This morning I was looking at The Curated Object a website that anyone interested in art, antiques and the history of design should have bookmarked. It is an ever changing list of international decorative arts exhibitions all over the world. Lots of incredible objects to look at and learn about.
Marianne Brandt was born in Chemnitz
as Marianne Liebe. In 1919 she married the Norwegian painter Erik
Brandt, with whom she traveled in Norway and France. She trained as a
painter before joining the Weimar Bauhaus in 1923. There she became a student of Hungarian modernist theorist and designer László Moholy-Nagy
in the metal workshop. She quickly rose to the position of workshop
assistant and succeeded Moholy as the workshop's director in 1928,
serving in the post for one year and negotiating some of the most
important Bauhaus contracts for collaborations with industry. These
contracts for the production of lights and other metal workshop designs
were a rare example of one of the workshops helping to fund the school.
After leaving the Bauhaus for Berlin in 1929, Brandt worked for Walter Gropius in his Berlin studio. She subsequently became the head of metal design at the Ruppel firm in Gotha, where she remained until losing her job in the midst of the ongoing financial depression in 1932.
During the period of National Socialism
in Germany, Brandt attempted to find work outside of the country, but
family responsibilities called her back to Chemnitz. She was unable to
find steady work throughout the period of the Third Reich.
In 1939 she did become a member of the "Reichskulturkammer," the official Nazi organization of artists, in order to obtain a few art supplies, which had otherwise been forbidden to her. However, Brandt was never a member of the National Socialist Party. After many years of living apart, she and Erik Brandt officially divorced in 1935.
Brandt died in Kirchberg, Saxony at the age of 89. While the Bauhaus was generally reviled as "decadent" during much of the GDR period, by the end of her life Brandt had a loyal group of students from her many years as a teacher of design.
Brandt's designs for metal ashtrays, tea and coffee services, lamps and other household objects are now recognized as among the best of the Weimar and Dessau Bauhaus. Further, they were among the few Bauhaus designs to be mass-produced during the interwar period, and several of them are currently available as reproductions. In an auction in December 2007, one of her teapots —the Model No. MT49 tea infuser— was sold for a record-breaking $361,000.
Beginning in 1926, Brandt also produced a body of photomontage work, though all but a few were not publicly known until the 1970s after she had abandoned the Bauhaus style and was living in Communist East Germany. The photomontages came to public attention after Bauhaus historian Eckhard Neumann solicited the early experiments, stimulated by resurgent interest in modernist experiment in the West. These photomontages often focus on the complex situation of women in the interwar period, a time when they enjoyed new freedoms in work, fashion and sexuality, yet frequently experienced traditional prejudices. Brandt's montage works were subject of the touring exhibition entitled "Tempo, Tempo! The Bauhaus Photomontages of Marianne Brandt," organized by Elizabeth Otto, which appeared at the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin, Harvard's Busch-Reisinger Museum and the International Center of Photography in New York from 2005 to 2006. Otto's catalogue of the same name explores these works and Brandt's life. All photographs courtesy of Diesel Punks
Brandt is also remembered as a pioneering photographer. She created experimental still-life compositions, but it is her series of self-portraits which are particularly striking. These often represent her as a strong and independent New Woman of the Bauhaus; other examples show her face and body distorted across the curved and mirrored surfaces of metal balls, creating a blended image of herself and her primary medium at the Bauhaus. Text courtesy Wiki
From the artists website
Marianne Brandt studied painting and sculpture at the Weimar Hochschule
für Bildende Kunst from 1911 until 1918 with Fritz Mackensen, Richard
Engelmann, and Robert Weise. In 1919 Marianne Brandt (née
Liebe)travelled to Norway, where she married the Norwegian painter
Erkik Brandt in Christiana. The Brandts lived in Norway and the South of
France until 1922 before moving the following year to Weimar. In 1923
Erik Brandt returned alone to Norway; the couple eventually divorced in
1935.
At the age of thirty-one, Marianne Brandt enrolled at the "Bauhaus" in Weimar in 1924. Marianne Brandt was in the metalworking workshop run by László Moholy-Nagy, who recognized and fostered her talent. The years 1924-29 saw Marianne Brandt produce numerous designs in quick succession, which are numbered among the icons of "Bauhaus" design, such as her 1924 teapot and sieve. From 1926 Marianne Brandt was deputy head of the metalworking workshop. In this capacity, Marianne Brandt was respnsible for collaborative projects with industry. For the lighting firm of Körting & Mathiesen ("Kandem"), she designed nuermous lamps which were successfully produced, including, notably, the 1924 hanging ceiling lamp and the 1928 "Kandem" table lamp she designed in collaboration with Hin Bredendieck.
At the "Bauhaus" metalworking workshop, Marianne Brandt worked with Christian Dell, Hans Przyrembel, and Wilhelm Wagenfeld. In 1929 Marianne Brandt had a brief stint working in Walter
Although she was extremely talented and successful at the "Bauhaus", Marianne Brandt never managed to establish herself as a self-employed industrial designer. Until 1932 Marianne Brandt was head of the design division for the applied arts at the Ruppelwerke Metalware Factory in Gotha. After that Marianne Brandt again turned to painting and lived a very retired life.
In 1949 Marianne Brandt was invited to teach at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste in Dresden and from 1951 to 1954 she taught in East Berlin at the Institut für angewandte Kunst.
Gropius' Berlin architecture practice. There she mainly designed furniture for mass production and modular furniture while also working on the interior design of housing in Karlsruhe-Dammerstock.
Today, my eye caught this amazing coffee pot.
Marianne Brandt was born in Chemnitz
as Marianne Liebe. In 1919 she married the Norwegian painter Erik
Brandt, with whom she traveled in Norway and France. She trained as a
painter before joining the Weimar Bauhaus in 1923. There she became a student of Hungarian modernist theorist and designer László Moholy-Nagy
in the metal workshop. She quickly rose to the position of workshop
assistant and succeeded Moholy as the workshop's director in 1928,
serving in the post for one year and negotiating some of the most
important Bauhaus contracts for collaborations with industry. These
contracts for the production of lights and other metal workshop designs
were a rare example of one of the workshops helping to fund the school.
After leaving the Bauhaus for Berlin in 1929, Brandt worked for Walter Gropius in his Berlin studio. She subsequently became the head of metal design at the Ruppel firm in Gotha, where she remained until losing her job in the midst of the ongoing financial depression in 1932.During the period of National Socialism
in Germany, Brandt attempted to find work outside of the country, but
family responsibilities called her back to Chemnitz. She was unable to
find steady work throughout the period of the Third Reich.In 1939 she did become a member of the "Reichskulturkammer," the official Nazi organization of artists, in order to obtain a few art supplies, which had otherwise been forbidden to her. However, Brandt was never a member of the National Socialist Party. After many years of living apart, she and Erik Brandt officially divorced in 1935.
Brandt died in Kirchberg, Saxony at the age of 89. While the Bauhaus was generally reviled as "decadent" during much of the GDR period, by the end of her life Brandt had a loyal group of students from her many years as a teacher of design.
Brandt's designs for metal ashtrays, tea and coffee services, lamps and other household objects are now recognized as among the best of the Weimar and Dessau Bauhaus. Further, they were among the few Bauhaus designs to be mass-produced during the interwar period, and several of them are currently available as reproductions. In an auction in December 2007, one of her teapots —the Model No. MT49 tea infuser— was sold for a record-breaking $361,000.
Beginning in 1926, Brandt also produced a body of photomontage work, though all but a few were not publicly known until the 1970s after she had abandoned the Bauhaus style and was living in Communist East Germany. The photomontages came to public attention after Bauhaus historian Eckhard Neumann solicited the early experiments, stimulated by resurgent interest in modernist experiment in the West. These photomontages often focus on the complex situation of women in the interwar period, a time when they enjoyed new freedoms in work, fashion and sexuality, yet frequently experienced traditional prejudices. Brandt's montage works were subject of the touring exhibition entitled "Tempo, Tempo! The Bauhaus Photomontages of Marianne Brandt," organized by Elizabeth Otto, which appeared at the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin, Harvard's Busch-Reisinger Museum and the International Center of Photography in New York from 2005 to 2006. Otto's catalogue of the same name explores these works and Brandt's life. All photographs courtesy of Diesel Punks
Brandt is also remembered as a pioneering photographer. She created experimental still-life compositions, but it is her series of self-portraits which are particularly striking. These often represent her as a strong and independent New Woman of the Bauhaus; other examples show her face and body distorted across the curved and mirrored surfaces of metal balls, creating a blended image of herself and her primary medium at the Bauhaus. Text courtesy Wiki
From the artists website
Marianne Brandt studied painting and sculpture at the Weimar Hochschule
für Bildende Kunst from 1911 until 1918 with Fritz Mackensen, Richard
Engelmann, and Robert Weise. In 1919 Marianne Brandt (née
Liebe)travelled to Norway, where she married the Norwegian painter
Erkik Brandt in Christiana. The Brandts lived in Norway and the South of
France until 1922 before moving the following year to Weimar. In 1923
Erik Brandt returned alone to Norway; the couple eventually divorced in
1935.At the age of thirty-one, Marianne Brandt enrolled at the "Bauhaus" in Weimar in 1924. Marianne Brandt was in the metalworking workshop run by László Moholy-Nagy, who recognized and fostered her talent. The years 1924-29 saw Marianne Brandt produce numerous designs in quick succession, which are numbered among the icons of "Bauhaus" design, such as her 1924 teapot and sieve. From 1926 Marianne Brandt was deputy head of the metalworking workshop. In this capacity, Marianne Brandt was respnsible for collaborative projects with industry. For the lighting firm of Körting & Mathiesen ("Kandem"), she designed nuermous lamps which were successfully produced, including, notably, the 1924 hanging ceiling lamp and the 1928 "Kandem" table lamp she designed in collaboration with Hin Bredendieck.
At the "Bauhaus" metalworking workshop, Marianne Brandt worked with Christian Dell, Hans Przyrembel, and Wilhelm Wagenfeld. In 1929 Marianne Brandt had a brief stint working in Walter
Although she was extremely talented and successful at the "Bauhaus", Marianne Brandt never managed to establish herself as a self-employed industrial designer. Until 1932 Marianne Brandt was head of the design division for the applied arts at the Ruppelwerke Metalware Factory in Gotha. After that Marianne Brandt again turned to painting and lived a very retired life.
In 1949 Marianne Brandt was invited to teach at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste in Dresden and from 1951 to 1954 she taught in East Berlin at the Institut für angewandte Kunst.
Gropius' Berlin architecture practice. There she mainly designed furniture for mass production and modular furniture while also working on the interior design of housing in Karlsruhe-Dammerstock.
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