Style Imitating Art-Gunta Stöltz’s “Cows in Landscape” (1920)

Welcome to this edition of Style Imitating Art!

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Daenel of Living Outside the Stacks and me. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday one of us selects an inspiration image and we each post the image on our blogs. The following Monday we share our art-inspired outfits. The following Wednesday, the curator shares all of the submissions on her blog.

This Weeks Curator

That would be me.

This Week’s Inspirational Art

Cows in Landscape by Gunta Stöltz (1920)

Why Did I Pick This Art Work?

I knew from the beginning, that I would have to present a woven/fiber work. It’s just in my DNA and the Bauhaus weavers have always blown me away. My two favorites have been Anni Albers and Gunta Stöltz.

I picked Gunta Stöltz for my first curation. “Cows in Landscape” was one of the first works she did at the Weimar Bauhaus. Much of Bauhaus weaving is abstract so this work was a bit different. Also, it may have a wide color palette but I think the colors are subdued. Also, it has purple!

Gunta Stöltz

Before attending the Bauhaus School in 1919, Gunta Stölzl (1897-1983) studied art history, decorative painting, glass painting, and ceramics at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich. During WWI she left her studies to serve as a Red Cross Nurse from 1916 to 1918. She was just 22 when she entered Bauhaus Weimar. Her primary focus was weaving, and she became known for her intricate, wildly colorful designs (her work is said to typify the Bauhaus style). Stölzl often collaborated with Marcel Breuer, making weavings and coverings for his furniture designs. Stölzl was one of the only woman master teachers, and she led the weaving department for 5 years (from 1926 to 1931). Under her direction, the Bauhaus weaving department became one of the school’s most successful fields. In 1931, Stölzl moved to Zurich, Switzerland and began her own hand-weaving company S-P-H-Stoffe with two fellow Bauhaus peers, Gertrud Preiswerk and Heinrich-Otto Hürlimann. Stölzl ran the highly popular company until 1967. From

From “The Other Art History: The Forgotten Women of Bauhaus”

Extra Thoughts on Styling

I’m writing this as an afterthought because when I picked this weaving, I didn’t even think about what I had to go with it, I just liked the work. Then, just this morning (Sunday, I took another good long look at the work and came up with a few ideas that helped me when I went through my closet. First, this is a very busy and pattern heavy piece. This opens up to any garment that emphasizes pattern motifs and would be great for pattern mixing. I know quite a few of you love doing that.

It is woven which means there could just be an emphasis on texture.

It is multi-colored so there are not any color restraints-pretty much any color will go, even that glorious non-color black.

The general theme is rural and pastoral in the setting (could be a theme too).

Finally, there are plenty of stripes scattered around in this work,

I finally figured something out. Above, I mentioned I was excited because it had purple and in the end, there’s not a bit of purple in what I’m doing.

So, those were the ideas I came up with when I was trying to figure out something.

Will You Join the Fun

I hope this art inspires you to create a look and that you will join us. Send me your picture of your SIA inspired outfit along with a small blurb on how you were inspired to meadowtreestyle@gmail.com June 29th. I’ll share the submissions on my blog on Wednesday June 30th.

Anyone can participate and you certainly do not have to have a blog.

If you do share your inspirations on Instagram use the hashtag #StyleImitatingArt so we know you are there. You can also tag us in the images. Our Instagram names are: @terrigardner_meadowtree, @daenelt and @14shadesofgrey.

Take care and create on!