Gunta Stölzl and Johannes Itten: Textile Universes / Kunstmuseum Thun

The exhibition Gunta Stölzl and Johannes Itten: Textile Universes, on view from 17 August to 1 December 2024 at the Kunstmuseum Thun in Switzerland explores the close connections between the Bauhaus masters Johannes Itten (b. 1888 in Süderen-Linden/Bernese Oberland, d. 1967 in Zurich) and Gunta Stölzl (b. 1897 in Munich, d. 1983 in Männedorf CH). The focus is on biographical overlaps, their lifelong, collegial relationship and their pioneering influence on Swiss textile art. A cabinet exhibition will also show the early work of Sophie Taeuber.

At the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1919 the Swiss painter and art theorist Johannes Itten met the German weaver and textile designer Gunta Stölzl for the first time. She was head of a weaving class and thus a representative of the “women’s art” that was so undervalued at the time in a male-dominated environment; he was a teacher and a great supporter of Stölzl’s department. Itten saw potential that was later confirmed when the textile class ultimately developed into the only commercially profitable department at the Bauhaus.

A few years after Itten’s return to Switzerland, Gunta Stölzl emigrated to Zurich in 1931. While her former colleague ran the School of Decorative Arts in Zurich from 1938 to 1953 and the Zurich Textile School (today the Swiss Textile School) from 1943 to 1960, Stölzl joined forces with Bauhaus graduates Gertrud Preiswerk and Heinrich-Otto Hürlimann to found the company S-P-H-Stoffe. She afterwards ran a hand-weaving business for three decades and then finally devoted herself to her own art until her death, producing works that included a number of remarkable tapestries.

It is a little-known fact that Johannes Itten, whose early artwork was the subject of a special exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Thun in 2020, also delved extensively into the field of textile design. The current exhibition, comprising some 200 exhibits, thus offers an ideal opportunity to rediscover Itten as a textile designer. This pairing with Gunta Stölzl, considered a “classic textile artist”, showcases key works from international museums and private collections. With their innovative ornamental and textile forms, avant-garde materials and textile structures, and experimental use of photography, Stölzl and Itten wrote textile history and laid the foundations for Switzerland to develop into an important centre for modern textile art.

The exhibition Gunta Stölzl and Johannes Itten: Textile Universes has been co-curated by Helen Hirsch (Director of the Kunstmuseum Thun) and Prof. Dr. Christoph Wagner (Chair of the University of Regensburg / Member of the Board of Trustees of the Johannes Itten Foundation in Bern).

Gunta Stölzl and Johannes Itten: Textile Universes, Kunstmuseum Thun, Thun (Switzerland). Vernissage, August 16, 2024.