johnson s contention that the Bauhaus and itsarchitects were almost unknown in this country before his 1932 exhibition Mod-ern Architecture and book International Style is therefore highly questionable.2Even before 1932, a large amount of information on the Bauhaus, in par-ticular on the works of its leading architects, was already available.Well-curatedexhibitions referred to the Bauhaus; significant texts by renowned authors ap-peared in well-regarded and -circulated publications.Its architecture was oftenpresented with exceptionally good illustrations.The sharp contrast between thoseimages and the many traditionalist or historical images was apparent even onleafing through architecture journals and books.This was certainly true of Miesvan der Rohe s model of a skyscraper in glass and iron (1921),3 his design for a de-partment store in Berlin (1928),4 the Barcelona Pavilion (1928 1929),5 and the Tu-gendhat house (1928 1930),6 or of Walter Gropius s administration building at theCologne Werkbund exhibition (1914),7 the Fagus shoe factory (1911),8 and theDessau Bauhaus (1926).These buildings were so different from the buildings nor-mally published during the twenties in terms of phenotype, construction, use ofmaterials, and abstract formal language that these articles and images could nothave escaped the attention of competent readers.Sometimes, the designs and re-alized buildings in this new architectural idiom may have been dismissed as fol-lies, utopias, or, in the worst case, perversions.Nonetheless, it is conceivable thata handful of professionals took notice of the progressive concepts they embodied.This was particularly true at the end of the twenties, when these ideas were rein-forced by the context of the entire avant-garde movements, and the receptive cli-mate for the ideals of European classical modernism had improved.Furthermore, it is possible to cite incidents of a single significant recep-tive moment in which initial contact with a work later proved to be an essentialexperience.The prominent American architect Harwell Hamilton Harris, whodied in late 1990, had exactly such an experience at Frank Lloyd Wright s Holly-hock House in Los Angeles, which he visited as a young art student.The building ssculptural qualities impressed him so deeply that he decided to become an ar-chitect.9 Another eye-opening experience was his first encounter with Mies vander Rohe s Barcelona Pavilion in the pages of Die Form: it inspired him torephrase his understanding of architecture as a three-dimensional construct of106 planes and to design using a modular system.10 Harris belonged to the first gener-ation of American architects who recognized the importance of the avant-gardesin Europe and America and were quick to engage specific ideas.He worked for atime in Richard Neutra s office and was involved in the Lovell House in Los An-geles.Among those Americans who later achieved a superregional reputation, hewas one of the first to adopt some of Mies s fundamental design principles.Be-cause this did not entail any deviation from his own, individualistic line, butrather the selective adoption of ideas wherever they seemed logical within thecontext of his own system, a case study of his work would be a productive way toestablish the influence of Bauhaus-related ideas on American architecture.The following pages offer an insight into the image of the Bauhaus as pre-sented to a competent and interested recipient in the United States between 1919and 1936.Consideration will be given to the information on the Bauhaus that wasavailable between 1919 and 1936; the way in which the initially authentically re-ceived image of the Bauhaus s architecture became progressively stilted; andthe way in which a shift in perception occurred in favor of the heavily edited im-age of a Dessau school created by Gropius.By 1936, this image had been elevatedto a myth, supporting the subsequent emigrations of those who had been staffingin the roles of its heroes.With few exceptions, there is a clear correlation betweenthe results of the early reception of the Bauhaus and the brilliant American ca-reers of a few of its protagonists.America did not discover any new star, and anumber of Bauhaus people were either overlooked or given marginal attention.This applies to many aspects of the program as well, as the focus of interestshifted more and more to what was in demand.2 Author s interview with Philip Johnson, 21 September 1992.3 See the plan in Walter Curt Behrendt, Skyscrapers in Germany, 368; the illustration in Irving K.Pond, From Foreign Shores, May 1925, 158; and Knud Lønberg-Holm, Glass, 328.4 Large-format illustration in Reducing Dead Load, Saving Time and Increasing Control, 490.5 Helen A.Read, Germany at the Barcelona World s Fair, 112, 113; Sheldon Cheney, The NewWorld Architecture, 127.Cheney cites Mies as the architect of the pavilion but erroneouslystates that the fair was in Seville.6 Three illustrations in Lønberg-Holm, Glass, 352, 353.7 Two illustrations in Herman George Scheffauer, The Work of Walter Gropius, 54.8 Illustration in ibid., 53.Also see Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Modern Architecture, plate 38.9 Author s interview with Harwell Hamilton Harris, 22 April 1990.Compare Lisa Germany, Har-well Hamilton Harris, 18.10 Author s interview with Harwell Hamilton Harris, 11 March 1990.The analysis and open admis-sion of his artistic origins and inspiration in the works of others evidences his exceptional intel-lectual and personal qualities.Were such qualities more widespread among artists andarchitects, it would likely be easier to trace the path of such processes of reception.107 108 THE IMAGE OF THE BAUHAUS AS RECEIVED IN AMERICAFOUNDINGFew of the texts that deal directly with the Bauhaus or its protagonists discuss its artis-tic, philosophical, and political roots or Gropius s motivation for founding it.One ofthe earliest of all articles on the Bauhaus, Revolution Reflected in the New Art ofGermany, published in Current Opinion in 1919, listed the developments that hadmost obviously contributed to the Bauhaus s founding: the initiatives of the GermanWerkbund, the reciprocal influence of revolution and art in the aftermath of the Ger-man November Revolution, the subsequent founding of the Arbeitsrat für Kunst, andthe transposition of concepts implemented by the council s Berlin section underGropius to the Bauhaus as institution.In describing the ideas and aims of the Bauhaus,the article s author quoted its founder:The wall of conceit that separates the artist from the workman must disappear,.for inthe last analysis we are all working men, and only now and then arises among us a ge-nius who is worthy of the artist s name.That is a gift of god which might come to thehumblest craftsman as well as to the most educated academician.Away with the snob-bery of art let us all learn to be laborers for the common good in the great democracyof tomorrow.11In addition to discussing the Bauhaus s orientation toward educational and social re-form, the article mentions the general artistic aims pursued by Gropius in foundingthe Bauhaus
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