During the semester we are given weekly DPQs (Design Pop Quiz) where we have to guess the designers based on their products shown on the screen. One of the first was Bauhaus, it intrigued me as a concept which sparked a conversation with my friends. One of our classmates mentioned how disappointed she was there were so few female designers mentioned, I took this as a challenge to uncover what an institution like that made of female designers at the time.
What was Bauhaus?
The Bauhaus, or Staatliches Bauhaus as it is formally known, was an art school in Germany that was active from 1919 to 1933. It is renowned for its unique approach to design that merged fine arts and crafts, striving to harmonise personal artistic expression with mass production techniques and a focus on practical function. Bauhaus was one of the first design schools which favoured simplified forms, rationality and functionality. The objective was to create a good design that served the needs of the new age. The informality of the Bauhaus was an extraordinary release from pre-war conventions for women.
Iconic male designers from the school, such as Josef Albers, László Moholy-Nagy, and Paul Klee, are some of the most celebrated pioneers of modern art. Despite more women than men applying to the school in its first year, the women artists who taught, studied, and made groundbreaking work with them are often remembered in history books as wives of their male counterparts or, worse, not at all.
The Founder's Vision, Progressive or Regressive?
The school addressed itself as progressive and modern, advocating equality for the sexes, which was a rare and bold move at the time. The value was supposed to be placed on skill rather than gender, classes were mixed and women were allowed to choose whatever subjects they wanted. The question then arises, was that really how it was? Despite their radical aspirations, the men in charge of the school still represented the societal attitudes of the time. If women were treated as equals, how come non of them got as much recognition as Paul Klee or Wassily Kandinsky? I find it hard to believe that they just weren't as good.
The societal attitudes towards women in design at that time were similar to those in the Victorian times (see the blog post 'Herstory' and 'Changing Attitudes to Female Roles' linked below'): women should tend to more delicate designs such as textiles and weaving. The only design role which was somewhat respected was interior design. Through traditional beliefs, It became apparent that a women's touch was what transformed a house into a home. Surely with their inherent good taste and responsibility to plan and care for the house, women were professional designers by default. Inside Bauhaus, there have been many reports stating that despite their efforts in making an equal design space, women were still encouraged to pursue weaving rather than male-dominated mediums like painting, carving, and architecture.
Minutes from the masters’ meeting reveal that the male leaders of the Bauhaus were growing steadily more concerned with the number of women filtering into the school. Gropius, in particular, was worried that the presence of so many women would give the institution an amateur affectation, infecting the atmosphere with something reminiscent of the arts and crafts movement that he was keen to avoid.
The choice of the weaving workshop at the Bauhaus was indicative of the school's continued association with the decorative arts, which had been present in its earlier iteration at the Grand Ducal School. However, it also highlighted the prevalent notion that weaving was a pursuit primarily reserved for women, considered as little more than a leisure activity that could be easily learned without much effort or intellectual rigour. This attitude was encapsulated by Oskar Schlemmer's (one of the Masters of Form at the school shown below) remark, "Where there is wool, there is a woman who weaves, if only to pass the time.”
At first, women were strongly urged to enter the workshop — though this urging was tantamount to a directive. Later, they were simply refused entry to any other course. The hope may have been that the women would be kept away from the important work of the Bauhaus. But the masters underestimated how much the weaving workshop would be defined by the women within it — and how much the school would come to rely on them financially.
Attitudes of Walter Gropius
Through further investigation, I have found the founder, Walter Gropius, questionable in his motives. I'm really trying not to laugh out of ridicule but he openly encouraged his distinction through his vocal belief that men thought in three dimensions, while women could only handle two.... what?!
"There is no difference between the beautiful sex and the strong sex."
- Walter Gropius
I think that quote says enough about his attitude.
You can read more about his 'Theoretical Theme of Gender" in this linked paper: https://issuu.com/amifall/docs/bauhaus_essay.docx
My Thoughts
I was enraged when I first discovered this information. I think that there are a lot of expectations surrounding teachers, there will always be someone who is unhappy or against their ways of teaching. I also understand that teachers are just people with their own biases and that this was a completely different time to now, BUT, to quote my mum, "If you're going to do something, do it properly!" If their whole ideation was to create this progressive and abstract place, why did they constantly contradict themselves with the way that they spoke about their female students? It almost seems like it was just a big show. In saying that, I understand the fear of failure, I think every one of us does. The fear of being so controversial for the time that people wouldn't take you seriously is scary. But a lot of women in history have had to persevere through that (see my blog post on 'Herstory'), why couldn't these men? Were they too comfortable? Yet again, if you're going to do something, do it properly. For such ambitious founders, they really didn't see the full value and potential over competition by welcoming female designers. It gave them a niche, not just a name.
The Women of Bauhaus
I am happy to say that 90 years later, these more 'decorative' arts are becoming to be gaining recognition as important artworks in their own right.
"Think about embroideries and tapestries, I mean they're exquisite when you get up close to them."
-Kirsten Dunne, Senior Projects Conservator
"Pheobe Anna Traquair, for example, if you look at her embroidery work, which are on a scale of a large painting, you can really appreciate the skill - not as an embroiderer, but as an artist."
-Fiona Menzies, Archivist
Here are some fantastic females artists from Bauhaus:
Otti Berger
B. 1898, Zmajevac, Croatia
D. 1944, Auschwitz, Poland
With a more innovative and conceptual approach than many of her contemporaries, Berger was among the most imaginative members of the weaving workshop. When Stölzl vacated her position as department head in 1931, Berger assumed the role and implemented her own curriculum. However, she left in 1932 to start her own textile atelier in Berlin. Berger intended to relocate to the U.S. to escape Hitler's regime (as she was Jewish) and join Moholy-Nagy's New Bauhaus school in Chicago. Nevertheless, her visa application stalled, and she returned to Croatia. Unfortunately, the Nazis arrested Berger and transported her to Auschwitz in 1944, where she passed away. Nonetheless, her textiles endure and can be found in collections ranging from the Met to the Art Institute of Chicago.
Anni Albers
B. 1899, Berlin, Germany
D. 1994, Orange, Connecticut
Albers entered the Bauhaus in 1922, aspiring to pursue painting studies she had commenced at the School of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg. Nevertheless, by 1923, she dedicated the majority of her time to the weaving workshop, where she promptly mastered the loom. Inspired by Paul Klee's techniques and "what he did with a line, a point or a stroke of the paintbrush," Albers employed weaving to establish a unique visual language of hard-edged patterns. Her initial tapestries significantly influenced the development of geometric abstraction in the visual arts, along with the work of her Bauhaus peers, including her future husband, Josef Albers, whom she met at the school.
Marianne Brandt
B. 1893, Chemnitz, Germany
D. 1983, Kirchberg, Saxony
In 1924, László Moholy-Nagy was so impressed with Brandt's initial creations that he opened a spot for her in the metal workshop, which had previously excluded women. She subsequently designed some of the most notable pieces associated with the Bauhaus movement, including a metal ashtray that appears as a halved sphere, currently present in MoMA's collection. Her initial student project, a silver tea infuser and strainer, is held by the Met and the British Museum, among other institutions.
During her tenure at the Bauhaus, Brandt emerged as one of Germany's foremost industrial designers. In 1928, she even won the position of head of the metal workshop, surpassing her male competitors. In that same year, she conceived the Kandem bedside table lamp, which became one of the most commercially successful objects produced by the school. After departing from the Bauhaus in 1929, Brandt became the design department director at Ruppelwerk Metallwarenfabrik GmbH, a metalware company.
Margaete Heymann
B. 1899, Cologne, Germany
D. 1990, London, England
When Heymann was only 21 years old, she diverged from the path of most of her female peers at Bauhaus, declining to join the weaving workshop. She persuaded Gropius to grant her a spot in ceramics instead. In this setting, the open-minded artist commenced crafting angular pieces comprised of triangles and circles adorned with constructivist designs and vibrant glazes. Nevertheless, Heymann's time in ceramics was short-lived due to clashes with her instructor, Gerhard Marcks, causing her departure after just one year.
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