The International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus was a small
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretica ...
artistic tendency that arose out of the breakup of
COBRA, and was initiated by contact between former
COBRA members
Asger Jorn
Asger Oluf Jorn (3 March 1914 – 1 May 1973) was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International. He was born in Vejrum, in the northwest c ...
and
Enrico Baj
Enrico Baj (October 31, 1924 – June 15, 2003)June 15 according to the Guardian, June 17 according to the-artists.org was an Italian artist and writer on art. Many of his works show an obsession with nuclear war. He created prints, sculptures ...
and
Sergio Dangelo of the Nuclear Art Movement.
The Assault On Culture book by Stewart Home chapter on College of Pataphysics, Nuclear Art, IMIB
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When Asger Jorn recovered from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, ...
in the autumn of 1952, he tried for a year to restart his career in Denmark
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. However, in autumn 1953 he moved to Villars-sur-Ollon in Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
. It was here he heard of the Hochschule fur Gestaltung in Ulm
Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...
.Max Bill
Max Bill (22 December 1908 – 9 December 1994) was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer and graphic designer.
Early life and education
Bill was born in Winterthur. After an apprenticeship as a silversmit ...
with a proposal for collaboration, it soon became apparent that their views were highly divergent.[ Jorn wrote in a letter to ]Enrico Baj
Enrico Baj (October 31, 1924 – June 15, 2003)June 15 according to the Guardian, June 17 according to the-artists.org was an Italian artist and writer on art. Many of his works show an obsession with nuclear war. He created prints, sculptures ...
: " Swiss architect, Max Bill, has undertaken to restructure the Bauhaus where Klee and Kandinsky taught. He wishes to make an academy without painting, without research into the imagination, fantasy, signs, symbols – all he wants is technical instruction. In the name of experimental artists I intend to create an International Movement For An Imaginist Bauhaus."
Timeline
*1954: Jorn finds a copy of ''Potlatch'', the information bulletin of the Letterist International at Baj's house. He then contacts Andre-Frank Connord, who puts him in contact with Guy Debord
Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situation ...
and Michèle Bernstein.
*29 September 1955: IMIB is founded in Alba
''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kin ...
, Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
by Jorn, Giuseppe Pinot-Gallizio, and Piero Simondo.
*July 1956: One issue of ''Eristica'', edited by Simondo, appears. It was published by Giuseppe Gallizio and contains: "Form and structure" by Asger Jorn; "For a general theory of the figurative arts" by Pietro Simondo and "Architectural functions, of democratic destinations" by Elena Verrone. The editorial board included Enrico Baj, Tullio Albisola and Ettore Sottsass.
*28 July 1957: IMIB fused with the Letterist International and the London Psychogeographical Association
The London Psychogeographical Association (LPA), sometimes referred to as the London Psychogeographical Committee, is an organisation devoted to psychogeography. The LPA is perhaps best understood in the context of psychogeographical praxis.
Lo ...
to form the Situationist International
The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...
. Baj was excluded from this process.
See also
*Anti-art
Anti-art is a loosely used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Somewhat paradoxically, anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage poi ...
References
External links
Notes on the Formation of an Imaginist Bauhaus
Situationist International
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