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Coverbild Otti Berger
The back cover of a book about textile designer Otti Berger, set against a white background. The cover is primarily black with white text and features a large, detailed photograph of a beige, woven textile sample with a basket weave pattern and frayed edges. The bright green, textured spine of the book is visible along the right edge. At the bottom are the logos for bauhaus-archiv and Hatje Cantz, a list of contributors, and a barcode.
A photograph of the hardcover book Otti Berger: Weaving for Modernist Architecture, shown at an angle on a white background. The book has a striking green and black cover featuring a duotone profile portrait of a woman. The title is printed in a large white font and segmented by thin white lines.
A two-page spread from a book about textile designer Otti Berger. The left page shows two color photos of her woven fabric samples in off-white and yellow, with one attached to a tag reading otti berger bauhaus dessau. The right page features a black-and-white portrait of Berger at a desk, below the large title, Otti Berger: Atelier for Textiles. Both pages include biographical text.
An open book spread on pages 274 and 275 about rugs. The left page features a full-page color photograph of a multicolored woolen nursery rug by Otti Berger with a geometric block pattern. The right page, titled Rugs, has text and two smaller black-and-white archival photos, one of Otti Berger in a costume and another of a domestic interior designed by Le Corbusier.
An open book displays a two-page spread about Otti Berger. The left page shows a typed letter in German. The right page, titled Biography Otti Berger, contains three black-and-white photographs of her: a portrait of her smoking, another of her in costume with a veil and fan, and a group photo on a staircase.
A minimalist, two-column table of contents for a book about textile designer Otti Berger. The layout features black sans-serif text on a white background, listing authors, chapter titles such as Fabrics for Walls, Upholstery Fabrics, and Curtain Fabrics, and their corresponding page numbers.
A two-page spread from a book about textile designer Otti Berger. The left page features two black-and-white photos: one of a modernist interior with a sweeping, curved staircase, and a portrait of Otti Berger smiling on a balcony. The right page is the book's introduction by author Judith Raum, with a biography titled Otti Berger: A Short Creative Life.
A two-page book spread titled Otti Berger's Materials and Techniques. The left page shows samples of yarns and fabrics in neutral tones, red, and blue, attached to paper with handwritten notes. The right page includes a black and white photo of Otti Berger at a loom, a long woven textile with a geometric pattern of squares in earthy tones, and several paragraphs of text.
A two-page spread from a publication titled Fabrics for Walls by Judith Raum. Page 58 displays three black-and-white photos of 1930s interiors featuring textile wall coverings in an airplane cabin and two apartments. Page 59 features a large close-up of a shiny, woven fabric swatch and a column of text about the historical use of fabrics on walls.
A two-page spread from a book about textiles. The left page shows a detailed close-up of a woven fabric with a checkerboard pattern, made of wide, shiny, light-colored ribbons. The right page features an article titled Wide Ribbon in Wall Coverings, accompanied by a black-and-white photo of a woman in profile wearing a cloche hat made of a similar woven material.
A two-page spread from a book. The left page shows a black-and-white photo of the 1938 cover of magazin aka 2, which features a modern room with flowing sheer curtains and a tubular metal chair. The right page is a text page with the chapter title, Textiles and Architecture: Toward a New Unity by Juliet Kinchin, and the beginning of an essay.
A two-page book spread titled Polychromatic Upholstery Fabrics: Stripes, Checks, Dots. The left page shows a large, detailed photo of several colorful, textured fabric samples with polka dot patterns in orange, red, yellow, and blue. The right page contains text and four smaller images of modern interiors from the 1930s featuring patterned furniture.
A two-page spread from a publication. The left page features a large, black-and-white 1930s fashion photograph of a woman in a shimmering, shaggy cellophane dress and jacket. The right page is the start of an article titled Cloth Chemistry: The Synthetic Fiber Industry and the Bauhaus around 1930, with a smaller photo of students in a classroom.
A two-page spread from a book about textiles. The left page, numbered 180, shows black-and-white archival photographs of staple fiber processing in Germany in the 1930s. The right page, 181, displays a vintage yarn sample card from the Bauhaus Dessau weaving workshop, featuring several types of off-white yarn wrapped horizontally across a gridded card with German headings.
A two-page book spread titled Folk Influences in Otti Berger's Weaving by Judith Raum. The spread shows several black and white archival photos of textile artist Otti Berger wearing an elaborate traditional Baranya Šokci folk costume, complete with a large, ornate headdress. Accompanying text discusses the influence of these folk traditions on her work at the Bauhaus.
A two-page book spread in black and white. The left page, 292, shows a large, rotated close-up photo of designer Otti Berger lying on a bed with her woven bedspread. The right page, 293, is titled Fabrics for Bedspreads and Daybed Covers and features text alongside a photo of a minimalist Bauhaus dormitory room, with a single bed covered in a shiny textile.
A two-page spread from a publication titled Otti Berger and Ludwig Hilberseimer, 1932-44. The left page, 312, displays a vertical fabric collage with cut-out photographs and a separate black-and-white photo of a man next to an architectural model. The right page, 313, features a quote, a group photo from a party, and several paragraphs of text with footnotes about the artists.
Otti Berger
Weaving for Modernist Architecture
€ 50.00
VAT included. Shipping costs will be calculated at checkout
Designed by: Lamm & Kirch
Photographs by: Uta Neumann
Edited by: Judith Raum, Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Museum für Gestaltung
March 2024, 352 Pages, 500 Photos
Quarterbound Hardcover
228mm x 320mm
ISBN: 978-3-7757-5500-9

HATJE CANTZ VERLAG
Mommsenstr. 27
10629 Berlin
Germany
E-Mail: contact@hatjecantz.de


According to Article 9(7) of the GPSR Regulation, no additional security information is required for books without supplements or special functions.

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The Fabric of Modern Life
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 function―with 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.

Image credits © Uta Neumann © Florian de Brün

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 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.
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