Ilse Fehling

Ilse Fehling
Ilse Fehling in 1928
Born	April 25, 1896 Danzig-Langfuhr, Germany
Died	February 25, 1982 Munich, Germany

Ilse Fehling was a German costume designer and sculptor associated with the Bauhaus and Nazi propaganda films.

Education[]

Ilse Fehling was born on April 25, 1896 in Danzig-Langfuhr, Germany. In 1919, Fehling enrolled at the Reimann School in Berlin, where she studied art and fashion design. While in Berlin, she additionally studied at the city's Kunstgewerbeschule.^[1]

In 1920, Fehling matriculated at the Bauhaus Weimar, where her work involved theatre. At the school she studied under a number of prominent artists including Oskar Schlemmer, Paul Klee, and Gertrud Grunow.^[2] Out of her work at the school, Fehling's best known is the rotating round puppet stage she designed and later patented.^[3]

Career[]

In 1923, she left the Bauhaus for Berlin to work as a freelance sculptor and stage designer.^[2] Fehling married the same year. In 1928, Fehling gave birth to a daughter, Gaby; she divorced Witting a year later.^[1]

Fehling received the Rome Prize from the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1932; she later studied in Rome using a grant associated with the award.^[1] In the following years, her work took influences from Cubism.^[2]

Following the Nazi rise to power, Fehling's work was deemed degenerate and its exhibition was banned.^[2] Much of her work was lost due to bombing and confiscation during World War II.^[1]

Ilse Fehling worked as a costume designer for a number of Nazi propaganda films, including Der Herrscher.^[4]

Fehling died on February 25, 1982.

References[]