Introduction
Gunta Stölzl (5 March 1897 – 22 April 1983) was a German textile artist who played a fundamental role in the development of the Bauhaus school's weaving workshop. She created immense change within the textile field by uniting art practices taught at the Bauhaus with traditional textile techniques and became the first woman Master at the school. Here is her story as told in references [1-2].
Gunta Stölzl@Bauhaus
Gunta Stölzl was the dominant presence in the Weaving Shop at the Bauhaus. In fact, its evolution paralleled her own development. The student who entered the Bauhaus in 1919 would leave it in 1931 as a consummate professional, the only female Bauhaus master. It is because of her that one talks about Bauhaus fabrics.
Gunta Stölzl in 1929.
Courtesy of reference[1].
Stölzl has been described as personally modest yet strong willed and tenacious professionally, and totally committed to her goals. From 1914 to 1916 she studied painting, ceramics and art history at the School of Applied Arts in Munich. During the following two years she served as a red cross nurse behind front lines and in 1919 resumed her studies for an additional term.
Gunta Stölzl, Untitled (1915-1917).
Courtesy of reference[2].
Actively involved in curriculum reform at her school, she encountered the Bauhaus manifesto which impressed her so much she travelled to Weimar to meet Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus. Stölzl vividly remembered her arrival. 'What did I find? A small group of students, more men than girls. A big building with studios, which were partially occupied by the old academy, next to it large empty rooms, a workshop building, a cafeteria, a studio building for students but only for men.'
Henry van de Velde's building of 1904 housed the Bauhaus from 1919 to 1925.
Courtesy of reference[1].
She spent the summer of 1919 first in a glass workshop and then a mural-painting class before being accepted on a trial basis, in Johannes Itten's preliminary course. She was fully matriculated in the spring of 1920 and by the autumn had received a full scholarship.
Like most female students, Gunta Stölzl had studied painting before coming to the Bauhaus. Works on paper remained an integral aspect of her professional career, as can be seen in her gouache on paper (1929).
Courtesy of reference[1].
Stölzl claimed she co-founded the 'Women's Department' during her first year there. It is certain she was active in the Weaving Workshop where she played a leading part from the outset. Her enthusiasm, vitality and the seriousness which she pursued her quest for knowledge set an example to the other students and made her an undisputed role model. She was passionate in her concern for the Weaving Workshop unlike any of the masters and thus made it hers from the outset.
Gunta Stölzl and Marcel Breuer collaborated on the African Chair of 1921. She used its frame as her loom. The warp is threaded through holes and crisscrosses the center slat; the weft is inserted in tapestry weave.
Courtesy of reference[1].
Stölzl, a student among other students in those days, immediately gave direction to the workshop by exploring the craft and passing on her findings. With admiration for Stölzl, Anna Albers recalled those early days:'There was no real teacher in textiles. We had no formal classes. No people said to me that"...you'll learned it all at the Bauhaus!" We did not learn a thing at the beginning. I learned from Gunta, who was a great teacher.'
The Bauhaus master on the roof of the new building.
Note: Gunta Stölzl is the only woman in the photograph.
Photograph: Walter Gropius.
Courtesy of reference [2].
Stölzl's almost apologetic remark that students were autodidacts has often been repeated, but it should be clarified to mean '...technical autodidacts. Nor should the much aligned early products of the workshop have to suffer from comparison with the later industrialised textiles. It is truly that some of them attest to the weavers' attempts to learn the craft without professional instruction; their execution is often amateurish.Selvages are wavy, the fabrics buckle and they are too tight, The Weimar textiles have to be examined from a completely different point of view, not on a technical basis but rather as a visual one, for most of their creators already had a background in the arts.
Benita Otte and Gunta Stölzl took courses in weaving and dyeing technology in Germany's textile capital, Krefeld. The Christmas or "Dada" stall of the Bauhaus at the Weimar Christmas market was stocked with items handmade by the students of the Women's department using donated material. Gunta Stölzl's colorful design for a stuffed animal showed how even the smallest scraps of fabric were used creatively.
Pencil, watercolour and gouache (1920).
Courtesy of reference [2].
Far from being novices most female students came with an impressive background of visual knowledge. Like Gunta Stölzl, who toured Italy in the summer of 1921 to see painting and architecture that she had studied in Munich, they were acquainted with the masterpieces of the past. The Bauhaus attracted them precisely, because they admired its painters and, because they were longing to be a part of what they clearly perceived as the avant-guard.
Courtesy of reference [1].
Stölzl's maturity as a designer is evident in the blanket (above) for the sleeping alcove of the Dessau student apartments, which takes the interior scheme of the room into full consideration. The blanket was woven in the Production Workshop and affixed with an aluminium grommet.
The fact that Gropius appointed painters and not craftsmen to head the workshops has been endlessly debated and either hailed as a stroke of genius or decried he was out of touch with reality. It was a dichotomy in that although it attracted gifted students, they nevertheless had to discover weaving techniques for themselves, since there was no one there that had such knowledge.
An overwhelming workload did not prevent Gunta Stölzl from working on individual pieces, such as this gouache on paper, a design for a rug which dates from 1926.
Courtesy of reference [1].
Notebooks, diaries and letters attest to the fecund atmosphere of the early years. Nowhere else had these young women been exposed to philosophies like those of their great Bauhaus teachers. Kandinsky's advice that they should discard old ways of looking, went hand-in-hand with Gropius' dictum that the mind should be cleared of all previous knowledge, in order to approach every problem as if for the first time.
The visual interest of Gunta Stölzl's upholstery fabric lies in the quality of yarns and the construction of the weave.
Courtesy of reference [1].
Stölzl's quick grasp and understanding of looms' possibilities, her natural affinity for materials and her love of exploration rapidly transformed the workshop into a functioning identity. In March 1922 she took a dye course at a textile school in Krefeld with fellow-student Benita Otte, and soon afterwards she activated the dye laboratory, which had been idle for years. In 1923 the Weaving Workshop participated in its first official Bauhaus exhibition by furnishing the experimental, Haus am Horn with textiles, which was singled out for favourable mention by the critics. The textiles of the Weimar period, far from being failed industrial specimens, were the first to reject traditional tapestry-weaving in favour of a whole new design vocabulary. They were pioneering works in their own right and so should be viewed as logical translations of the art education received by the students.
In 1927 Lux Feininger photographed the weavers on the steps of the new Bauhaus building.
From the left going up the stairs: Léna Bergner; next to her: Gunta Stölzl; next to her: Ljuba Monastirsky; coming down: Otti Berger, Lis Beyer, Elisabeth Mueller in the light sweater, Rosa Berger in the dark sweater, Ruth Hollos behind Lisbeth Oestreicher.
Courtesy of reference [1].
Many weavers have credited Paul Klee with their understanding of color and form, even though some of his ideas were digested much later. Johannes Itten also had a profound effect on the students in those early years. Although vastly different in temperament, Kandinsky and Itten were both passionate about the artist's inner self and communicated this message to their students. Itten's greatest gift to the weavers, was awareness, a heightened sensitivity to the material itself - to all materials.
Courtesy of reference [2].
Early works by Gunta Stölzl, Martha Erps and others show convincingly that the students had internalized the new visual language and were able to express themselves fluently. Many Weimar textiles display a sophistication of design unique in the history of weaving. A decade earlier Kandinsky had written in Concerning the Spiritual in Art: 'The more abstract is the form, the more clear and direct is its appeal... The more an artist uses these abstract forms, the deeper and more confident will he advance into the kingdom of abstract.' The weavers, in producing textiles of pure abstracted form, were heeding his advice. That neither, weaving nor women could easily... 'advance into the kingdom of abstract' ...was yet another lesson to learn.
Gunta Stölzl's design for a runner (1923).
Size: 12 x 4.8 cm.
Courtesy of reference [2].
During the years 1967-1987 Gunta Stölzl left her hand-weaving business, and devoted herself to tapestry and weaving her own designs; she continued this practice until the end of her life. She died at age 86. At that time, her husband, feeling intimidated and frightened from reading Alma Mahler’s diaries, did not allow the opening of Gunta’s documents. Only after his death did Gunta’s daughters, Yael and Monika, review her documents and establish the GS Foundation.
Gunta Stölzl's wall hanging (1923).
Courtesy of reference [2].
Gunta Stölzl had a rich life expressed in a comprehensive collection of her correspondence, her innovative and beautiful body of work. Textile art owes a lot to the first audacious threading movements established by Gunta Stölzl. Her work is part of numerous museum collections in Europe, USA and Japan.
Gunta Stölzl, wall hanging, slit tapestry red/green (1927/28).
In 1968, looking back to her Bauhaus days, Gunta wrote: “Even today, I believe that most important of all was life itself.”
References:
[1] Bauhaus Textiles: Women Artists And The Weaving Workshop”, S.W. Weltge, Thames and Hudson, London (1993).
[2] https://www.textileartist.org/textile-artist-gunta-stolzl-1897-1983
Gunta Stölzl (5 March 1897 – 22 April 1983) was a German textile artist who played a fundamental role in the development of the Bauhaus school's weaving workshop. She created immense change within the textile field by uniting art practices taught at the Bauhaus with traditional textile techniques and became the first woman Master at the school. Here is her story as told in references [1-2].
Gunta Stölzl@Bauhaus
Gunta Stölzl was the dominant presence in the Weaving Shop at the Bauhaus. In fact, its evolution paralleled her own development. The student who entered the Bauhaus in 1919 would leave it in 1931 as a consummate professional, the only female Bauhaus master. It is because of her that one talks about Bauhaus fabrics.
Courtesy of reference[1].
Stölzl has been described as personally modest yet strong willed and tenacious professionally, and totally committed to her goals. From 1914 to 1916 she studied painting, ceramics and art history at the School of Applied Arts in Munich. During the following two years she served as a red cross nurse behind front lines and in 1919 resumed her studies for an additional term.
Courtesy of reference[2].
Actively involved in curriculum reform at her school, she encountered the Bauhaus manifesto which impressed her so much she travelled to Weimar to meet Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus. Stölzl vividly remembered her arrival. 'What did I find? A small group of students, more men than girls. A big building with studios, which were partially occupied by the old academy, next to it large empty rooms, a workshop building, a cafeteria, a studio building for students but only for men.'
Courtesy of reference[1].
She spent the summer of 1919 first in a glass workshop and then a mural-painting class before being accepted on a trial basis, in Johannes Itten's preliminary course. She was fully matriculated in the spring of 1920 and by the autumn had received a full scholarship.
Courtesy of reference[1].
Stölzl claimed she co-founded the 'Women's Department' during her first year there. It is certain she was active in the Weaving Workshop where she played a leading part from the outset. Her enthusiasm, vitality and the seriousness which she pursued her quest for knowledge set an example to the other students and made her an undisputed role model. She was passionate in her concern for the Weaving Workshop unlike any of the masters and thus made it hers from the outset.
Courtesy of reference[1].
Stölzl, a student among other students in those days, immediately gave direction to the workshop by exploring the craft and passing on her findings. With admiration for Stölzl, Anna Albers recalled those early days:'There was no real teacher in textiles. We had no formal classes. No people said to me that"...you'll learned it all at the Bauhaus!" We did not learn a thing at the beginning. I learned from Gunta, who was a great teacher.'
Note: Gunta Stölzl is the only woman in the photograph.
Photograph: Walter Gropius.
Courtesy of reference [2].
Stölzl's almost apologetic remark that students were autodidacts has often been repeated, but it should be clarified to mean '...technical autodidacts. Nor should the much aligned early products of the workshop have to suffer from comparison with the later industrialised textiles. It is truly that some of them attest to the weavers' attempts to learn the craft without professional instruction; their execution is often amateurish.Selvages are wavy, the fabrics buckle and they are too tight, The Weimar textiles have to be examined from a completely different point of view, not on a technical basis but rather as a visual one, for most of their creators already had a background in the arts.
Pencil, watercolour and gouache (1920).
Courtesy of reference [2].
Far from being novices most female students came with an impressive background of visual knowledge. Like Gunta Stölzl, who toured Italy in the summer of 1921 to see painting and architecture that she had studied in Munich, they were acquainted with the masterpieces of the past. The Bauhaus attracted them precisely, because they admired its painters and, because they were longing to be a part of what they clearly perceived as the avant-guard.
Stölzl's maturity as a designer is evident in the blanket (above) for the sleeping alcove of the Dessau student apartments, which takes the interior scheme of the room into full consideration. The blanket was woven in the Production Workshop and affixed with an aluminium grommet.
The fact that Gropius appointed painters and not craftsmen to head the workshops has been endlessly debated and either hailed as a stroke of genius or decried he was out of touch with reality. It was a dichotomy in that although it attracted gifted students, they nevertheless had to discover weaving techniques for themselves, since there was no one there that had such knowledge.
Courtesy of reference [1].
Notebooks, diaries and letters attest to the fecund atmosphere of the early years. Nowhere else had these young women been exposed to philosophies like those of their great Bauhaus teachers. Kandinsky's advice that they should discard old ways of looking, went hand-in-hand with Gropius' dictum that the mind should be cleared of all previous knowledge, in order to approach every problem as if for the first time.
Courtesy of reference [1].
Stölzl's quick grasp and understanding of looms' possibilities, her natural affinity for materials and her love of exploration rapidly transformed the workshop into a functioning identity. In March 1922 she took a dye course at a textile school in Krefeld with fellow-student Benita Otte, and soon afterwards she activated the dye laboratory, which had been idle for years. In 1923 the Weaving Workshop participated in its first official Bauhaus exhibition by furnishing the experimental, Haus am Horn with textiles, which was singled out for favourable mention by the critics. The textiles of the Weimar period, far from being failed industrial specimens, were the first to reject traditional tapestry-weaving in favour of a whole new design vocabulary. They were pioneering works in their own right and so should be viewed as logical translations of the art education received by the students.
From the left going up the stairs: Léna Bergner; next to her: Gunta Stölzl; next to her: Ljuba Monastirsky; coming down: Otti Berger, Lis Beyer, Elisabeth Mueller in the light sweater, Rosa Berger in the dark sweater, Ruth Hollos behind Lisbeth Oestreicher.
Courtesy of reference [1].
Many weavers have credited Paul Klee with their understanding of color and form, even though some of his ideas were digested much later. Johannes Itten also had a profound effect on the students in those early years. Although vastly different in temperament, Kandinsky and Itten were both passionate about the artist's inner self and communicated this message to their students. Itten's greatest gift to the weavers, was awareness, a heightened sensitivity to the material itself - to all materials.
Early works by Gunta Stölzl, Martha Erps and others show convincingly that the students had internalized the new visual language and were able to express themselves fluently. Many Weimar textiles display a sophistication of design unique in the history of weaving. A decade earlier Kandinsky had written in Concerning the Spiritual in Art: 'The more abstract is the form, the more clear and direct is its appeal... The more an artist uses these abstract forms, the deeper and more confident will he advance into the kingdom of abstract.' The weavers, in producing textiles of pure abstracted form, were heeding his advice. That neither, weaving nor women could easily... 'advance into the kingdom of abstract' ...was yet another lesson to learn.
Size: 12 x 4.8 cm.
Courtesy of reference [2].
During the years 1967-1987 Gunta Stölzl left her hand-weaving business, and devoted herself to tapestry and weaving her own designs; she continued this practice until the end of her life. She died at age 86. At that time, her husband, feeling intimidated and frightened from reading Alma Mahler’s diaries, did not allow the opening of Gunta’s documents. Only after his death did Gunta’s daughters, Yael and Monika, review her documents and establish the GS Foundation.
Courtesy of reference [2].
Gunta Stölzl had a rich life expressed in a comprehensive collection of her correspondence, her innovative and beautiful body of work. Textile art owes a lot to the first audacious threading movements established by Gunta Stölzl. Her work is part of numerous museum collections in Europe, USA and Japan.
In 1968, looking back to her Bauhaus days, Gunta wrote: “Even today, I believe that most important of all was life itself.”
References:
[1] Bauhaus Textiles: Women Artists And The Weaving Workshop”, S.W. Weltge, Thames and Hudson, London (1993).
[2] https://www.textileartist.org/textile-artist-gunta-stolzl-1897-1983
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