THE GRAY CLOTH / PAUL SCHEERBART

Paul Scheerbart (1863-1915) was a Danzig born German author and artist. Much of his work revolved around architectural themes, with dozens of fictional utopian narratives related to glass architecture. Stuart writes in the introduction that, ‘Along with younger contemporaries, such as Bruno Taut, Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Scheerbart sought a modern language to critique a world transformed by global technologies, international politics, and the culture of abstract art’.

Scheerbart was born as the eleventh and last child of a family. His mother died when he was four, his father when he was ten, and all his siblings passed away before his sixteenth birthday. At 22, he moved to Berlin to work as a journalist. Stuart writes that details of his early career are vague, and as like others, he fictionalized his autobiography. He socialized with authors, artists and architects (later also with his wife Anna), writing about glass architecture for over 20 years. During his most productive years, between 1910 and 1915, he lived in Palm House in the Berlin Botanical Gardens in the suburbs. Lamenting the building’s lack of color and its uninsulated glass walls, he nevertheless admired its power to unite glass architecture with nature. Stuart says there is no evidence to back up the legend that he starved himself to death to protest the war, but that he probably died due to a stroke. 

In 1904 Scheerbart wrote: ‘The frantic exertion I have nevertheless made to forge a connection between this era of socialism, technology, and militarism and my amazing and very religious life, absorbs my so-called human life. It is the source of my books, which always attempt to unite what is difficult to unite- to move a dessicated period driven by quantity (probably referring to mass media and mass production as stated in the notes) slowly toward a ‘new’ romanticism and a ‘new’ piety’. 

His Glass Architecture (1914) outlined his ideological and technical ideas in 111 chapters without his usual irony and humor. ‘Unornamented architecture, according to Scheerbart, should be accepted only as a ‘transitional style’ that eliminated ‘imitations of older styles”. Gray Cloth was also written in 1914. A leo.

It is the middle of the 20th century, and there is an exhibition of silver works by American sculptors and decorative artists near Chicago. It is opening day, and Edgar Krug the architect is leading his lawyer friend Walter Löwe around the large halls made out of colored glass. ‘One saw the very colorful reflection of the palaces in Lake Michigan. Like hummingbirds, dragonflies, and butterflies the countless colors flickered along the moving waves of the lake’. The silver works are dwarfed by the flamboyant architecture, but people mostly don’t complain, and marvel at the colored glass effects instead. Edgar buys a work by Amanda from the exhibition, and they all go for dinner afterwards with her friend the organ player Clara Weber. Edgar is impressed by her gray clothing with ten percent white trim because it does not compete with his colorful architecture. He proposes to her with the condition that she is to wear gray with ten percent white all the time which she accepts. 

Clara and Edgar go for honeymoon in the Fiji Islands where he has some ongoing construction business. Writing to Amanda who finds Edgar tyrannical, Clara wonders if he’s using her for advertisement, or if his colorful world of glass is already becoming too colorful for him. Clara accompanies Edgar in his business meetings, and her contributions are welcomed. 

From the tropics, they fly to the icy Makartland where Edgar builds for a painter colony. He replaces a black wood walled salon with colored glass. There are snowstorms, sociality, hot grog, seals and sea lions. During their nine month stay, Clara becomes close with Kate who decides to accompany them in their travels. Kate tells Edgar that they’ll probably rebuild the black box because it was comfortable, and his glass architecture is not suitable for that climate. She tells him that they didn’t stay long enough to see the icy scenery which is more beautiful than glass architecture. Edgar welcomes the criticism, and urges her to explain more. 

When next they arrive at Kinabalu baths, Edgar explains to the women how clients don’t usually know what they want. And how some rich clients come up with preposterous ideas, and how with the baths he pursuaded the client for a more reasonable idea. As Edgar is busy again with building, the women enjoy the social life and pink flamingos. Kate persuades her to wear ten percent plaid instead of white, and Edgar tells Kate to leave- which she does, and Clara appears again in gray and ten percent white, and the couple don’t discuss it much further. Her clothing is praised, and Clara is embarrassed. 

Next stop is Japan where the women adorn themselves in very bright colored clothing. They praise Edgar’s colorful architecture, but find Clara’s clothing repugnant, and ask to change it- which Edgar opposes wildly, and it is now his turn to be embarrassed. They soon and discreetly leave Japan, and now Clara is amused, and wants to see how events will further unfold. 

Next site for Edgar’s architecture is a zoological park in North India. Edgar goes to Ceylon for a business trip as Clara remains behind and bored, so she writes to the Japanese lady who soon arrives with 85 women and loads of colorful clothing. A movie has circulated about Clara and Edgar’s wedding pact, and the Japanese women hate the architect for it. The construction in the park is drawing to a close, and they build a large organ for Clara to play for its opening party. Her magnificent week-long performance with the backdrop of the colored glass architecture of Edgar causes a sensation in the world. Edgar telegraphs to cheer and congratulate her, adding ‘In any event, I am very happy that you are now also introduced to the curse of fame. Comrades in suffering become closer’. Clara sends the colorful clothing to Edgar’s residence; and resumes wearing gray. 

Edgar is now working on an experimentation center for aquatic architecture in the middle of the Aral Sea, and is joined by Clara, Amanda and Löwe. Edgar loses a small competition for the designs of the colored glass, and takes it in stride: ‘I truly do not think that my ornaments are very exceptional. In my opinion, one never becomes famous on account of his importance. One really only becomes famous when one pushes an indubitably good thing with hellish energy.’

A Chinese Mr. Li-Tung is another rich client in Kuria Maria Islands. During a party, he insists that everyone wear colorful clothing to which we only learn Edgar and Löwe oblige. After this, Edgar decides to strike the legal paragraph about the gray clothing, and both sign, but Clara says she wants to continue wearing gray. When Amanda asks her what if Edgar wants to see her in bright colors, she replies ‘That is our concern alone’. Then they depart for Cyprus. 

The clients in Cyprus want a simple building, avoiding anything too colorful. Edgar bypasses these inquiries by saying he will use only a few colors, and then proceeds to use all shades of those colors. Next he is called to Cairo where they ask him to build large glass obelisks on the tops of pyramids. As he is originally an archaeologist as well, he opposes the idea, finding it disrespectful. He adds he will spread the news to hinder any attempt in this direction, and Clara looks at him with admiration. 

Next stop is Malta for a museum of ancient Oriental weapons. Clara tells Edgar she now understands him and the difficulties of his business better, and sees her gray clothing as helping with convincing clients. Edgar neither denies or affirms this. They are received well in Malta, but their finances are low: ‘[Over] and over again I find that whereever on earth there is excitement there is never any money. That is a sorrow’. Clara tells him he should build whereever there is enough finances, to which Edgar says, ‘There can never be enough built’. Clara thinks there is something insatiable about her husband. 

Clara and Edgar ask around for money to fund the project to no avail. Amanda and Löwe were discreetly paid for supplying the information for the movie about their wedding pact, and they donate this money while Amanda comes clean. Amanda writes to Kate: ‘It is better to have a colorful house than colorful clothing. The former makes all of life colorful, while the latter only serves vanity and makes away with money that should be for building houses’. 

During a dinner at their next stop Sardinia: ‘[Everything] is very comfortable when one sits further away from the color. The distance matters for both color and sound. I can imagine a concert with explosives. Shots could have a nice effect in the distance. I am, however, so taken in by color- as well as unrefined color- the so-called unrefined color- that I must hide my passion. You see, that is really the reason why I inserted the paragraph about the gray cloth. It has now been removed. But I thank you for still wearing gray. I seem less colorful that way, right? Besides, I also only wear gray clothes’. 

A telegram arrives, there has been a robbery in Malta. Men wearing gray with ten percent white have stolen the weapons. Clara is implicated, and the story is in the news all over the world. Clara says she longs for a quiet home life now, but Edgar disagrees and says they should see how events unfold: ‘We have fallen into a pretty story. Now while it is hot, eat up the soup. You should not have so lightheartedly agreed to the frivolous paragraph’. 

So they arrive at their house in Switzerland, a big castle with many terraces and several towers and brightly colored walls and glass. Amanda, Kate and Li-Tung are also there. Li-Tung reveals that he robbed the museum, and has acted in Edgar’s interest as fame needs to be revitalised. Clara advises his joke to be known as such, and a museum built for the weapons in Gibraltar. Löwe has arranged the previous museum to be introduced as a museum on the history of glass architecture. Edgar: ‘[Nature], or the planet earth [is] always more wonderful than the somewhat weak fantasies of the small human, even in the best of circumstances’. Li-Tung has arranged for another film to be made at their house, and proposes to Kate during filming as well. 

Edgar: ‘[We] must not think so often in terms of competition. That often leads to the unoriginal’. Edgar tells Clara their money is tight, but he wants to build a bell-tower organ for her. She objects, saying that they should keep the money, and she can play the small organ in her gray room, and that they can always go to North India to play the organ there. Edgar tells her that in any case it would also make for an advertising attraction, and he needs the publicity. Clara agrees to have a medium sized organ built. 

‘Birds of paradise, fireflies, lightfish, orchids, muscles, pearls, diamonds; and so on, and so on- All that is beautiful on the face of the earth. And we find it all again in glass architecture. It is the culmination- a cultural peak!’. And they keep on wining and dining and reveling in the colored glass architecture as the story ends. 

In Gray Cloth, Scheerbart draws a portrait of the starchitect culture, with a mild dose of intrigue, scheming and manipulation in the works. The incessant fine dining and wining and traveling in an almost fairy tale format is a probable wink at architects while for the lay reader it probably serves to further hammer in the fantasy and cult status of the starchitectism. It is easily possible to read it as a general criticism/humor/prophecy regarding global fame and advertisement/publicity/propaganda stunts. The Chicago exhibition at the beginning is definitely suggestive of the 1893 Chicago World Fair. 

The fixation with the gray cloth translates as the black mania among architects to me, or again, as a signature created for recognition and publicity. It also stands as an ironical inversion- gray and white (and black) are often preferred by architects to create neutral spaces, whether to stand the test of time or allow for flexibility- mobile elements are easier to replace and building structures are not; and color is loaded with connotations and can easily be overwhelming in various settings, especially over time (or go out of fashion). Why gray, white and black are considered neutral, as well as exposed materials such as wood, stone and steel is another matter, since they also have their own connotations that they bring with them. They obviously clash less, but then there is lighting and reflections that complicate the equations nevertheless. In any case, in a world of so much built environment with drab colors, a fantasy of colored glass everywhere may seem fascinating, but we are adapting creatures, so how long would the amazement really last? Yet, dreaming is necessary.

Throughout, the story borders on misogyny, but voices gender equality as well, probably due to author’s own tendency towards irony and humor. The ‘tyranny’ dissolves about midway through the book, and is always questioned, and countered with opposing sentiments and ‘ways out’/help offered by friends. When the gray clothing insistence is given up by Edgar, it is still kept up by Clara, but I did not read this as the affirmation of the initial insistence’s correctness, but a creation of the author to present an amusing turn of events. Stuart on talking about the subtleties blurring the visionary side of the book with its ironic humor, ‘The Gray Cloth reflects Schlegel’s notion of irony as all-encompassing, a ‘mood that surveys everything and rises infinitely above all limitations, even above its own art and virtue”. My sentiment is supported by Stuart’s mention of another Scheerbart work: ‘[‘The] Light Club of Batavia’, a tale that demonstrates Scheerbart’s belief- at least in his fictional world- that women are as capable as men of creating extraordinary colored-glass constructions’. 

The insistence on the inclusion of clothing as affecting the architecture and its perception is also reminiscent of the notions of Gesamtkunstwerk, which, again I interpreted as ironical remark. The book is dedicated to the author’s wife, and it appears to be also a humorous take on their own relationship. In the notes it is also stated that ‘In private conversation, Mechthild Rausch suggested that the formula [gray clothing with ten percent white] may refer to religious garments worn by Scheerbart’s devout mother, who belonged to a strict Protestant sect whose members wore mostly gray clothing’.

‘’[Everything] is very comfortable when one sits further away from the color. The distance matters for both color and sound. I can imagine a concert with explosives. Shots could have a nice effect in the distance. I am, however, so taken in by color- as well as unrefined color- the so-called unrefined color- that I must hide my passion.’’

‘[We] must not think so often in terms of competition. That often leads to the unoriginal. I will think about it, however.’

‘My poor Frau Clara! You are indeed quite lamentable. You have been compromised before the whole world. And now you are implicated in a veritable story of robbery. That is very romantic indeed. But just think, the prisons of the human nations are not yet colorful glass palaces.’

Author: Paul Scheerbart
Translator: John A. Stuart
Drawings: John A. Stuart
Title: The Gray Cloth
Published: 2001, by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
First published: 1914 (in German, titled ‘Das graue Tuch und zehn Prozent Weiss: Ein Damenroman’)
Pages: 143