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Book Cover
E-book
Author Smith, T'ai Lin, 1975-

Title Bauhaus weaving theory : from feminine craft to mode of design / T'ai Smith
Published Minneapolis, MN : University of Minnesota Press, 2014

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Description 1 online resource
Contents Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Pictures Made of Wool -- 2. Toward a Modernist Theory of Weaving -- 3. The Haptics of Optics -- 4. Weaving as Invention -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index
Summary 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
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Bauhaus.
SUBJECT Bauhaus fast
Bauhaus Dessau 1925-1932 gnd
Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar gnd
Subject Textile design -- Germany -- History -- 20th century
Weaving -- Germany -- History -- 20th century
Women textile designers -- Germany
Modernism (Art)
Art and craft debate.
ART -- History -- General.
DESIGN -- History & Criticism.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Women's Studies.
DESIGN -- Textile & Costume.
Art and craft debate
Modernism (Art)
Textile design
Weaving
Women textile designers
Webarbeit
Ästhetik
Textilkünstlerin
Germany
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781452943237
1452943230
9781452949031
1452949034