Foreword

The Bauhaus was a prolific design school which ran from 1919-1932. The core principle of the school was to question and challenge the fundamentals of design practices which had been accepted for many years. It aimed to create a sort of utopian craft guild that represented the unity of art amongst all crafts. It created a ‘renaissance’ of sorts in the world of design-bringing forward new and interesting practices to achieve innovative and unique creations. The Bauhaus was headed by a group of designers referred to as the ‘masters’. These were designers at the top of their field, striving to teach fellow creatives to excel in their work and inspiring them to further their studies through the experimentation and play of their craft. The masters held major influence in the school- some of the most well-known masters included Paul Klee, Josef Albers and Marcel Breuer. They taught classes and ran workshops within the Bauhaus, spreading their knowledge and training young people for professions that essentially did not exist before the Bauhaus years. These workshops saw not only the production of new industrial designs for furniture, metal, textiles and modern printed materials but, at the same time, the formulation of new training courses and the preparation of new professions which would operate at the interface of design and technology in the widest possible sense. Throughout this book, I will focus on the master of the textile workshop Gunta Stolzl. Stolzl was an outlier among masters, being the first woman master to be appointed. She was a talented designer and textile artist and earned her role in a school with an unfortunate gender-bias. I felt it was important for her to be the focus of the book, as she stands out due to her drive and leadership qualities along with her obvious creative talents. This book will begin with a more in-depth discussion of the context surrounding the Bauhaus. I will look at the history of the Bauhaus, the ‘Bauhaus Style’ and the influence of the masters within the institution-the classes they taught and the houses they lived in on the campus. I will then begin to discuss Stolzl’s early life followed by her contributions within the school. I will examine the work she produced during her time in the Bauhaus, briefly touching on the segregation and gender inequality that occasionally overshadowed the acknowledgement and recognition she received for her work. The book will end with an article extracted and translated from the journal ‘Bauhaus’, where Stolzl discusses the development of the weaving workshop. This piece is particularly impactful as we gain a first-hand insight into her thoughts regarding her practice. As a graphic design student, I was aware of the Bauhaus before researching this book. I knew of the impact that the school had made in the modern design space and some of the trends that they pioneered. However, I was not aware of the masters that made all of this innovation possible, especially the women. Overall, the aim of this book is to delve into the principles of the Bauhaus while giving recognition to the masters who started it all, especially masters like Stolzl, who perhaps to this day, are not fully credited for their contributions.