Otti Berger: Weaving for Modernist Architecture

Otti Berger (1898–1944) was one of the most important textile designers of the 20th century. At the Bauhaus she was a pioneer of new, experimental approaches  to textile. She was also a female entrepreneur during the frenzied, uncertain and creative  1930s in Berlin. She was ultimately banned from working by the Nazis because she was Jewish, spending two difficult years of professional exile in London. Working closely with architects of the New Objectivity movement such as Lilly Reich, Ludwig Hilberseimer and Hans Scharoun, Berger designed upholstery, wall tapestries, curtains and wall and floor coverings that responded to new types of use and new production methods. In both her work and writing, she redefined the relationship between aesthetics and function―with fascinating results. 

 

Berlin-based visual artist and author Judith Raum has conducted intensive research in European and North American archives to complete the first comprehensive study of Berger’s scattered estate. On the occasion of the release of Otti Berger: Weaving for Modernist Architecture, published by Hatje Cantz and edited for Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin, join Judith Raum for a visually rich exploration of what textiles can bring to the interior spaces of modernism.