Dessau and Bauhaus

On Friday my Visual Culture class took a trip to the city of Dessau, which is most well known for the Bauhaus College of Architecture. My professor grew up in Dessau, and his uncle was a Bauhaus artist; therefore, the plethora of knowledge Professor Butter has to offer is dumbfounding. I am not going to lie, modern architecture is not my favorite area of art history, but I really enjoyed a lot of aspects of the trip. For example, the Bauhaus color theory is a very interesting subject. To break it down into simple forms, the Bauhaus scholars grouped colors based on their pigments as well as how they effected each other. Our perception of colors changes depending on how they are presented. A shade of light blue will look gray when put next to a deep blue. It is a really interesting way of thinking about the mind and perception of colors.

We ended the trip with a visit to Professor Butter's mother's house, where she fixed us coffee, tea, and served us cookies. She was such an adorable 88-year-old woman, and she was so excited to have the company. In fact, I was the first person to walk into the apartment and I extended my hand to give her a greeting and she stretched her arms out and said, "Oh come! Welcome!" and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I then told her "Mein name is Margaret auch," which translates to "My name is also Margaret." I knew this because on the first day of class, our teacher was going through our names and explained that he loved my name because Margaret is his mother's name. It was a really awesome experience in all!