Most commonly associated with the Bauhaus are the world-famous architects Gropius and Mies van der Rohe and, to a lesser extent, the artists Kandinsky and Klee. Yet Professor Weltge opens up design vistas by capturing the spirit of the school's weaving workshop, one almost exclusively ruled by women in pre-World War II Germany. Interlaced with a thorough explanation of the Bauhaus commitment to the cross-fertilization between art and technology are very human tales: the school's moves from Weimar to Dessau to Berlin, the loss of 20 to 30 artists at Hitler's hands, and the exile to various countries and the subsequent reestablishment of the Bauhaus' ethos in foreign lands. Period photographs, sketches, and surviving textile examples help attest to the Bauhaus' revolution in design, a motif now well appreciated by collectors and professionals alike.
Barbara Jacobs
Synopsis
The Weaving Workshop was the only domain for women artists at the Bauhaus (the German school of design that operated from 1919 through 1933). The text tells about the women of the workshop and the context of their work and art, the progression of the school and its edicts, the changes wrought by the mechanized loom and mass production, and the lega