Women of Bauhaus

Service Description

"Women of Bauhaus: Celebrating Female Pioneers of Art & Design" Discover an unexpected history of the most influential art and design institution in European history through the women who learned and taught there. Explore the work of impressive female artists and makers at the Bauhaus Design Academie (1919-1933) in Germany, whose influence we still feel today. This course will uncover a fascinating cohort of women who embraced unconventional practices, valued craftsmanship, and prioritized play over politics to create radical and beloved work. We’ll meet women who pushed the boundaries of what women were allowed to do. Dive into the work of the first female painting student Anni Albers, the first metalworking student Marianne Brandt, and the only female sculptor at the school Ilse Fehling. Learn about Lilly Reich, one of only two women to teach as a “Master” at the school. All these women and more were financially successful and impacted their fields at and after the Bauhaus. By exploring their artwork and experience, we’ll encounter the impacts of their revolutionary lives. Triumphant tales of mass production overshadow the spiritual and mystical practices cultivated at the Bauhaus. But we’ll discover the work of female artists like Gertrud Grunow and Alma Siedhoff-Buscher will reveal the diversity of beliefs about color, art, movement, and making that thrived in the school. Yoga, meditation, and the unseen world are important and overlooked aspects of the Bauhaus. Uncover the textiles department—one of the school's most profitable departments—and the problems it caused the school’s leadership, which worried about its high number of successful women. Leadership’s attempts to downplay their reputation resembled later attempts by the Nazis and Soviets to rewrite the entire Bauhaus history. This class will take you from the founding of the Bauhaus to modern efforts to forget the women who helped make it what it was! This course is hosted by Lauren Jimerson, PhD and taught by Dr. Kiersten Thamm. With a PhD from the University of Delaware, Kiersten researches the manufacturing, use, and interpretation of art, design, and architecture in Europe and the US after 1851, focusing on the politics and politicization of modern materials. Fluent in German and French, she has been living in Berlin for a decade and knows the city's most spell-binding art and design secrets.