Bauhaus Textiles: Women Artists and the Weaving Workshop

The preeminence of the Bauhaus in the history of twentieth-century design is undisputed, and most aspects of it have been minutely examined. Yet its Weaving Workshop, whose artists were almost all women, has received much less attention. As the author points out, when talented women arrived at the Bauhaus school, they soon discovered that its founder, Walter Gropius, was not adhering strictly to his ringing declaration of equality "between the beautiful and the strong gender." Textiles, in the hierarchy of art and design, were deemed "women's work." In this model study, superlatively illustrated with period photographs and examples of surviving textiles, Professor Weltge recreates the heady atmosphere of creative excitement at the Bauhaus. Drawing upon original archival research and interviews with Bauhaus survivors, their students, and leading contemporary designers, the author details the Weaving Workshop's history and its enduring legacy. In the early years of the Workshop, the emphasis was on hand weaving and individual artistic expression. However, following the Bauhaus exhibition of 1923, the Weaving Workshop moved to the forefront in developing prototypes for the textile industry. Eagerly embracing advanced technology, the artists incorporated new or unusual materials, produced multilayered cloths, and made extensive use of the Jacquard loom. When the Nazis closed the Bauhaus in 1933, its members dispersed to Switzerland, Holland, England, France, Russia, Mexico, and the United States, where Black Mountain College and Mill College became Bauhaus outposts. The ideals and influence of the Weaving Workshop's artists live on in marvelous fabrics still being produced today.