Woven Wall Hanging

This cotton woven wall hanging was made by Benita Koch-Otte, a Bauhaus student who specialized in textile design and its relationship with abstraction. She would go on to direct a textile mill and teach until her passing. In the interwar before, before and after World War II, women went from taking on domestic roles in the home to being afforded some freedoms to work and follow creative pursuits. 

However, like the women of the Bauhaus, this evolution was made under the careful hand of institutional power. While women like Benita were accepted into the famous Bauhaus school, a notion that was progressive at the time, these women were still encouraged to study “feminine” subjects like weaving instead of architecture. 

The story of the female experience in the Bauhaus is just a microcosm of the development of the woman's image and role in society. This particular situation is also specific to white, cis women as minorities in the 1920s and 1930s still faced widespread discrimination in America. 

Contextual information referenced from MoMa and Women of the Bauhaus School by Alexxa Gotthardt