The Bauhaus was one of the most influential art schools in the 20th century especially due to a teaching approach that shaped the understanding of the relationship between art and society as well as technology. According to Wick and Grawe (2000, p. 11), the Bauhaus changed the course of the modern design with the pedagogical approaches employed acting to revolutionising the art schools. The influence of the institution is felt even today as designers consciously or unconsciously apply the methods used in the school. Müller (2009, p. 5) describes that the institution encompassed talent, innovativeness, and enthusiasm. More than half of the students who applied were women. The institution was thus observed as a progressive education facility as it promoted equality amongst the sexes during a period in which the women were denied opportunity to advance in the formal art academies (Müller 2009, p. 5). The Bauhaus, therefore, offered an unprecedented extent of opportunity to women to pursue educational and artistic development.
The institution also played a vital role in changing the conventional art schools by introducing philosophy and protest against the regressive nature of the traditional institutions. Furthermore, the school acted as a bond between the art and life, as stated by Wick and Grawe (2000, p. 27). The Bauhaus also helped to redefine the relationships between art and craft while acting to re-establish some of the preconceived opinions about art. The perception of the Bauhaus as a legacy art school is also essential in providing foundational courses to the modern students.
Purpose Statement
While the Bauhaus school is renowned for being liberal and embracing gender equality and diversity, most women students did not enjoy the same estimation and recognition as their male counterparts. Whereas the male scholars such as Mies van der Rohe, Kandinsky, and Paul Klee were well known, female Bauhaus students were overlooked. Hence, women’s advancement in their studies and careers was hampered. Designer Marianne Brandt, textile artist Annelise Albers, and ceramicist Marguerite Wildenhain did not attained the same recognition as their male counterparts even though they were pioneers within their disciplines. The female talent and expression were especially hindered due to factors such as sexism even though the school acted as a pioneer institution towards the provision of equal opportunity for both genders (Müller 2009, p. 41). Gender bias was still part of the structure of the school regardless of the fact that the facility was aimed at admitting individuals without regard of their gender or age. Gropius encouraged the distinction between male and female students based on the prevailing belief that women thought in two dimensions while men could handle three. Even though the Bauhaus was experimental with the art, it did not interfere with the societal norms at the time and hence the conventional gender roles were indeed persistent.
This essay argues that despite the fact that gender bias was part of the Bauhaus, the current recognition of the works of its female members by the academic and exhibition institutions has a significant impact on the women art education. For instance, Bauhaus Archive in Berlin has dedicated a series of exhibitions known as the ‘Female Bauhaus’ aimed at showcasing the works of some of the pioneering women in the school (Natalie 2017). Women industrial designers, photographers, weavers, and architects such as Marianne Brandt, Anni Albers, and Gertrud Arndt not only helped to advance the Bauhaus' historic union of art and craft but also laid the necessary ground for subsequent innovations. The influence of Bauhaus on today's women education is thus discussed with the regard to the contribution made by the female members. Such contributions are likely to affect the modern approach to female art education as they shape the perception of gender roles, women talents, and expression. Furthermore, the works of the female members are a source of inspiration for today's women students.
Initially, most of the women enrolled in the institution were specialising in disciplines such as ceramics and weaving. The presence of many women in the school was considered as threat and thus weaving mill rapidly turned into ‘women’s wing’ (Natalie 2017). The mill, however, became a centre of ground breaking production of which the effect was felt globally (Müller 2009, p. 53). As the Bauhaus developed, the female students were encouraged to specialise in other programmes as well. The Hungarian artist, László Moholy-Nagy, who was part of the school administration in 1923, was responsible for facilitating the change in the female learners’ specialisation. Even though Bauhaus served many purposes such as being a fabricator, designer, publisher, and an advertising agency, it was first and foremost an educational institution (Wick and Grawe 2000, p. 21). The influence of the institution best known today due to its pedagogical approach. The purpose of this study is to explore the history of the Bauhaus and its influence on the modern female art education.
Research Questions
This study investigates the history of the Bauhaus for understanding the influence of the institution on the education of women in art with the aim of establishing how the conception of gender roles affected the access to artistic development. The research questions therefore include:
How did the enrolment of female students in the Bauhaus shape the societal perception of women’s access to art education and artistic development today?
What are some of the Bauhaus female members whose works have inspired the modern art curriculum aimed at providing women with the relevant education?
Research Objectives
To answer the questions above the study seeks to accomplish the following objectives.
i. To investigate the progressive and liberal nature of the Bauhaus that allowed for the enrolment of women in its programmes
ii. To explore the important aspect of history of women in Bauhaus
iii. To examine the influence of art on women today
Theoretical Framework
The formation of the Bauhaus was motivated by the liberating philosophy of modernism that was prevalent in during late 19th- the early 20th centuries. This essay thus uses modernism theory as the basis for discussing the findings obtained from the various primary and secondary sources. According to Frascina, Harrison and Paul (1982, p. 8), the modernism art movement saw the rejection of the conventional art styles of the past. Instead, there was an emphasis on innovation and experimentation with different materials and techniques. The experimentation and innovation were mainly encouraged to enable the creation of the artwork that reflected the modern society. Although the modernist art theory encompasses many styles, the primary characteristics of the movement entailed an emphasis on the techniques and processes used in creating process. The experimentation further involved the incorporation of shapes, colours, and lines in particular pieces as well as the tendency to abstraction (Frascina, Harrison and Paul 1982, p. 11). Furthermore, the movement was influenced by the various social and political agenda that were utopian in general in which modernism was associated with the perception of the ideal living conditions of human life.
Natalie (2017) suggests that the Bauhaus played a vital role in the establishment of the modernist legacy as demonstrated in the sense that the institution became the first German art school to abolish the emblematic connotation of any kind as well as the use of ornaments. The radical approach to art and aesthetics was especially preconditioned by the monastic regime that ceased to exist in the modern times thereby leading to the rejection of the associated techniques (Natalie 2017). The concept of the modernist art movement was to create a global visual language. The modernism theory also demonstrates the breaking and redefining of the various art techniques to allow for the contemplation of a fresh approach to the different genres. Since the Bauhaus sought to offer a modernist approach to artistic development and education by enhancing freedom and equality for both sexes, modernism is a suitable conceptual framework for discussing the historical influence of the institution on the women art education today. The theory is also necessary for understanding the fusion of craft and artistic principles that was the key philosophy in the school.
Methodology
The research designed to retrieve and analyse data from both the primary and secondary sources. The search for the relevant sources was conducted from digital databases using the appropriate key terms such as ‘the Bauhaus’, ‘art education’, ‘women members’ and ‘historical impact’. Secondary and primary research techniques have been adopted in this study. Secondary research refers to the process of summarising, collating and synthesising from existing materials (Ranjit 2011, p. 197). The process has been undertaken in this study to identify establish a theoretical framework upon which the discussion can be made. Since the investigation is aimed at establishing a historical perspective of the subject, the secondary methodology is useful for analysing chronological records with the aim of collecting and synthesising the relevant information to the subject. The investigation has majorly focused on utilising books as the main source of secondary data in which the historic information about the Bauhaus and its female members has been summarised and synthesised (Ranjit 2011, p. 389). The process is suitable for this research as it allows the collation a wide range of information from diverse materials that provided adequate support for the argument on the subject of the study. A possible disadvantage of the method may, however, arise from the essence that the data may not be specific to the research need.
Primary research was also adopted in the study to collect first-hand information to meet the study objectives as well as for answering the research questions. A visual methodology has been utilised in the study as the main primary research technique. According to Rose (2016, p. 1), a visual approach is a qualitative research design that uses the artistic medium to synthesise and present knowledge. Such media may include photography, film, sculpture, paintings, drawings, and others. The visual materials used in this study represent some important works of the Bauhaus women pioneers who helped to influence the subsequent contemporary artists. Photographs are the main items used in the study to demonstrate the important history of the Bauhaus women and hence recognise the works of different women artists. The suitability of the visual methodology is based on the benefits that can be attained from such techniques. Such advantages include ease of interpretation as well as presenting supporting material close to physical in nature.
Brief History of Bauhaus
The Bauhaus was an art school founded by architect Walter Gropius in 1919 in Weimar, Germany. The entity was developed as a way of reuniting applied arts and manufacturing with the aim of reforming education. The Bauhaus is a German word meaning a "construction house". The institution was formed by combining two existing schools, the Grand Ducal School of Arts and Crafts and Weimar Academy of Fine Art. According to the founder, Gropius, the school was meant to equip the artists with an understanding of the creation of art and craft in a specific manner but also to offer comprehension of the theory of art (Rössler 2014, p. 24). The Bauhaus, therefore, acted as an art school that allowed its students to research function and form of the discipline. The institution encouraged an environment in which the learners could experiment with the various techniques and materials. The students thus learned the skills for combining the craft techniques with the art designs as well as for removing the barriers between the craftsman and the artist. The objective of the unification of arts and design was to teach artists who ready to produce works that were both aesthetically pleasing and practical hence suitable for the increasingly industrial world (Dearstyne 1986, p. 13). Consequently, the Bauhaus had a substantial impact on the advancement of art, graphic design, architecture, typography, interior and industrial design.
Some of the initial faculty members include Johannes Itten (Swiss painter), Lyonel Feininger (German-American painter), and Gerhard Marcks (German sculptor) alongside Walter Gropius in 1919. From 1919 to 1922 the Bauhaus was designed by Johannes Itten’s educational and aesthetic concepts. Itten taught a preliminary course known as Vorkurs
that introduced the learners to the ideas of the Bauhaus. The introduction courses were meant to prepare the students for later studies in their areas of specialisation (Naylor 1985, p. 20). Some elements of the curriculum included the colour theory, formal relationships, and study of materials. The course was aimed at erasing the boundary between the fine-art and craft education. Itten believed that it was essential to adopt a greater theoretical framework for raising the level of the student’s work.
The Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925 where Gropius designed a building that hosted the Bauhaus’ fundamentals of design theory. Walter Gropius stepped down as a director in 1928 and was replaced by Hannes Meyer. Meyer resigned and was succeeded by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The location of the school was moved again in 1932 to Berlin (Smith 2014, p. 12). The continuous changes with regard to location and leadership saw the institution shifting its political and artistic objectives that resulted in financial instability. The Bauhaus was forced to shut down in 1933 because of the increasing political pressures coming from the anti-modernist Nazi movement.
Walter Gropius aligned himself with the current progressive thinking that was established before the war by placing workshops at the centre of the curriculum. The workshop-based education enabled a deviation from the conventional studio academies and allowed the students to learn by creating things. The Bauhaus workshops were facilitated by both a fine artist and a master craftsman who demonstrated the institution’s desire to assure that the aesthetic ambition was complemented by technical knowledge. According to Smith (2014, p. 110), the weaving workshop is an example of such pedagogical approach that was central to the Bauhaus’ training of the enrolled students. Apart from the workshops, the school was also required to stage exhibitions aimed at demonstrating the usefulness and value of the content of the curriculum being taught to the students. Examples of the workshops included textile, cabinetmaking, typography, and weaving.
Important History of Women in Bauhaus
Figure 1: Women enrolled in the Bauhaus, 1919. Bauhaus Archive, Berlin (The Bauhaus 1919)
The Bauhaus set precedent as the first school to ever enrol women in its programmes. The gendered nature of the art education had historically marginalised women based on the social perceptions of the roles of the respective sexes. Figure 1 shows some of the women enrolled in the institution as of 1919. Disciplines such as architecture, painting, textile, and sculpturing were, for instance, considered masculine while the women were encouraged to pursue ‘more feminine disciplines’ such as weaving and ceramics (Naylor 1985, p. 20). While more women than men initially enrolled in the school, the female students were discouraged from pursuing the courses that were considered manly. The stance against women, however, changed when a Hungarian artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy replaced Johannes Itten in 1923. While Itten aspired to have art represent the social and spiritual aspects of individuals, Moholy-Nagy introduced radical concepts that gave the women a greater freedom. The subsequent paragraphs describe the works of some of the Bauhaus female members, which have inspired the modern art curriculum by providing women with the relevant art education.
Gertrud Arndt is one of the pioneer women who arrived at Bauhaus with the ambition of studying architecture after being an apprentice for many architects. However, she was forced to take a weaving course as architecture was reserved for male students. The same situation occurred with many other female students who were made to pursue the disciplines considered feminine in nature. Even though Arndt was successful at the loom, it is her photography at the Bauhaus workshops that is deemed as the significant source of inspiration to many of the contemporary artists today. She was a self-taught photographer and started by shooting the urban landscapes and buildings around (Lupton and Miller 1993, p. 45). Arndt also assisted her husband’s architecture by taking the photographs of the construction sites and buildings. However, her legacy was shaped by a series of self-portraits known as the Mask Portraits. The series depicted the artist as performing several traditional roles as well as wearing veils. Such works are seen to have played an essential role in inspiring the feminine artists such as Cindy Sherman. One of the most popular Arndt’s self-portraits is presented in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Self-portrait by Gertrud Arndt at the Bauhaus in 1926-27 (Arndt 1927).
Moholy-Nagy encouraged another bright woman, Marianne Brandt to enrol in the metal workshop. Marianne Brandt would later become one of Germany’s pioneer industrial designers in 1930s. Brandt also designed some of the most iconic pieces that are associated with Bauhaus. Some of her best designs include a silver tea infuser and strainer as well as an ash tray resembling a half ball (Müller 2009, p. 67). In 1928 Brandt beat her male counterparts to head the metal workshop to succeed Moholy-Nagy. 1928 is also the year that she designed her best-selling and commercially successful Kandem bedside table lamp that is presented in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Brandt Kandem Table Lamp in 1928 (Brandt 1928)
Anni Albers joined the Bauhaus in 1922 hoping to continue the painting studies that she had begun in School of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg. However, by 1923 she had been spending most of her time in the weaving workshop. Through this technique, Albers developed a signature visual vocabulary of the hard-edged patterns after being influenced by the works of Paul Klee. Albers’ early tapestry bore a significant influence on the geometric abstractions alongside the works of her Bauhaus colleagues (Lupton and Miller 1993, p. 45). The artist explored the possibilities of textiles with utmost determination as demonstrated in her design of a cotton and cellophane curtain that could simultaneously reflect light and absorb sound. Albers became one of the first women to assume leadership roles at the Bauhaus when she was appointed to lead the weaving workshop in 1931.
One of the earliest female members of the Bauhaus was Gunta Stölzl who arrived at the institution in 1919 at the age of 22. While Stölzl experimented with a wide range of disciplines at the school, later on she focused on weaving. In the weaving department, Stölzl was well known for her complex patchworks of patterns that demonstrated a range of colour mosaic (Müller 2009, p. 68). Her works took the form of tapestry, rugs and chair coverings. Stölzl’s works represented items of contemporary relevance that suited the modern lifestyle of individuals around the world as well as shaping people’s experiences through colour, form, rhythm, proportion, and material. Figure 4 represents a sample textile curtain made by Stölzl in 1927.
Figure 4: Stölzl, Textile Sample for Curtain, 1927 (Stölzl 1927).
Some other female members of the Bauhaus include Otti Berger, Benita Koch-Otte, Ilse Fehling, Alma Siedhoff-Buscher, Margarete Heymann, and Lou Scheper-Berkenkamp. Together with Stolzl, Koch-Otte utilised textiles to explore the concepts of abstraction. Koch-Otte continued to teach with her fabrics being in production up till today. Otti Berger was one of the most creative members of the weaving workshop and replaced Stölzl as the head of the weaving department in which she established her curriculum (Philipp and Gropius-Bau 2009, p. 108). Berger, who died in 1944, had her fabrics exhibited in institutions such as the Met and the Art Institute of Chicago. Ilse Fehling’s natural talent for sculpturing as well as possessing skills for theatre and designs served as significant inspiration to the future contemporary artists. Siedhoff-Buscher was one of the few female students in the Bauhaus who switched from weaving to the male-dominated wood sculpturing where she invented various successful furniture and toy designs (Philipp and Gropius-Bau 2009, p. 110). Margarete Heymann did not follow most of her contemporaries into the weaving classroom but managed to convince the director Gropius to set up for a ceramic class. She created angular objects with items such as bowls and teapots, her most notable works. Figure 5 shows a teapot and a bowl designed by Heymann in 1930.
Figure 5: A bowl and a teapot designed by Margarete Heymann in 1930. (Heymann 1930)
Influence of the Art education on women today
Throughout history, women have always been involved in art playing different roles such as art collectors, innovators, and creators, patrons, art historians and critics. Similarly, the women have also acted as sources of inspiration to the various creations. Women are thus an integral part of the art institution (Wikberg 2013, p. 22630). However, the women have always found opposition in the traditional art history narratives encountering challenges such as gender biases as well as difficulties in training and selling their works. Art education is one of the elements that have affected the women in different historical periods.
The influence of education arises primarily from the fact that it provides opportunities to the individuals to acquire relevant skills as well as the platform for practicing the attained techniques. Educational institutions are areas for experimentation that allows the learners not only to try out new ideas but also express personal artistic skills. The influence of the art education is observed in the sense that it enables the development of the various movements and philosophies that embody particular techniques or styles (Wikberg 2013, p. 22632). The institutions, therefore, shape different ideologies while providing the works of the past artists as reference or study materials. One of the significant impacts of the art education is on the individuals’ careers in which people acquire the necessary skills that they can apply in producing the various artistic pieces.
Further influence of the training is the essence that the students are always introduced to key artists either in practice taking their works as examples or in theory hence getting the necessary inspiration to produce specific works. The impact of art education on women today may be associated with the artists to which the learners are introduced by the teachers (Risatti 2013, p. 18). For instance, in art class, the students may be introduced to the works of the outstanding artists such as Michelangelo, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Mattise among others. Similarly, the learners may be exposed to different art movements such as modernism, pop art, impressionism, expressionism, fauvism, and realism. In such cases, the learners may draw inspiration and further implement the ideas and techniques in their work.
According to Wikberg (2013, p. 22631) the art education is femininely and more suitable for females than males. Such arguments have led to the belittling of the women’s accomplishment in the art education as the societal attitudes are shaped based on the interaction of both genders with the discipline. While women’s art had historically been marginalised, the 1970s saw the increased access to such pieces. Consequently, female artists began working knowing about the works of other women (Sandell 1979, p. 18). Based on the postmodernist feminism ideologies, Dalton (2001, p. 2) argues that there have been changes in the societal perception of women art education with equitable opportunities provided to individuals regardless of their genders. The impact of art education on women today is transformative as it provides the learners with the unique opportunity to get inspired and for perfecting individual skills.
Conclusion
The Bauhaus is identified as one of the most influential art schools in the early 20th century. The school that was founded in 1919 in Weimar, Germany, aimed at unifying art and crafts as it was formed through the combination of two existing schools of the respective disciplines. The influence of the institution on the subsequent generations even today lies in unique pedagogical approaches to art education. The modern designers are currently applying the methods used in the institution. The purpose of this study was to present an understanding of the history of the Bauhaus with the aim of establishing the influence of the institution on the women today. The impact of the school on the women arises primarily from the capacity of the school to provide an opportunity for the pioneer female students to express their talents as well as a chance to learn new techniques. The influence on the pioneer women students is also related to the essence that the school enabled the appropriate environments such as workshops in which the students learned practical skills such as weaving, painting, sculpturing, and ceramics.
The enrolment of the female students into the Bauhaus shaped the societal perception of women’s access to art education and artistic development today by changing the conventional attitudes towards the gender roles. The school offered an unprecedented opportunity for women to pursue formal art education, a step that was essential in shaping the societal attitude towards women’s acquiring formal artistic development and talent expression in the modern world. The institution accepted many female applicants. The Bauhaus, therefore, was a progressive educational institution that promoted equality amongst the sexes during a period in which the women were denied opportunity to advance in the formal art academies. The influence of the women today is hence felt on the gender equality standards that were set by the institution and are still practiced by many art schools.
The influence of the Bauhaus on women nowadays further arises from the important examples of female students whose works have inspired the modern art curricula. Some of the notable Bauhaus female members whose histories are discussed in the essay include Gertrud Arndt, Marianne Brandt, Anni Albers, Margarete Heymann, and Gunta Stölzl. Even though the female students did not enjoy the same estimation and recognition as their male counterparts, the works of discussed individuals are important in today’s art environment as seen in the increasing interest in such items by the academic and exhibition institutions.
Finally, the impact of art education on women today is due to the fact that the institutions provide opportunities to the female students to acquire relevant skills as well as the platform for practicing the acquired techniques. The philosophies and the theories that form the tenets of art curricula may also be important in shaping the attitudes, beliefs, and values of the individuals in their careers. The students may, for instance, adopt the concepts that are associated with particular styles or art movements. Despite some of art classes being formal, the learners may get introduced to various artists from whom they can draw inspiration hence leading to further advancement of their own work. In addition to mastering the relevant artistic techniques such as sculpturing, painting, photography, and weaving among others the women are influenced by the art education through collaboration with different individuals who are present in the school environment. Retrospectively, the influence of the Bauhaus on women today is due to the unique art pedagogical approach that offered the pioneer female students an opportunity to learn, experiment with various techniques and materials, and express themselves artistically.
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