Tag Archive for 'Werkbund'

Wilhelm Ostwald and the Werkbund

In 1912 Ostwald joined the Werkbund which aimed at standardising industrial design. He published a paper on “standards” in the yearbook of the Werkbund in which he called art a “social product” which made it necessary to standardise it. Wilhelm Ostwald, ‘Normen’, Jahrbuch des Deutschen Werkbundes 3 (1914) 77-86

Color theory

In 1914 Ostwald was asked by the German Werkbund to prepare a “rational” atlas of colors (see Figure 2). His ideas to create art from a scientific viewpoint were com-bated by most contemporary artists. His imperative “order = legality = harmony” and his color theory had influence on the German Werkbund, the Bauhaus and the […]