Gertrud Arndt Photography

Gertrud arndt was rediscovered as a photographer during the 1980s and has been compared with contemporary female photographers such as marta astfalck vietz and claude cahun.

Gertrud arndt photography. Born gertrud hantschk in ratibor then upper silesia in september 1903 arndt began her artistic studies as a student at the kunstgewerbeschule in erfurt. Gertrud 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. The second bauhaus director hannes meyer employed the photographer walter peterhans as the head of the workshop for photography which was initially part of the workshop for advertising. While there she began teaching herself photography by taking pictures of buildings in town.

Ag 2015 double portrait of alfred and gertrud arndt probstzella dorfstraße photo. Alfred arndt was already standing down below so that gertrud arndt had an orientation point for setting and focusing the camera. Vintage prints are rare on the auction market by such artists as gertrud arndt edward steichen andré kertész and iwao yamawaki. She also attended courses in typography drawing and art history at the.

When alfred and gertrud arndt returned to the bauhaus in dessau in 1929 gertrud arndt initially saw her role as the wife of a bauhaus master as being doing nothing. Gertrud arndt s innovative 1930 negativ portrait wera meyer waldeck where the artist utilized the negative copy technique is considered one of the classics of bauhaus photography 10 000 15 000. Gertrud arndt came to the bauhaus in 1923 to study architecture but like the majority of women who enrolled she was pushed into the textile department from which she graduated in 1927. Indeed while cahun was writing poems and photographing herself wearing masks in paris former bauhaus student gertrud arndt was also addressing the façade of femininity in weimar germany where she staged portraits of herself under the series title maskenselbstporträts a term which translates to masked self portraits.

The double self portrait showing gertrud arndt together with her husband in 1928 is an example of the changes in her photographic style. She equipped the bathroom in their master s house as a darkroom and in 1930 out of boredom started to take self portraits which she entitled mask portraits. Photography only became a subject of study in dessau in 1929 ten years after the founding of the bauhaus. She experimented with photography in her spare time and in 1929 received training from bauhaus photography instructor walter peterhans.

Her interest in photography developed while serving at an architectural office in erfurt where she learned darkroom techniques and began taking photographs of local buildings none of these early photographs exist.