Anni Albers (1899 – 1994) German Textile Designer, artist and teacher

Anni Albers was a German Textile Designer, artist and teacher. She was born in Berlin and was the Wife of Josef Albers.

Education

1916-19, she studied under Martin Brandenburg in Berlin.

1919-20, Kunstgewerbeschule, Hamburg; and 1920-22, Bauhaus, Weimar and Dessau, under Georg Muche, Gunta Stölzl, and Paul Klee. 

Biography

From 1922 to 1929, she taught textile design at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau.

In 1925, she married Josef Albers and pioneered cellophane weaving.

From 1930 to 1933, she worked independently in Dessau and Berlin.

In 1933, she and her husband relocated to the United States, and she became an assistant professor of art at Black Mountain College in North Carolina.

Between 1933 and 1949, she worked as a freelance textile designer.

In 1949, she and her husband relocated to New Haven, Connecticut.

She was involved in both handweaving and machine production, with her designs occasionally influenced by the geometric patterns found in her husband’s paintings.

From 1959 to 1978, she created textile designs for Knoll and Sunar for over 25 years.

Anni Albers writings

Anni Albers’ publications, particularly her bestsellers On Weaving (1965) and On Designing (1959) and her work as a designer and craftswoman, have had the most significant impact. In the postwar period, her craft weaving theories became the conceptual backbone of American fibre art philosophy. She believed weaving needed to be based on a rigorous, comprehensive design concept to be relevant and artistically valuable. She singled out the thread as the fundamental building block from which the pattern should grow into a logical and harmonious whole. She instructed weavers not to put patterns on the fabric’s surface but instead allow their designs to emerge from the weaving process itself. “It is preferable for the substance to speak for itself than for us to speak for ourselves.”

Recognition

She received a 1961 gold medal for craftsmanship from the American Institute of Architects. 

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.

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