The Bauhaus Project

While the men of the Bauhaus movement rarely need an introduction, their female counterparts, who were mostly confined to the fields of textiles and ceramics, have remained under-recognised. The work of two pivotal figures, the iconic Anni Albers and Gunta Stölzl, the school’s one and only female Master, have been rightfully revived as the Bauhaus Project –  a collection of eight upholstery textiles and eight digital wallcoverings, modeled after a selection of historic designs.

Together with the many others in the Weaving Workshop, which was also known as the ‘Women’s Class’, Albers and Stözl left an indelible mark on textile design; championing patterns focused on geometric abstraction, unconventional approaches to industrial materials and construction, and explorations into the relationship between color, form and material, thus transforming the field forever.

‘Like all textile designers, I was taught in my art history classes that the Bauhaus was the single most important event that shaped the course of 20th century design,’ says Designtex president Susan Lyons. ‘What I did not learn until many years later was that it was the women who studied at the Bauhaus were the force that propelled the school forward and influenced the study and practice of design.’

For the Bauhaus Project, Designtex’s design director Catherine Stowell recreated Stözl’s and Albers’ designs by first analyzing painted gouache studies for woven designs. From realizing a double weave pattern adapted from a 90+ year-old sketch, to emulating Stözl’s technique of cutting a design into strips and arranging them until the repeating composition was right, each design in the Bauhaus Project has been carefully melded with contemporary materials and technologies to honor its creators’ original intent.