Session 5 : Marianne Brandt

Marianne Brandt was born in 1893, October 1st  in Chemnitz, Germany and died June 18th 1983 in Kirchburg, Saxony. She was a German painter, Bauhaus photographer and designer who specialised in metal work. Brandt focused on painting early in her career and began her studies at a private art school in Weimar, Germany, at age 18. In 1912, she transferred to the Grand Ducal College of Art, also in Weimar. Her early work consisted primarily of expressionistic portraits, which were exhibited for the first time in 1918 at the Galerie Gerstenberger in Chemnitz. She married Norwegian painter Erik Brandt a year later, and they returned to Weimar in 1921. She was the first woman to be accepted into the metal workshop and she approached her work from a functionalist perspective that was revolutionary for her time, and the simple clean lines of her pieces reflected the modernist influence of her mentor.
She created an amazing amount of everyday items, including ashtrays, coffee sets and teapots, her lamp designs were especially noteworthy. Brandt also worked with photography at the Bauhaus, taking photographs that featured unusual angles, self-portraits and disorienting and distorting reflections in glass and metal surfaces. Eventually Brandt became deputy head of the metal workshop but resigned when it merged with other departments. After receiving her diploma in 1929, she began to work on furniture production and interior design projects at the Berlin firm of architect and Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. Later that year Brandt became the head of the design department at the Ruppelwerk hardware factory in Gotha, Germany.