A Breakdown of Stolzl’s Style

Stolzl was known to apply ideas from modern art into weaving. It was through this combination of ancient form with contemporary ideas that her best work was produced. She was of course a part of the Bauhaus Movement and her pieces were said to typify the ‘Bauhaus Style’. She created abstract, unique and innovative textiles. There was a freedom in her work and she experimented with synthethic materials. These materials were sometimes unorthodox such as the work she did with cellophane, fiberglass and metal. She is quoted saying “there is no ‘must’ in art, because art is free”. She was an artist who was willing to take risks. A piece of hers that is particularly striking and clearly displays her style is her piece ‘Slit Tapestry’. Within this piece we see how she implements the Bauhaus movement into her work. It is composed of cotton, silk and linen and illustrates a colourful and dynamic landscape, similar to the ones Stolzl drew in her youth. She brings forward her early work in this piece, combining it with the expertise she accumulated in the Bauhaus.

As well as being experimental, her work was also very colourful. She used a wideranging colour palette and tested different colour combinations throughout her work. The pieces displayed on the right-hand side show a more subtle colour approach, and we can see her flexibility and willingness to discover what works here. This fabric that she created is also asymmetric, which was another common characteristic of her work and can be seen in the majority of her pieces.

This chair is called the Colorful Weave Chair and can be seen on the Bauhaus 100 site. It was produced by both Marcel Breuer and Gunta Stolzl, combining his expert knowledge on chair design with her impressive textile work. On the seat and on the back of the chair, Stolzl employed taut strips of woven upholestry which were to characterise so much of Breuer’s later work. This piece is a beautiful, individualistic piece of furniture. It uses brightly coloured geometric patterns. It was extremely successful and lead to repeated collaborations between the pair throughout their respective careers. Another famed piece of theirs was the African chair which was recovered in 2004.