Catharine Louise "Kitty" van der Mijll Dekker (1908-2004) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

textile artist. She studied at the Bauhaus and her designs are still being produced.

Early life and education

Mijll Dekker was born on 22 February 1908 in Yogyakarta

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

. In 1916 the family returned to the Netherlands. Around 1922 Mijll Dekker studied drawing at the

Royal Academy of Art, The Hague The Royal Academy of Art (KABK, nl, Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten) is an art and design academy in The Hague. Succeeding the ''Haagsche Teeken-Academie'' (part of the Confrerie Pictura), the academy was founded on 29 September 1682, m ...

and from 1926 through 1927 she studied at

Hornsey College of Art Hornsey College of Art (a.k.a. Hornsey School of Art) was a college in Crouch End in the London Borough of Haringey, England. The HCA was "an iconic British art institution, renowned for its experimental and progressive approach to art and design ...

in London. From 1927 through 1929 she studied interior design with . From 1929-1932 she studied at

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

Dessau Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...

, Germany. Gropius allowed both men and women into his art school, but relegated women to a workshop where they studied crafts, mainly weaving. Her teachers at the Bauhaus included

Anni Albers Anni Albers (born Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann; June 12, 1899 – May 9, 1994) was a German textile artist and printmaker credited with blurring the lines between traditional craft and art. Early life and education Anni Albers was born Ann ...

Otti Berger Otti Berger (Otilija Ester Berger) was born on 4 October 1898 in present-day Zmajevac, Croatia. She was a student and later teacher at the Bauhaus, where she was a textile artist and weaver. She was murdered in 1944 at Auschwitz during the Holo ...

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

Lilly Reich Lilly Reich (16 June 1885 – 14 December 1947) was a German designer of textiles, furniture, interiors, and exhibition spaces. She was a close collaborator with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for more than ten years during the Weimar period in the 19 ...

Oskar Schlemmer Oskar Schlemmer (4 September 1888 – 13 April 1943) was a German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer associated with the Bauhaus school. In 1923, he was hired as Master of Form at the Bauhaus theatre workshop, after working at the w ...

, and

Gunta Stölzl Gunta Stölzl (5 March 1897 – 22 April 1983) was a German textile artist who played a fundamental role in the development of the Bauhaus school's weaving workshop, where she created enormous change as it transitioned from individual pictorial ...

Career

From 1932 through 1966 Mijll Dekker owned a commercial hand weaving mill '' Handweverij en Ontwerpatelier K.v.d. Mijll Dekker''. During the same time frame she worked for the linen weaving mill ''E.J.F. van Dissel & Zn.'' From 1934 through 1970 she taught at the Kunstnijverheidsschool Quellinus in Amsterdam. Her students included Marjanne Doeksen, Dook van der Heijden, Willy Pennings, Margot Rolf, Désirée Scholten, and Herman Scholten. Mijll Dekker was a member of the artists society, Arti et Amicitiae.

Awards

In 1933 Mijll Dekker won a Silver medal at the

Milan Triennial The ''Milan Triennial'' (Triennale di Milano) is an art and design exhibition that takes place every three years at the Triennale di Milano Museum in Milan, Italy. History The exhibition was originally established in 1923 as a biennial architect ...

. In 1935 she won a Gold medal at the Brussels International Exposition as well as the ''Prix d'honneur'' (Paris). In 1936 she exhibited at the 1936 World's Fair winning a Gold medal. The same year she received a Quellinus Prize.

Later life and legacy

Mijll Dekker married Hermann Fischer in 1950. Mijll Dekker died on 6 December 2004 in

Nijkerk Nijkerk (; Dutch Low Saxon: ''Niekark'') is a municipality and a city located in the middle of the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_ ...

. Her work is in the

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

. Her 1935 design for a dish cloth is still being produced for the TextielMuseum in

Tilburg Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-larg ...

References

External links