Bauhaus Textiles: Women Artists and the Weaving Workshop [Paperback]

Sigrid Wortmann Weltge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1998

Longest standing and most successful of all Bauhaus enterprises was the Weaving Workshop, whose talented female designers created beautiful textiles, pouring all their energy and talent into this fresh and challenging field of interest. Embracing advanced technology, they used unusual materials (such as cellophane and early synthetics), and made reversible fabrics with acoustic and light-reflecting properties as well as other innovative experimental textiles. Their striking, brightly coloured geometric designs generated renewed interest in hand-weaving and a new professionalism in designing fabrics for mass-production. In this study, illustrated with both full-colour and rare historical photographs, Sigrid Wortmann Weltge recreates the atmosphere of excitement and creativity at the Bauhaus. Original archival research, as well as interviews with survivors and their students and with leading contemporary designers, detail the workshop's history and its legacy: wonderful fabrics still being produced today.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Admissions literature for the Bauhaus school of art in the 1920s and early 1930s described an egalitarian community, with "absolute equality but also absolute equal duties." Women artists arriving at the Bauhaus were nevertheless immediately shuttled off to the weaving workshop, regardless of their interest in textiles. As Sigrid Wortmann Weltge explains, this was only the first indication that all was not progressive in this school of modernism. "They were at the Bauhaus because it had promised equality in the choice of a profession. In reality they found that their role within the institution was defined and formulated by their teachers. Only then did it become apparent that they were assigned talents and capacities viewed as innately female, of which a special predilection for textiles was only one."

Those who chose to stick it out in this sexist environment went on to create textiles which were some of the most beautiful and underappreciated art of the era. The weaving workshop eventually became a "laboratory for industrial fabrics" and one of the most financially successful workshops in the Bauhaus. This book chronicles the creative growth of the workshop within the larger context of the Bauhaus, and it unearths the history of individual artists such as Gunta Stolzl, Anni Albers, Benita Otte, Otti Berger, and Marli Ehrman. The author interviewed surviving Bauhaus weavers and their students, and she collected photographs--many of them rare--to illustrate nearly every page of this handsome work. --Maria Dolan

Review

Clearly, the author has set the record straight: Bauhaus weaving stands proudly with the achievements of 20th-century art. -- Christian Science Monitor

Extremely handsome with brilliant color plates and extensive technical information....An invaluable tool for future scholars. -- Women's Review of Books

Extremely handsome...an invaluable tool for future scholars. -- Women's Review of Books

Opens up design vistas by capturing the spirit of the school's weaving workshop, one almost exclusively ruled by women. -- Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500280347
• ISBN-13: 978-0500280348
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,123,458 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exploding Bahaus Myths, March 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Bauhaus Textiles: Women Artists and the Weaving Workshop (Paperback)

This is a brilliantly written book focussing on the often overlooked question of how the women accepted into Bahaus developed professionally, and the limitations that were placed upon them, despite the ostensible "equality" that Bahaus proposed. There are copious black and white photographic reproductions of the textile work developed both during study, and during subsequent careers. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in textile design, and it is really required reading for anyone who wants to round out their knowledge of the institution. However, it's not a pretty picture book of textiles - better quality images would have made it 5 stars for me.