Today is the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus. One hundred years of modern design was galvanized with the founding of this school on April 1, 1919, by a group of architects, artists and designers in Weimar, Germany.
Being a brand that celebrates female leadership, it is only fitting that SoMo takes this opportunity to celebrate the first woman master of the Bauhaus: Gunta Stölzl. Gunta took the Bauhaus mission of innovation to new heights of artistic and commercial success. Beyond what anyone, especially any woman at the time, could have imagined.
Like many female Bauhaus students, Gunta had first trained at a school for applied arts. But upon discovering Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus manifesto — with its promise of multi-disciplinary study and practice, its radical vision for art and design to forge a modernist future, and especially its open doors to students of all backgrounds and genders — she knew she needed to be there.
However, for all its bold declarations, the Bauhaus reality for female students was more tepid. Bauhaus students were expected to choose a “workshop” where they would specialize in a discipline like architecture or metalworking, in addition to their multi-disciplinary studies. But female Bauhaus students were typically relegated to the Weaving Workshop, like it or not. (A real demotion since the workshop had limited resources and no formal classes in weaving.)
From the beginning, Gunta was a leader, and a hustler. In a move one could call punk rock modernism, Gunta and a handful of women from the workshop taught themselves the skills to become textile designers and makers. She learned to weave, including handloom technique, by experimenting with a loom she managed to borrow. She and other students took classes outside the school. They visited local factories to observe weaving, dyeing and manufacturing techniques. And everything Gunta and the others learned, they’d teach to the women back at the Weaving Workshop. Then they’d practice, experiment and create new textiles integrating the color and design concepts from their Bauhaus teachers like Paul Klee, Johannes Ittes and Wassily Kandinsky.
In fact, after studying dyeing techniques at a local factory, Gunta helped establish Bauhaus’ own dyeing facilities.
Gunta was becoming a powerful example of a key Bauhaus tenet: let go of prior assumptions about how things should be done, and approach each problem with fresh eyes and a curious mind. If the old rules for how to learn, design and create were out, Gunta was ready to prove just how much.
This DIY approach was only one way Gunta thought critically and playfully about modernizing textile design and production. As she wrote in an essay:
“The vitality of the material forces people working with textiles to try out new things daily, to readjust time and again, to live with their subject, to intensify it, to climb from experience to experience in order to do justice to the needs of our time.”
All that driven, auto-didactic experimentation enabled Gunta to sell her first large hand-knotted carpet at the very first Bauhaus exhibition in 1923. As the story goes, the buyer created a room specifically for the carpet.
Gunta’s penchant for literally and figuratively weaving opportunities led to her being appointed the first woman master at the Bauhaus. Through her leadership, Gunta made history not only for herself, but for the entire Weaving Workshop.
During Gunta’s tenure, the workshop created decorative fabrics, wall coverings and upholstery that complemented the new modernist interiors being designed at the Bauhaus School. The Weaving Workshop experimented with fabrics from wool to synthetics, as well as complex patterns and vivid colours. And Gunta helped pioneer production techniques that made it possible and economical for them to be mass-produced. “Formally as well as technically, we invented incessantly,” she once said proudly.
Under Gunta’s leadership, the Weaving Workshop went from an under-resourced department for women seen as less capable than their male counterparts, to the most successful, profitable workshop in Bauhaus history. They created textiles and designs that elevated the medium to new levels of artistry and function. And in the process, the workshop’s income helped sustain the school’s continued growth. By staying flexible in her thinking, resourceful in her leadership and rigorous in her design work, Gunta helped keep the Bauhaus school moving towards its bold ideals of a modernist future.
Gunta’s achievements set her apart as a mentor, artist and maker who would dominate in today’s market, regardless of gender. But make no mistake: Gunta’s leadership was revolutionary. The women who studied in the Weaving Workshop became leading designers, artists and artisans. And they did it with the guidance of the Bauhaus master who helped create unprecedented success for a previously neglected workshop. That she was a woman made this no small feat. The Weaving Workshop is now considered central to the Bauhaus legacy.
By 1931, the repressive political climate forced Gunta to resign and leave Germany. Which, of course, meant she’d find ways to apply her gifts for innovation elsewhere.
Gunta went on to co-found a hand-weaving workshop in Zürich with 2 other former Bauhäuslers: Gertrude Preiswerk and Heinrich-Otto Hürlimann. When the business faltered, Gertrude left. She and Heinrich-Otto began another textile venture together, producing wall coverings, upholstery and clothing fabric. After 4 years, facing continued financial challenges, Heinrich-Otto left too.
Nevertheless, she persisted.
Gunta found limited though sustainable success as a solo entrepreneur, launching “Handweberei Flora” (Flora Handweaving Mill). Going solo seemed to be the recipe that brought her professional longevity. Gunta’s workshop stayed busy weaving blankets, curtains, coat and dress fabrics, upholstery, hand-knotted carpets and drapery. In fact, she had enough success to employ a handful of weavers and maintain the business for nearly 30 years — an enviable achievement for any startup!
Gunta finally dissolved the studio in the late 1960s. She turned her focus to creating tapestries, weaving her own designs and participating in international exhibitions including the Bauhaus 50 Jahre touring exhibit.
Gunta shines as an inspiration to us at SoMo because she didn’t merely find solutions to the challenges she faced. She used each obstacle as an opportunity to elevate the artistic possibilities for industrial design and production. Gunta’s success is a testament to her ingenuity, talent and good old-fashioned grit.
Icons like Gunta inspire us to continue the dialogue of ideas with other innovators. She reminds us that our collective experiments in design, materials, manufacturing, and entrepreneurship guide us to better imagine and iterate. At each step, we learn how to serve every woman creating an adventurous life.
