Marianne Brandt: Woman in the Bauhaus

MARIANNE MARIANNE BRANDT

Thomas W.P. Cox & Florence R. Pugh

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

M

Bauhaus 1919 to 2023

Radicle Innovation in Design Education

A ARI NNE BRANDT

Bauhaus Archive Berlin Mesuem of design

Chapter 01

Chapter 02

Appendix

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

D

R WAR O

F

This monograph is designed to talk about and accompany the work showcased at the Bauhaus 1919 - 2023. Radical innovations in Design education” exhibition in the Neues Museum. This monograph will discuss the topic of “Women in the Bauhaus” with a key focus on the life of Marianne Brandt and her involvement with the Bauhaus.

Unlike many artists of their time many of these women were overlooked then and now with the only biography between them being an autobiography written by Anni Albers herself the rest of these women are only mentioned in academic works.

The women of the Bauhaus had separate effects on the movement based on their discipline. Even the act of them receiving an education can be seen as Bauhaus; their gender nonconformity shocked many at the time. these women wearing masculine clothes and having men’s haircuts was a shock in the early 20th century which in a way was what shaped Bauhaus breaking the norm in experimental and fun ways. Each of them had a massive effect on their disciplines from

the beginning of absurdist photography that would later go on to inspire artists like Zdzislaw Bekinski to textiles that would help inspire the fashion of a generation.

The charter of the Bauhaus stated that “any person of good repute, without regard to age or sex ... will be admitted,” but when female applicants unexpectedly threatened to equal or even outnumber male applicants, the masters at the school agreed to limit their numbers and channel women exclusively into the pottery, bookbinding, and weaving workshops.

The pottery master resisted, and the bookbinding workshop was dissolved in 1922, so as a consequence almost all the women at the Bauhaus studied textiles such as weaving, embroidery, decorative edging, crocheting, sewing, and macrame.

We hope you enjoy this exhibition and find yourself transported back to the time of Bauhaus.

The Neues Museum.

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

IINTR

Women in the Bauhaus

In the first two years the Council of Masters passed some major resolutions benefitting the large numbers of hopeful women students. In his first cost estimate for the Bauhaus, Gropius had reckoned with ‘50 ladies’ and ‘100 gentlemen’; in practice, the Bauhaus took as many women as men, since the new Weimar Constitution guaranteed women unrestricted freedom of study. Academies could no longer - as they had been able to do before the Warrefuse women entry, and many women seized the new opportunities now open to them.

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

AUHAUS WOMEN B

In his first speech to the Bauhaus students, Gropius made express reference to the women present. His notes referred to ‘no special regard for ladies, all craftsmen in work’, ‘absolute equality of status, and therefore absolute equality of responsibility’.

As early as September 1920, however, Gropius was suggesting to the Council of master’s that ‘selection should be more rigorous right from the start, particularly in the case of the female sex, already over-represented in terms of numbers”.

A short while later, however, workforce shortages led to the admission to the workshop of two women who had not even completed the Vorkurs. No women at all were to be admitted to study architecture.

He further recommended that no ‘Unnecessary experiments” should be made, and that women should be sent directly from the Vorkurs to the weaving workshop, with pottery and bookbinding as possible alternatives.

But the bookbinding workshop was dissolved in 1922 and Gropius and Marcks, head of the pottery workshop, had agreed in October 1923 to admit ‘no women at all if possible into the workshop, both for their sakes and for the sake of the workshop’.

It may be noted that the Weimar Bauhaus presented a number of fundamental obstacles to the admission of women and that those who overcame the first hurdles were forcibly channelled into the weaving workshop. Amongst the few who were able to assert themselves against these objections were Marianne Brandt in the metal workshop, Marguerite Friedlander in the ceramics workshop and Alma Buscher in the furniture workshop.

Much of the art then being produced by women was dismissed by men as ‘feminine’ or ‘handi-crafts’. The men were afraid of too strong an ‘arly-crafty’ tendency and saw the goal of the Bauhausarchitecture - endangered.…

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

M. BRANDT 12

Brandt was exceptional not only as a designer, but also as a woman in the male-dominated field of metalwork. After studying painting and sculpture at the Weimar Saxon Grand Ducal Art School, Marianne began creating expressionist pieces in 1917. She then married the Norwegian painter Erik Brandt, joining the Bauhaus in January 1924 when the avant-garde school opened in her city. There, she took classes with Josef Albers, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, and became a goldsmith’s apprentice at Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s metal workshop After completing her apprenticeship, she became a collaborator, then an assistant director until September 1929. Working with basic shapes (spheres, cylinders, and cubes) She was one of the female individuals who people respected and appreciated for her approach to stand out with skills among the sea of the male population. She was among the female individuals who helped shape the Bauhaus Art movement. She was an inspiration to many!

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

WOMAN

For a year in 1926 the couple moved to Paris, where Ms. Brandt produced photo collages, combining images with text and focusing on the “New Woman” as a recurring theme of newly-liberated urban women. (These pieces were part of the exhibit “Tempo, Tempo! The Bauhaus photo montages of Marianne Brandt,” organized by Elizabeth Otto and which appeared at the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin, Harvard’s Busch-Reisinger Museum and the International Center of Photography in New York from 2005 to 2006). She returned to the Bauhaus and served as Acting Director of the Metal Workshop from 1928-1929 after Mr. Moholy-Nagy’s departure. She designed the first lighting fixtures for the school while it was in Dessau and took on technical experiments in lighting. Ms. Brandt negotiated contracts with industry partners such as Schwintzer & Gräff (Berlin) and Körting & Mathiesen (Leipzig) for lighting fixtures and metal workshop designs for the Bauhaus. These contracts providednecessary funding for the school, and the metalwork workshop became instrumental in developing designs geared toward mass production.

NEW I I I I I I

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

APHYP RAPHYP HOT PH OTOG HOTOGR O

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

IES OLOG

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

IDE OLOG

Her ideologies mainly focus on creating a beautiful piece of objects which blends modern ideology with deep-rooted functionalism yet defining the principles of the innovative Bauhaus movement. She is also known for her exceptional number of photographs and photomontages. Her design of household objects like lamps, ashtrays and teapots are considered timeless, artistic examples of modern industrial design

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

she created unique, finely crafted pieces: a partially nickeled brass ashtray, a silver-plated brass and ebony teapot, bowls, and eggcups. These handcrafted objects anticipated her association with industry, which later happened in Dessau when new models for ceiling and table lamps designed by M. Brandt and Hin Bredendieck were submitted to the Schwintzer & Gräff firms in Berlin and Körting & Matthiesen AG (Kandem) in Leipzig, and sold in great numbers, sometimes in the thousands. M. Brandt left the Bauhaus in December 1929 when Hannes Meyer became its director, joined Walter Gropius’s architecture studio in Berlin, and was hired as a designer at the Ruppelwerk GmbH metal goods factory in Gotha in 1930.

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

Famous metal household objects by Brandt.

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

I I

I

X A I

PPENDI A

Marianne Brandt Ash tray 1924...

Marianne Brandt Hot Water Jug 1924...

Marianne Brandt Tea Pot 1924...

Marianne Brandt Fruit Bowl 1929...

Marianne Brandt Ceiling Lamp 1925...

Marianne Brandt Fruitbowl/ Dish 1929...

Marianne Brandt Table Lamp 1928...

Marianne Brandt Ash tray 1924...

Marianne Brandt Hot Water Jug 1924...

LIst of MAGE S I

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

Alexxa, Gotthardt, ‘Women of the Bauhaus School’ (Artsy.net, 2017)

Glenn, Lowery, ‘MoMA Highlights’ (Soho: MoMA, 2019)

Ellen, Fenny, ‘Marianne Brandt’ (Britannica.com, 2016)

Joelle, Malichaud, ‘Marianne Brandt’ (Awarewomenartists.com, 2013)

Arpitha, S., ‘Marianne Brandt: Ideology and Philosophy’ (Re-thinkingfuture.com, 2017”

LIst of FOOTNOTE s

1

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Magdalena, Droste, ‘Bauhaus’ (Berlin: Taaschen, 2022) 84.

Mariane Brandt: Women in the Bauhaus

Published in 2023

Edited by Thomas W.P. Cox and Florence R. Pugh

For the Neues Museum, Bodestraße 1-3, 10178 Berlin, Germany

Tel 030 - 266 42 42 42

Copyright © 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced to be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Text & cover design: Thomas

W.P. Cox

COLOPHO N

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt

Published in 2023

Edited by Thomas W.P. Cox & Florence R. Pugh

For the Neues Museum

Bodestraße 1-3, 10178 Berlin, Germany

Marianne Brandt

Women in the Bauhaus