IN THE 14 years of its existence — it was forced to close almost immediately after Hitler took power in 1933 — more than 400 young women studied at the Bauhaus, one of the most advanced and progressive art schools of the time.

Their descriptor “Bauhausmadels” (“Bauhaus gals”) is very much of the period, signifying the idea of young women who benefited from a more liberal cultural and social climate in the 1920s.

They were self-confident — symbolised by their strikingly short haircuts — interested in education and the arts, active in sport and sought a new gender role and employment.

Yet rather than dealing with the female artists who studied in fields as varied as architecture, textile design, photography, book binding, metalwork and furniture design as well as painting, the book Bauhausmadels, one of many marking the Bauhaus centenary, adopts a surprising perspective.

Concentrating on the image of the women and the portraits, all dating from the time of their studies at the Bauhaus, the focus on visual types which, in their own way, convey a positive attitude to life and show the “Bauhaus gal” as a new type of modern woman of the 1920s.

The sequencing of the 80-plus portraits is, though, somewhat puzzling. Chronological according to date of birth, it makes finding particular artists somewhat difficult, since not all pages are numbered.

The information about the women is extremely short and the biographical facts leave no room for an assessment of their achievements and influence.

Missing are the well-known experimental photos produced by the Bauhaus and in the introduction to the book author Patrick Rossler gives as a reason that the sole deciding factor for the choices was the “motif” — the image itself — rather than the photographer, with the aim of creating a visual narrative of the Bauhaus gal.

Thus the hitherto little-known portraits from archives around the world are, mostly, not artistic images but utilitarian artefacts in order to illustrate that concept and the concentration on such images is a disappointing restriction.

The short introduction to the book includes a range of photos of the Bauhaus female students as unconventional women, full of fun and active in various sports. They exemplify the spirit of the time far better these often somewhat lifeless photographic portraits.

Bauhausmadels: A tribute to pioneering women artists is published by Taschen, price £30.