Zum Hauptinhalt springen Zur Suche springen Zur Hauptnavigation springen
Beschreibung

The Bauhaus school in Germany has long been understood through the writings of its founding director, Walter Gropius, and well-known artists who taught there such as Wassily Kandinsky and LÁszlÓ Moholy-Nagy. Far less recognized are texts by women in the school’s weaving workshop. In Bauhaus Weaving Theory, T’ai Smith uncovers new significance in the work the Bauhaus weavers did as writers.

From colorful, expressionist tapestries to the invention of soundproofing and light-reflective fabric, the workshop’s innovative creations influenced a modernist theory of weaving. In the first careful examination of the writings of Bauhaus weavers, including Anni Albers, Gunta StÖzl, and Otti Berger, Smith details how these women challenged assumptions about the feminine nature of their craft. As they harnessed the vocabulary of other disciplines like painting, architecture, and photography, Smith argues, the weavers resisted modernist thinking about distinct media. In parsing texts about tapestries and functional textiles, the vital role these women played in debates about medium in the twentieth century and a nuanced history of the Bauhaus comes to light.

Bauhaus Weaving Theory deftly reframes the Bauhaus weaving workshop as central to theoretical inquiry at the school. Putting questions of how value and legitimacy are established in the art world into dialogue with the limits of modernism, Smith confronts the belief that the crafts are manual and technical but never intellectual arts.

The Bauhaus school in Germany has long been understood through the writings of its founding director, Walter Gropius, and well-known artists who taught there such as Wassily Kandinsky and LÁszlÓ Moholy-Nagy. Far less recognized are texts by women in the school’s weaving workshop. In Bauhaus Weaving Theory, T’ai Smith uncovers new significance in the work the Bauhaus weavers did as writers.

From colorful, expressionist tapestries to the invention of soundproofing and light-reflective fabric, the workshop’s innovative creations influenced a modernist theory of weaving. In the first careful examination of the writings of Bauhaus weavers, including Anni Albers, Gunta StÖzl, and Otti Berger, Smith details how these women challenged assumptions about the feminine nature of their craft. As they harnessed the vocabulary of other disciplines like painting, architecture, and photography, Smith argues, the weavers resisted modernist thinking about distinct media. In parsing texts about tapestries and functional textiles, the vital role these women played in debates about medium in the twentieth century and a nuanced history of the Bauhaus comes to light.

Bauhaus Weaving Theory deftly reframes the Bauhaus weaving workshop as central to theoretical inquiry at the school. Putting questions of how value and legitimacy are established in the art world into dialogue with the limits of modernism, Smith confronts the belief that the crafts are manual and technical but never intellectual arts.

Über den Autor

T’ai Smith is assistant professor in the department of art history, visual art, and theory at the University of British Columbia.

Inhaltsverzeichnis
Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Textiles, Text, and a Medium-Specific Craft

1. Pictures Made of Wool: Weaving Labor in the Workshop
2. Toward a Modernist Theory of Weaving: The Use of Textiles in Architectural Space
3. The Haptics of Optics: Weaving and Photography
4. Weaving as Invention: Patenting Theories of Authorship

Conclusion: On Weaving, On Writing

Notes
Index
Details
Erscheinungsjahr: 2014
Genre: Importe, Kunst
Rubrik: Kunst & Musik
Thema: Kunstgeschichte
Medium: Taschenbuch
Inhalt: Kartoniert / Broschiert
ISBN-13: 9780816687244
ISBN-10: 0816687242
Sprache: Englisch
Einband: Kartoniert / Broschiert
Autor: Smith
Hersteller: University of Minnesota Press
Verantwortliche Person für die EU: Libri GmbH, Europaallee 1, D-36244 Bad Hersfeld, gpsr@libri.de
Maße: 203 x 149 x 22 mm
Von/Mit: Smith
Erscheinungsdatum: 09.11.2014
Gewicht: 0,394 kg
Artikel-ID: 121056200

Ähnliche Produkte