The Women of the Bauhaus

There’s a famous image from the Bauhaus, one that places the school’s design ethos in a tantalizingly familiar setting. It’s the office of Walter Gropius, the director’s original suite at the Weimar Bauhaus, pictured in 1923. His office is a chapel to workplace productivity where light intersects line. It could easily be a contemporary catalog display, an aspirational space just waiting to be shopped. It was even reconstructed in 1999. Walter Gropius’s office is design history within reach.

But some of the details of the restoration are off. The abstract textile, a geometric tapestry by Gunta Stölzl, appears to be missing. And the original rug, a weave of square tiles designed by Gertrud Arndt, has been replaced altogether. The new carpet in the restored Gropius room belongs to a different Bauhaus designer, Benita Otte. Bringing another woman to the fore is in keeping with the original design. But it is also a break from the past, since a woman is getting credit for her work.