Entirely new perspective on this Bauhaus artist Shows importance of textiles for the history of design First publication of Berger's writings

Otti Berger created fabrics that fundamentally changed the understanding of what textiles could be and do. A core member of the experimental approach to textiles at the Bauhaus, she was also a female entrepreneur in the frenzied time that was the early 1930s in Berlin. Working closely with architects of the New Objectivity movement such as Lilly Reich, Ludwig Hilberseimer and Hans Scharoun, she designed upholstery and wall tapestries, curtains and floor coverings that responded to novel types of use and production methods, and thereby redefined the relationship between aesthetics and functionwith fascinating results. To date Berger's textile work has only been explored in fragments. This book is the first comprehensive study of its complexity and beauty and makes her hitherto unpublished treatise on fabrics and the methodology of textile production accessible. Raum's research offers an entirely new perspective on Berger's oeuvre.

OTTI BERGER (18981944) 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 from 1927 at the Bauhaus in Dessau. Leaving her teaching post at the Bauhaus, she set up her own business in Berlin in 1932 to design fabrics for modern interiors, but was banned from working due to her Jewish heritage in 1936. Attempts to escape to England and the USA failed. She was deported from Croatia to Auschwitz and was murdered there in 1944.

In cooperation with the Bauhaus Archive Berlin, visual artist and art historian JUDITH RAUM (*1977) has conducted intensive research in European and North American archives to complete the first comprehensive study of Berger's scattered estate.

Inhalt
Cover Halftitle Titlepage Table of Content Preface - Annemarie Jaeggi Introduction - Judith Raum Otti Berger: Atelier for Textiles - Judith Raum Otti Berger: Selected Theoretical Texts on the Textile Medium and Drafts for Weaving Curricula 1930 38 Otti Berger's Materials and Techniques - Katja Stelz and Judith Raum Glossary Fabrics for Walls - Judith Raum Textiles and Architecture: Toward a New Unity - Juliet Kinchin Upholstery Fabrics - Judith Raum Cloth Chemistry: The Synthetic Fiber Industry and the Bauhaus around 1930 - Esther Cleven Curtain Fabrics- Judith Raum Otti Berger in England 193638: Hope and Disappointment - Tanya Harrod Carpeting and Rugs - Judith Raum Folk Influences in Otti Berger's Weaving - Judith Raum Fabrics for Bedspreads and Daybed Covers - Judith Raum Routes, Detours, and Coincidences: Traces of Otti Berger at the Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin - Corinna Alexandra Rader Otti Berger and Ludwig Hilberseimer, 193244 - Judith Raum Otti Berger and Ludwig Hilberseimer: Failed and Successful Emigration - Magdalena Droste Biography Otti Berger Appendix Back Cover