Artistic design of the beginning of the XX century. Women of the Bauhaus.

Kozlovski Vladislav Dmitrievich PhD in Cultural Studies Associate Professor, Department of Design and Decorative and Applied Arts, Moscow State Institute of Culture 141406, Russia, Moskvoskaya oblast', g. Khimki, ul. Bibliotechnaya, 7, korp. 2 erenyar@gmail.com

Pushkareva Sofiya Alekseevna Student, Department of Design and Decorative and Applied Arts, Moscow State Institute of Culture 141406, Russia, Moskovskaya oblast', g. Khimki, ul. Bibliotechnaya, 7, korp. 2 sofiko-chita57@mail.ru

Design, as a phenomenon of project activity, is one of the leading areas of project culture of the XXI century. In fact, literally in all cultural and sociological spheres we can observe the design component of design: human design, art design, design and synthetic biology, etc.

The history of design is well studied and described in many works of both domestic and foreign authors. For example, we can cite such studies as: "The History of Design" by A. N. Lavrentiev, "The History of Design of Science and Technology" by V. F. Runge, "Design: History and Theory" by N. A. Koveshnikova, "The History of Design" by Charlotte and Peter Filly, etc.

But despite the abundance of versatile and relevant research, the topic of women's contribution to the development of design concepts and their existence is covered extremely sparsely and only in foreign sources.

In this article, we aim to highlight and systematize the main contribution of women artists, Bauhaus designers to the development of design in general.  To do this, we will analyze the main historical and cultural prerequisites for the formation of equal education, consider the features of women's art education in the Bauhas, identify the main historical figures of women design artists and determine their contribution to the development of design.

After the defeat in the First World War and the revolution of 1918, the Weimar Constitution was adopted in Germany, which declared the rights and freedoms of women ^[14]. However, the declaration of equal rights and opportunities remained only in slogans on paper. De facto, things were different: the German Fraulein and Frau, going beyond the usual paradigm of "Kinder, K?che, Kirche", which means "Children, Kitchen, Church", faced widespread inequality and old prejudices. Patriarchal society needed time to rethink the conservative system of values and the social role of women.

Against the background of socio—cultural, political, and economic changes, there was a need for a new type of human activity — an artist - designer, designer. To train and form the structure of a new profession, the Higher School of Construction and Artistic Design of the Bahaus was created.

Founded on April 12, 1919, the Bauhaus was one of the most progressive educational institutions of the XX century and aspired to remain so in everything. ^[4] The founder and first director of the school, Walter Gropius, following the trends of that time, writes in the Bauhaus Manifesto: "If there are free places, any person with an unblemished reputation is accepted into the school, regardless of gender and age ..." ^[13] This quote serves as proof of the fact that the school declares itself, as an exemplary model of equality and true progress not only in higher education, but also in the social life of society and opens its doors to a new type of German women, free and emancipated.

Despite this, the representatives of the "fair sex" were exposed to sexism and restrictions. If students could live in one of the buildings at the school, then the students had to rent rooms in the city. The distribution of directions was carried out at the stage of admission: teachers strongly recommended that applicants choose not industrial design or metal work (since these directions were intended for men in the Bauhaus), and even more so not architecture, which they saw as the dominant, the ultimate goal of the Bauhaus, but traditionally women's crafts: weaving, pottery, because any art created by women was regarded only as "needlework". So, two years later, the first director, V. Gropius, changed his mind: "We are absolutely against giving them, women, an architectural education." ^[11] As a result, women seeking to realize their creative potential found themselves in a marginal position in the most progressive educational institution of the XX century.

However, despite all the existing restrictions, some students managed not only to overcome the school's tacit ban on women working in more "difficult" areas and to declare themselves as highly qualified professionals, completely independent professional units, but also to influence the development of the school.

Speaking about the influence that women had on the development and formation of the Bauhaus, it is impossible not to touch on the history of the transformation of the textile workshop or, as it was otherwise called, the "women's department" from the traditional handicraft workshop to, perhaps, the most experimental workshop of the school.

Founded in May 1919, the textile workshop inherited the traditions, equipment and management of the old weaving workshop of the Weimar School of Artistic Crafts by Henri van de Velde. The first head of the workshop was Helena Berner, an experienced embroidery artist and teacher of the Henri van de Velde school. As for her contribution to the development of the school, in 1921 she drew up the curriculum of the workshop, thereby marking the path of further development for the next 4 years. Before moving from Weimar to Dessau, Helena Berner remained Georg Muhe's technical assistant. However, in 1925, she decided to leave the post of assistant. Being an adherent of traditional handicraft production, she was against the radical experimentation that overwhelmed the workshop

Gunta Stelzl, one of the oldest and most capable weaver students, was appointed in her place. Being "exiled" to the "women's department", she turned the unpopular branch into one of the most commercially developed departments of the school, reaching a level of productivity never seen before for the Bauhaus.

She was one of the 84 women admitted to the Bauhaus for the very first six-month introductory course, which she taught Johannes Itten. After completing the introductory course, G. Stelzl entered the weaving workshop, the head of which was Georg Mucha. He was not keen on weaving, and therefore was only listed as a leader. The actual leader was G. Stelzl. In 1927, after the discontent that engulfed the workshop and the demand of female students to change the leadership of the department, she officially assumed the position of head.

Like other teachers, G. Stelzl wrote theoretical articles, and in one of them she announced that working with textiles can also be an art: weaving is an aesthetic system, the unity of form, composition, color and material. Just such an attitude to weaving and the textile industry was characteristic of her creativity. All textiles were made up of complex composite compositions. She experimented with composition and color, studied various production techniques, mastered new materials and tested their wear resistance. And she was guided in her work by the main principle of the Bauhaus: to create things for a new world, combining simplicity and complexity, beauty and functionality.

G. Stelzl twice attended craft courses, where she learned the techniques of painting fabrics, the latest weaving and fiber technologies. Later, based on the current knowledge she received, she developed a three-year curriculum, including such disciplines as hand weaving on the simplest mechanical remiz and complex jacquard looms, tapestry weaving, carpet weaving, knotted carpet weaving. Much attention was paid to the study of materials science, various weaves, methods of coloring raw materials. The main transformations of the workshop during the years of its leadership were the focus on serial, and then industrial production, and, as a result, a change in the range of products: instead of carpets, floor coverings began to be produced, instead of decorative panels — "practical" fabrics, otherwise those that were used in everyday life or the manufacture of clothing.

Annie Fleischmann, the future Albers, came to the Bauhaus hoping to continue painting. However, like all applicants, she was faced with realities in which a biased attitude towards women was the norm, and an insistent offer to enter a textile workshop. The choice before her was not big: to accept the offer or otherwise give up the right to receive education and the possibility of professional realization, since admission to another direction was considered impossible. This was explained by the lack of available seats. With dissatisfaction, Albers agrees to be a student weaver. "I thought weaving was for wimps," she says in an interview 50 years later. "Just threads, and nothing more." By the time of this interview, Annie Albers was already considered one of the most outstanding textile artists of the XX century, and her attitude to "threads" had changed a lot. ^[12]

At his personal exhibition in 1949 at the Museum of Modern Art in In New York (MoMA), she demonstrated to the whole world new materials for textiles: black cellophane, raffia and copper chenille, wheat, grass and twine, wooden slats and sheets. However, the first serious experiment that allows us to declare radical changes in the field of textiles occurred much earlier.^[9]

This happened as a result of a quiet coup that Albers made. In 1927, after the opening of the Faculty of Architecture at the Bauhaus, a large number of applications for admission to this direction from representatives of the "fair sex" were submitted. However, the women in their desire to study architecture were denied by the management in the person of the school director, explaining that all the places were already occupied. Representatives of the "fair sex", according to Walter Gropius, should have been engaged not in construction, but in interior decoration: be an ornament in the house and decorate it. Albers' reaction to such an attitude to women's project activity can be traced in her thesis in 1929, when Gropius' successor, Hannes Meyer, was already the director of the Bauhaus.

The task Albers received from the new director was a wall painting for a new lecture hall. However, Albers not only fulfilled the order, but also rethought weaving for herself and all subsequent generations. Having designed a curtain with the functionality of a wall: woven from cotton, chenille and cellophane, it not only reflected light, but also absorbed sound, the artist came into contact with a forbidden area for women. She called the technologies used in the creation of the canvas "textile engineering". Such a very revolutionary act was committed by Albers after a presentation by Siegfried Ebeling, one of the brilliant students of the Bauhaus, of his educational project. He reinterpreted the wall as a membrane, "porous... formal, not substantial." ^[14] Thus, if a Bauhaus man talks about membrane walls, then a student of such an experimentally oriented textile workshop can also address this issue, but look at the situation from the other side. And design the membranes that are the walls.

So, through the idea of disguised construction, the talent of Annie Albers was fully revealed. In the interview mentioned earlier, the artist compares weaving not with painting, but with architecture. "Painting is created by applying paint to a certain surface," she argues, "sculpture uses the available material… Weaving is closest to architecture, because it is the construction of a whole from individual elements."

However, in addition to students who managed to realize their creative potential within strict limits, restrictions and prejudices, there were also those who destroyed stereotypes about women's and men's fields of activity, about the accessibility or inaccessibility of some craft for fragile girls. One of them was Marianne Brandt. She entered the Bauhaus in 1923 for an introductory course, curated by Laszlo Moholy—Nagy. By that time, she already had an artist's diploma and was a frequent participant in exhibitions. At the end of the course, Marianne Brandt, like all students, was sent to a weaving workshop. However, when Moholy—Nagy assumed the position of head of the metalworking workshop, Brandt asked for a transfer under his command. He took an active part in her transfer to a men's workshop, and soon the future outstanding metal artist was admitted to classes and began her path of professional development.

According to the recollections of colleagues, Marianne Brandt was a very petite, short and fragile girl, so many had doubts about her physical abilities, which are very important in manual metalworking. However, thanks to her talent, perseverance and zeal, and despite the fact that physically she was losing to male students, already in the first year of her profile training Marianne Brandt designed and manufactured most of those interior items that in the future clearly demonstrated the specific functional style of the Bauhaus. Brandt developed the entire lighting system for the school building in Dessau — hanging lamps and table lamps. In general, the Bauhaus will receive a substantial profit from its projects launched into production. Mentor Brandt was convinced that most of the successful Bauhaus projects belonged to her.

In 1925 Marianne temporarily left the Bauhaus, as the school was experiencing difficulties caused by moving from Weimar to Dessau. Brandt begins to get carried away with collage. In each of her works, she refers to the image of a modern woman who wants to be free in her work, to be equal to a man in obtaining knowledge and education. Through collage compositions, the artist tries to express the idea of injustice, limitations and prejudices that women are forced to face every day, going to their goals and striving to become self-sufficient units of society.

When, after moving, the situation in the Bauhaus returned to normal, Marianne was offered a studio in a residential building and a place in the workshop. In addition to her own projects, organizational activities fall on her shoulders, since in 1928 she became the head of the workshop where she was initially considered "unfit for work".

After a critical article published by Naum Gabo in 1929, in which he gave his feedback on the activities of the Bauhaus and its superficial style, choosing as a visual reinforcement of his theses the works of Brandt and the students of her workshop, she was forced to give an answer. In the program text "Bauhaus — style" Brandt emphasized rationality, the research nature of teaching and the practice-oriented approach of students and teachers of the school. This statement, made during the discussion about the role of the Bauhaus, made it possible to include the name of Marianne Brandt in the history of the development of design theory.

A little later, Brandt decides to leave the workshop, which is due to the abundance of administrative work and lack of time to design. Thanks to a letter of recommendation written by Laszlo Moha—Nagy, Marianne Brandt was accepted into the staff of the project office of the former headmaster of the school, Walter Gropius. However, she does not manage to work there for a long time. For some unknown reason, Gropius, who generally speaks well of her work, stops assigning her to design work on orders. And she is again faced with restrictions concerning women's creativity.

After the closure of the Bauhaus, Marianne's track record scared off employers rather than aroused admiration — both under the Third Reich and in GDR, where she did not even have the opportunity to receive remuneration for the tableware sets launched in Italy according to her project.^[8]

The last one to be discussed in this article is Gertrude Hanchkard Arndt. Her story is rather a story about self-realization, about finding a way not thanks to, but in spite of the Bauhaus methods. As mentioned earlier, Walter Groppius was convinced that a woman should not engage in architecture, explaining her biased attitude by the fact that, unlike a man, she thinks in two dimensions (and therefore is able to capture details and subtleties), while a man can see in three (and therefore sees in general, and he doesn't notice the details). Now this theory seems very unfounded, but at the beginning of the last century, only women were its opponents.

Gertrude planned to become an architect, and even received an education in an architectural studio. During her training, she had to use a camera to capture the buildings and structures she liked, as well as textures and elements. In 1923, after visiting the first Bauhaus exhibition, she decided to enroll in a progressive educational institution, being sure that the school has an architectural department. However, it opened only in 1927, after the school moved to Dessau. Like other students, after the introductory course, she was sent to a textile workshop, training in which did not contribute to her professional development and growth. However, during the introductory course, Arndt will find himself as a professional.

Laszlo Moholy—Nagy had a great influence on her career. Thanks to him, she is fond of photo experiments. "Self—portraits in masks" is a cult series of 43 pictures, the model for which was Arndt herself. Light dresses, capes and veils help her create stereotypical female images. Posing in front of the camera in deliberately feminine outfits, she very sarcastically plays the forced postscript to the weaving workshop. After completing the course, Arndt never worked in her specialty — and focused on development in the field that she chose herself. She photographed buildings designed by her husband and lived for 97 years.

The main conclusions of our study are that despite the fact that the Bauhaus adhered to the course on gender equality in education, it was often subject to criticism, justified by the fact that many female students and later graduates remained unnoticed both during their studies and after graduation. There is an opinion that despite the progressive ideas concerning gender equality spelled out in the Manifesto, the school's management adhered to patriarchal views on the role and place of women in society. Beliefs about women's perception of the world different from men's could not change as quickly as the laws giving her the right to stand next to a man. It took time for women to freely enter the world of men. Everyone faced with an emancipated, free, striving to realize their ambitions woman needed time to get used to new realities.

Thus, the contradictions that arose did not ensure full equality between students of both sexes, depriving female students of the opportunity to study in the so-called "male" workshops. In addition to restrictions, women often faced undisguised disregard for their professional project activities.

However, some students, such as Gunta Stelzl, managed to erase the line between male and female spheres of activity, thereby starting the process of transforming artistic design, architecture and design into non-gender professions. It is thanks to them that now we, the people of the XXI century, know the names of such significant figures in the world of architecture as Zaha Hadid. It is worth noting that Zaha Hadid relied on the developments of the Russian avant-garde and the Bauhaus school.

As for the gender ratio at the faculty, as the school develops, there have been no significant changes towards equal and accessible education for all. The proclamation of gender equality remained theoretical in the field of education. The same situation was with the teaching staff: before moving to Dessau, only six out of forty-five teachers were women. Moreover, there is a reverse trend. The number of female teachers was only decreasing, and this happened in parallel with the reduction in the admission of women to study.

In addition, the curricula adopted at the school were criticized. As mentioned earlier, almost every Bauhaus student started her career in textile workshops. However, the school did not issue certificates of training in weaving, which meant that women could not register their profession with the Chamber of Commerce. This prevented them from obtaining a master's degree, and as a result in career development.