Resurrecting the work of gifted craftswomen, too long denied their place as pioneers in their field, Women's Work: Textile Art from the Bauhaus unearths a missing chapter in the story of the most important institution in the history of modern design. The Bauhaus defined modern design in the twentieth century. As the preeminent design phenomenon of the era, almost every aspect of it has been minutely examined. Yet the Weaving Workshop, the longest standing and most successful of all Bauhaus workshops, has been neglected for one simple reason: when the first wave of brilliantly talented women arrived at the school, they soon discovered that Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius could not sustain his ringing declaration of equality between "the beautiful and the strong gender." Textiles, in the hierarchy of art and design, were to be "women's work." Their results, however, were remarkable, both in the early days of artistic expression in Weimar and in later developments in the textile industry. The craftswomen responded to the demands of advanced technology with fabrics that incorporated new or unusual materials such as Cellophane, leather and early synthetics, which had acoustic and light-reflecting properties. They produced multi-layered fabrics, cloths with double and triple weaves, and later made extensive use of the jacquard loom. The result was a rebirth of hand-weaving and new professionalism in designing textiles for mass production. In this model study, superlatively documented with rare or little-seen photographs of the textiles and their makers, Sigrid Wortmann Weltge captures the heady atmosphere of creative excitement at the Bauhaus. Original archival research and interviews, both with survivors and their students and with leading contemporary designers, detail the workshop's history and its enduring legacy. When the Nazis closed the institution in 1933, its members dispersed to Switzerland, Holland, England, France, Russia, Mexico, and throughout the United States; their ideals and influence live on in marvelous fabrics still being produced today.

Women's Work: Textile Art from the Bauhaus

Weltge, Sigrid Wortmann

Arts & Photography

Chronicle Books+

Part of the ongoing series focusing on former students and teachers of Black Mountain College, this one features fiber artist, Lore Lindenfeld. As a German migr student of former Bauhaus teachers Josef and Anni Albers, and Trude Guermonprez, she can be said to unite the progressive strains of two of the centuries most imaginative educational institutions. Her expansive exploration of fiber arts puts her in the vanguard of a vital direction in contemporary use of those materials.

Lore Lindenfeld: A Life in Textiles 1945-1997: Black Mountain College Dossier n3 (Black Mountain College Dossiers Number 3)

Individual Artists

Black Mountain College Museum & art

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Weltge, Sigrid Wortmann. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Weltge, Sigrid Wortmann

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Weltge, Sigrid Wortmann. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Women's Work: Textile Art from the Bauhaus

Lore Lindenfeld: A Life in Textiles 1945-1997: Black Mountain College Dossier n3 (Black Mountain College Dossiers Number 3)