ARTISTVIEW ALL
Gertrud Arndt
German
1903–2000
About the Artist
Explore life events-
Gertrude Arndt. Untitled (Masked Self-Portrait, Dessau). 1930. Gelatin silver print, 8 3/8 x 5 1/4" (21.3 x 13.3 cm). The Art Institute of Chicago. David Travis Fund. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, BonnGertrud Arndt (born Gertrud Hantschk in Upper Silicia) set out to become an architect, beginning a three-year apprenticeship in 1919 at the architecture firm of Karl Meinhardt in Erfurt, where her family lived at the time. While there, she began teaching herself photography by taking pictures of buildings in town. She also attended courses in typography, drawing, and art history at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of design). Encouraged by Meinhardt, a friend of Walther Gropius, Arndt was awarded a scholarship to continue her studies at the Bauhaus in Weimar. Enrolled from 1923 to 1927, Arndt took the Vorkurs (foundation course) from László Moholy-Nagy, who was a chief proponent of the value of experimentation with photography. After her Vorkurs, Georg Muche, leader of the weaving workshop, persuaded her to join his course, which then became the formal focus of her studies. Upon graduation, in March 1927, she married fellow Bauhaus graduate and architect Alfred Arndt. The couple moved to Probstzella in Eastern Germany, where Arndt photographed buildings for her husband’s architecture firm. In 1929, Hannes Meyer invited Alfred Arndt to teach at the Bauhaus, where Arndt focused her energy on photography, entering her period of greatest activity, featuring portraits of friends, still-lifes, and a series of performative self-portraits, as well as At the Masters’ Houses (MoMA 1607.2001), which shows the influence of her studies with Moholy-Nagy as well as her keen eye for architecture. After the Bauhaus closed, in 1932, the couple left Dessau and moved back to Probstzella. Three years after the end of World War II the family moved to Darmstadt; Arndt almost completely stopped making photographs.
—Mitra Abbaspour
- Alternate Name(s) Gertrud Hantschk (Birth Name)
Meeting Points
- Schools Bauhaus, 1919–33
Artist Chronology
| September 20, 1903 |
Born
At location: Gertrud Arndt
|
Ratibor |
| 1919–22 |
Apprentices in the architectural firm of Karl Meinhardt, a friend of Walter Gropius
At location: Gertrud Arndt
|
Weimar |
| 1919–22 |
Enrolls in typography, drawing, and art history courses at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Erfurt
At location: Gertrud Arndt
|
Weimar |
| July–October 1923 |
Austellung des Staatlichen Bauhauses, the first public exhibition of the Bauhaus school
Organizer: Paul Citroen, Georg Muche
Participant: Paul Citroen
Visitor: Gertrud Arndt
|
Weimar |
| 1923–25 |
Gertrud Arndt studies in the Bauhaus Foundation Course with László Moholy-Nagy. After one year Georg Muche persuades her to join the textile workshop
|
Weimar |
| 1925–27 |
Gertrud Arndt studies with Georg Muche in the textile workshop
At location: Georg Muche, Gertrud Arndt
|
Dessau |
| 1929–32 |
At Hannes Meyer's invitation, Gertrud Arndt's husband Alfred teaches at the Bauhaus. She begins photographing more frequently.
At location: Hannes Meyer, Gertrud Arndt
|
Dessau |
| 1932–48 |
Moves to East Germany when the Bauhaus closes. Buys a Leica and sets up a photography lab in her house
At location: Gertrud Arndt
|
Probstzella |
| 1948–2000 |
Lives in Darmstadt
At location: Gertrud Arndt
|
Darmstadt |
| 1950–2000 |
Makes mostly private photographs
At location: Gertrud Arndt
|
Darmstadt |
| July 10, 2000 |
Dies
At location: Gertrud Arndt
|
Darmstadt |
