Projects by Marianne Brandt

Who doesn’t love the Bauhaus? I’m certainly an admirer and in the next week I’ll be looking to venture out towards the Barbican before the ‘Bauhaus: Art as Life’ exhibition finishes in London, it would be a great shame to miss it since it looks fantastic. I’m one of these guys who’s got an obsessive compulsive disorder in terms of design, I’m constantly learning off new creatives from all different sectors, I’m quite the book worm and generally my library is stocked with new and exciting finds, recently it’s Alexander Calder, Picasso, and the one and only Frank Lloyd Wright. A mixture I know, but I think this really shows my varied interests and where my inspirations come from, there’s so many elements to it.

One particularly fascinating subject in my opinion is the so called “women of the Bauhaus”, something I discussed in a post written about Marguerite Wildenhain who was another student of the Bauhaus. In that previous article I said about how a lot of the women were under appreciate for their abilities and how they fell off the map, I also said how we’ll be highlighting more of them in the future but unfortunately I didn’t continue for some reason or another. But today I’m back with another inspiring lady, this time Marianne Brandt, and I thought I’d put together a selection of works thanks to the Alessi website who seem to present them in the best way online. Unfortunately a fair few of them look a bit too photoshopped for my liking, which is a real shame since I prefer the ones that are totally original and authentic. I’d recommend the MOMA website for that if you’re interested, they’ve got quite a few designs by Brandt but they were all too small to use for this piece today.

Marianne Brandt was born in 1893 and studied painting and sculpture in Weimar, being the only woman who took part in the Metallwerkstatt (metal workshop) of the Bauhaus. Her talent was recognised and fostered by the one and only László Moholy-Nagy, who ran the workshop at the time. She ended up producing numerous designs in quick succession, which in my opinion represents the Bauhaus design ideology and aesthetic. After this great stint as a student she ended up becoming the deputy head of the metalworking workshop and was responsible for many collaborative projects in the industry, this in turn helped fund the school. Sadly she was never able to really showcase her skills as self-employed industrial designer but did work for a short stint in Walter Gropius’ architecture practice, where she designed furniture for mass production and modular furniture. But whatever way I’m sure you’ll agree she’s got an amazing eye for form and structure. In fact I’m not usually one for shiny objects, as they can be a bit attention seeking, but these are so simplistic and quite groundbreaking for the time. Luckily Alessi still produces some of these pieces, and not for a bad price either, so why not have a check on their website and see what takes your fancy.

www.alessi.com

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