- While the Bauhaus students and teachers
represented avant garde and non-mainstream ideas,
they followed gender roles typical
of Germany in the 1920s.
Less patriarchal than the general society,
women were often encouraged to work
with more feminine activities.
The weaving workshop that worked with textile design
was one of the most successful workshops
and populated primarily with female students.
They used textiles to explore new ways
of creating form and weaving techniques.
The color and formal approach was influenced
by Paul Klee's theories.
In his words, "Studies in algebra and geometry
"and mechanics characterize teaching directed
"toward the essential and the functional
"in contrast to the apparent.
"One learns to look behind the facade
"to grasp the root of things.
"One learns to recognize the undercurrents,
"the antecedents of the visible.
"One learns to dig down to uncover,
"to find the cause, to analyze."
From 1921 to 1927 Georg Muche ran the workshop.
During this period the textiles were produced in bulk
and sold to increase the workshop's profitability.
He moved the focus from the traditional weaving loom
toward industrial weaving techniques.
Gunta Stolzl played a fundamental role
in the development of the weaving workshop.
She incorporated ideas from Klee, Itten, and Kandinsky
with traditional textile techniques
and became the first woman master at the school.
At its inception the weaving workshop
was not technically oriented.
Gunta and her students took the courses
and learned the craft outside of the school.
The upside of this lack of technical guideline allowed
her to question and experiment with unorthodox materials,
including cellophane, fiberglass, and metal.
In 1929 she married Arieh Sharon from Israel.
Because she married a Jewish man,
Gunta's German citizenship was taken away.
By 1931 she left the Bauhaus and moved to Switzerland
to avoid the rising threats in Germany.
In 1925 Josef Albers married Anni Fleischmann,
another student at the Bauhaus.
She went on to be another leading figure
at the weaving workshop.
Annie experimented with new materials
and bold abstract forms,
also influenced by Klee.
Her design was non-representational,
using only straight lines and solid colors.
She experimented with materials like
metallic thread and horsehair,
and utilized the raw materials and components
of structure as the source of design and beauty.
Annie and Josef migrated to the United States in 1933,
first teaching at Black Mountain College
and then Connecticut, where Josef was made
the chairman of the department of design at Yale.
Annie made extraordinary weavings,
developing new textiles and taught
while also writing essays on design
that reflected her independent and passionate vision.
The best description of the weaving workshop's goal
comes directly from Gunta, who stated,
"Only active participation in solving the
"changing problems of life and home makes it possible
"to keep educational and cultural work
"of the Bauhaus weaving workshop vital and progressive.
"Woven fabrics in a room are equally important
"in the larger entity of architecture,
"as the color of the walls, the furniture,
"and household equipment.
"They have to serve their purposes,
"have to be integrated, and have to fulfill
"with ultimate precision the requirements
"we place on color, material, and texture.
"The possibilities are unlimited.
"Understanding of and feeling for the artistic problems
"of architecture will show us the right way."