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Lili Blumenau
Born	(1912-11-28)November 28, 1912 Berlin, Germany
Died	September 6, 1976(1976-09-06) (aged 63) Bronx New York
Known for	Textile art

Lili Blumenau (1912–1976) was an American fiber artist. She was a pivotal figure in the development of fiber arts and textile arts, particularly weaving, in the United States during the mid-part of the 20th century.

Early life and education

Blumenau was born on November 28, 1912 in Berlin, Germany. Blumenau is a graduate of the Akademie der Künste (Berlin) [de], the Académie scandinave [fr] in Paris, and was the first woman to graduate from the New York School of Textile Technology. She also studied at Black Mountain College.

Work and career

After her education, Blumenau went on to become an instructor in several schools in New York City including Columbia University's Teacher's College, where she started a weaving workshop. She founded the weaving department at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Design in 1952. In addition to maintaining her own weaving studio on Tenth Street in Manhattan, she served as the curator of textiles at Cooper Union Museum from 1944 to 1950.

In 1955 Blumenau authored the text The Art and Craft of Hand Weaving, Including Fabric Design, which had a significant impact on her field. This text provided technical details and patterns for loom weaving as well as a conceptual approach to the methodologies of hand weaving as "engaging, fully-human, and life-giving". Her work provided inspiration to the Catholic Worker Movement, a collection of autonomous communities of Catholics to whom she taught weaving to several members at the Peter Maurin Farm. In 1975 Blumenau was awarded Fellow of the Council by the American Craft Council. Blumenau died on September 6, 1976 in the Bronx.

Collections

Lili Blumenau's works are in the permanent collection at the Cooper Hewitt Museum and the Museum of Arts and Design.

References

1. ^ Falino, Jeannine (2011). Crafting modernism: midcentury American art and design: . New York: Abrams. p. 270. ISBN 978-0810984806.
2. ^ "The Art and Craft of Hand Weaving--Lili Blumenau". Boreal Weaver: An Online Diary. March 11, 2019. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
3. Koplos, Janet; Metcalf, Bruce (2010). Makers: a history of American studio craft. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina press. p. 235. ISBN 9780807834138.
4. Blumenau, Lili (1956). The Art and Craft of Hand Weaving: Including Fabric Design. New York: Crowne Publishers.
5. "Rediscovering the Sacramentality of Things". Boreal Weaver. February 15, 2019. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
6. "College of Fellows". American Craft Council. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
7. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. "Lili Blumenau". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
8. "Casement Cloth". The Museum of Arts and Design. Retrieved 5 December 2023.

Additional sources

1. Adams, Alice. "Lili Blumenau." Craft Horizons v.22, no. 2 (March 1962) p.16-20.
2. Blumenau, Lili. "Experiments in Sample Weaving." Craft Horizons v.17, no. 2 ( March 1957) p. 18-22.
3. "Lili Blumenau, 1912-1976." Craft Horizons v.37, no.1 (February 1977) p. 10.

• Weavers from New York (state)
• 20th-century American women textile artists
• 20th-century American textile artists
• 1912 births
• 1976 deaths
• 20th-century American artisans
• Fashion Institute of Technology faculty
• Cooper Union faculty
• 20th-century American women writers
• Artists from New York City
• 20th-century American non-fiction writers
• American art educators
• American expatriates in Germany
• American expatriates in France
• Textile artists from New York (state)