Bauhaus Pedagogy in Exile: Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack and Art Education.

The educational side of art education seems to be experiencing a revival with respect to the socio-political, environmental, and economic problems and disasters of a multinational and multicultural society today. A concept such as education through art seems to be worth reassessment. In that context, this paper considers Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack (1893-1985), an art educator who was a member of the Bauhaus and a protagonist of its ideas on changing society via art and design, and who, as a refugee from Nazi Germany in Australia during the 1940s and 50s, contributed to changes in art education. The paper discusses the New Education Fellowship conferences of the late 1930s. Hirschfeld-Mack's conference paper, "Creative Activity and the Study of Materials," was especially important from the perspective of the pedagogical principles developed at the Bauhaus. In the strict sense, the term "Bauhaus" pedagogy stands for a number of theoretical and methodical approaches taught by "master painters" like Klee, Kandinsky, and Moholy-Nagy within the framework of their design theories. This paper discusses Hirschfeld-Mack's application of these principles in Australia and provides background on his own education in Germany. It finds that, although criticized in the context of secondary art education in the 1960s and 70s because of its dogmatic use of elementary forms and general "rules" of design, Bauhaus pedagogy at the end of the 1980s was reassessed regarding its potential addressed through elementary material studies and its holistic approach to design. Contains 31 notes. (BT)