Kitty van der Mijll Dekker

Kitty van der Mijll Dekker studied at Bauhaus. The recorded working language is Dutch. Places of work recorded in the authority are Nunspeet. Employment is recorded with Linnenfabrieken van Dissel N.V. Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Handweverij de Wipstrik. Work by Kitty van der Mijll Dekker is recorded in the collections of Noord-Veluws Museum, Netherlands Open Air Museum, Stichting Kunst in de Publieke Ruimte in Arnhem, National Museum Paleis het Loo and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

• Name — Kitty van der Mijll Dekker • Other Names — Catharine Louise van der Dekker Mijll • Born — 22 February 1908 • Birthplace — Yogyakarta, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) • Died — 6 December 2004 • Place of death — Nijkerk, Netherlands • Education — Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Hornsey College of Art, Bauhaus • Field — Textile Arts • Movement — Bauhaus

Mijll Dekker was born on 22 February 1908 in Yogyakarta Dutch East Indies. In 1916 the family returned to the Netherlands. Around 1922 Mijll Dekker studied drawing at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague and from 1926 through 1927 she studied at Hornsey College of Art in London. From 1927 through 1929 she studied interior design with Cor Alons. From 1929-1932 she studied at Walter Gropius' Bauhaus in Dessau, 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, Otti Berger, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lilly Reich, Oskar Schlemmer, and Gunta Stölzl.

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.

Mijll Dekker married Hermann Fischer in 1950. Mijll Dekker died on 6 December 2004 in Nijkerk. Her work is in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Her 1935 design for a dish cloth is still being produced for the TextielMuseum in Tilburg.