Illustration: Erich Kleinhempel. Rug design, c1910.
The German artist and designer Friedrich Erich Kleinhempel was a relatively prodigious designer of rugs and carpets. He produced much of his output in this discipline within the first couple of decades of the twentieth century. Although all of the examples shown in this article do tend towards the geometrical, and to some extent are minimal in at least their pattern work, Kleinhempel also produced floral pieces, some of which approached a style that would be considered almost retroactive compared to these examples. This gives the designer's work a widescaling appeal and allows for an examination of more than one carpet and rug theme, the floral aspect will be covered in a future article.
Illustration: Erich Kleinhempel. Rug design, c1910.
Kleinhempel, like so many of his era, was an accomplished designer in a number of diverse fields including ceramics, jewellery, wallpaper, textiles and rug design. Although the designer is often referred to as part of the Art Nouveau or Jugendstil movement, mostly on account of his jewellery design work, it would be a mistake to consider these rug designs as a continuation of that theme.
Most of these designs were produced around the year 1910, by this time much of the obvious Art Nouveau styling had run its course and in many parts of Europe was beginning to look and be described as dated and a theme of the past rather than that of the future. That the movement by the First World War was robust enough to transform itself and even redescribe itself into the first elements of the Art Deco era, shows us that Art Nouveau was not as limited a style movement as is often thought. However, the general aspect of the defined look of the movement, with its sinuous and meandering foliage, had very much run its course by the end of the first decade of the twentieth century.
Illustration: Erich Kleinhempel. Rug design, c1910.
Art Nouveau in Central Europe was taking a very different course than that of France for example, where the movement was making its most significant strides into French Art Deco. In Austria, but more particularly in Germany the movement was becoming identified with an early form of Modernism. There had always been a large element of close and rapidly repeated pattern work, particularly within textiles, so much so that even hand produced work was often identified with mass production and the work of machinery.
The extrication of what was deemed unnecessary and irrelevant decoration and ornamentation had become a factor in German design and decoration. So much so that it had an increasing effect on all of the major disciplines from architecture through to textiles. Although by no means an exclusive and overwhelming factor in design work, the limiting of decoration did have an effect, particularly on decorative pattern work at the leading edge of design and decoration.
Illustration: Erich Kleinhempel. Rug design, c1910.
These factors allow Kleinhempel's work to be put into context. Although by no means as brutally subscribed as some of the work produced by the Bauhaus a decade or more later than the designers work of 1910, these pieces do show a step in the direction that was to ultimately lead to German textile design taking a different route from the rest of Europe, and particularly that of France. Kleinhempel's rug work is just a signifier to the suggestion that nothing in the design world is created in a vacuum and that the Bauhaus did not appear in 1919 fully formed. The Bauhaus, its style and its manifesto was worked out at a much earlier date and can trace its history and development back much further than some suspect. Kleinhempel and others helped to piece together factors that were to make up Germany's significant contribution towards the Modernist style and movement. The German development of design and decoration was helped significantly by the decorative experimentation and bold awareness of differing approaches towards the decorative arts across Germany.
Illustration: Erich Kleinhempel. Rug design, c1909.
It is the contribution, admittedly in many small steps, of a whole range of German designers in so many disciplines, but significantly those dealing with textiles, that expanded the parameters of Modernism and allowed it to reflect the changing emphasis of interiors. Simplified and significantly paired down design details helped textiles to reflect and compliment many of the new spacious, uncluttered and streamlined interiors that were becoming such a large element of interior design and decoration in Germany during the first few years of the twentieth century. Kleinhempel's rug design work signifies the trend towards these new interiors and gives some indication as to where rug design work in particular, but textiles in general was leading in the years ahead.
Reference links:
Decorative Art Nouveau Motif of Long-Stemmed Flowers in Brown and Black Giclee Poster Print by Erich Kleinhempel, 18x24
Bauhaus 1919-1933
Bauhaus 1919-1933 (Taschen 25)
The Bauhaus: 1919-1933: Reform and Avant-Garde (Basic Art Series)
The ABC's of Bauhaus, The Bauhaus and Design Theory
Bauhaus
German Encounters with Modernism, 1840-1945
German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924
German Design for Modern Living
Product--Design--History: German Design from 1820 Down to the Present Era
German Design 1870-1918
