Edited with text by Judith Raum. Text by Esther Cleven, Magdalena Droste, Tanya Harrod, Juliet Kinchin, Corinna Rader, Katja Stelz. Photographs by Uta Neumann.
A sumptuous introduction to the innovative fabrics of a long-overlooked Bauhaus textile artist
A radical pioneer of Bauhaus textile design, Otti Berger created fabrics that fundamentally changed the understanding of what textiles could be and do. A core member of the textile faculty at the Bauhaus alongside Anni Albers and Gunta Stölzl, Berger also was an entrepreneur in the frenzied culture of early 1930s Berlin. Working closely with architects of the New Objectivity movement such as Lilly Reich, Ludwig Hilberseimer and Hans Scharoun, she designed upholstery, wall fabrics, curtains and floor coverings that explored novel production methods, and thereby redefined the relationship between aesthetics and function. This book is the first comprehensive study of Berger’s textile work. It makes available for the first time her previously unpublished treatise on fabrics and examines her methodologies of textile production. By arranging her fabrics according to their application, author Judith Raum’s research offers an entirely new perspective on Berger’s oeuvre, emphasizing its craftsmanship and the entrepreneurial side of her work. Otti Berger (1898–1944) was one of the most important textile designers of the 20th century. Born in Zmajevac in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-day Croatia), she studied in Zagreb and then taught at the Bauhaus in Dessau. She set up her own business in Berlin to design fabrics for modern interiors throughout Europe. In 1936, she was banned from working due to her Jewish heritage. She was later deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered in 1944.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
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Elroy Rosenberg
There are two kinds of genius this book reveals: The aesthete with a preternatural sense for color harmonies, order, and pattern across all manner of fabrics and uses; and the mind that could arrange warp and weft threads to match a carpet’s pattern to how one moved across it.
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In 1937, Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius wrote of radical textile artist Otti Berger, “her work realizes more perfectly than anybody else’s of my followers the peculiar idea of the Bauhaus to work out ready made models for industrial multiplication instead of mere designs on paper.” Featured photograph, of Berger, ca. 1931, is from staff favorite Otti Berger: Weaving for Modernist Architecture—the first comprehensive study of her work. A peer of Anni Albers and Gunta Stölzl, Berger designed upholstery, wall fabrics, curtains and floor coverings with unique weaves and patterns that look as gorgeous and yet as bold and experimental now as they did running up to the Second World War, during which she perished at Auschwitz. The book itself is beautifully produced and illustrated with 500 reproductions from a goldmine of archival materials, alongside important new scholarship by Judith Raum. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 8.75 x 12 in. / 352 pgs / 360 color / 140 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $65.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $95 ISBN: 9783775755009 PUBLISHER: Hatje Cantz AVAILABLE: 6/4/2024 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Hatje Cantz. Edited with text by Judith Raum. Text by Esther Cleven, Magdalena Droste, Tanya Harrod, Juliet Kinchin, Corinna Rader, Katja Stelz. Photographs by Uta Neumann.
A sumptuous introduction to the innovative fabrics of a long-overlooked Bauhaus textile artist
A radical pioneer of Bauhaus textile design, Otti Berger created fabrics that fundamentally changed the understanding of what textiles could be and do. A core member of the textile faculty at the Bauhaus alongside Anni Albers and Gunta Stölzl, Berger also was an entrepreneur in the frenzied culture of early 1930s Berlin. Working closely with architects of the New Objectivity movement such as Lilly Reich, Ludwig Hilberseimer and Hans Scharoun, she designed upholstery, wall fabrics, curtains and floor coverings that explored novel production methods, and thereby redefined the relationship between aesthetics and function.
This book is the first comprehensive study of Berger’s textile work. It makes available for the first time her previously unpublished treatise on fabrics and examines her methodologies of textile production. By arranging her fabrics according to their application, author Judith Raum’s research offers an entirely new perspective on Berger’s oeuvre, emphasizing its craftsmanship and the entrepreneurial side of her work.
Otti Berger (1898–1944) was one of the most important textile designers of the 20th century. Born in Zmajevac in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-day Croatia), she studied in Zagreb and then taught at the Bauhaus in Dessau. She set up her own business in Berlin to design fabrics for modern interiors throughout Europe. In 1936, she was banned from working due to her Jewish heritage. She was later deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered in 1944.
