Today, November 9th, the fall of the Berlin Wall - the "Mauerbruch", is celebrated widely. It is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain and this event brings together an international group of leaders, politicians, diplomates and ordinary people in Berlin.

Earlier this year Berlin was the center of the largest Bauhaus retrospective ever, at the Martin-Gropius-Bau exhibition hall. Yesterday was the opening of another Bauhaus exhibition, this time at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. The exhibition is called “Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity". Nicolai Ouroussoff has written an interesting review in the NY Times, well worth reading. 

Chaise Lounge, Mies van der Rohe

The Bauhaus impact in the history of twentieth-century design is undisputed, and most aspects of it have been minutely examined. Yet its weaving workshop, whose artists were almost all women, has received much less attention. Sigrid Weltge-Wortmann has written "Bauhaus Textiles - Women Artists and the Weaving Workshop". As the author points out, when talented women arrived at the Bauhaus school, they soon discovered that its founder, Walter Gropius, was not adhering strictly to his ringing declaration of equality "between the beautiful and the strong gender." Textiles, in the hierarchy of art and design, were deemed "women's work." Drawing upon original archival research and interviews with Bauhaus survivors, their students, and leading contemporary designers, the Weltge-Wortman details the Weaving Workshop's history and its enduring legacy. The ideals and influence of the Weaving Workshop's artists live on in marvelous fabrics still being produced today.