Untitled
- Felt-tip pen on tracing paper
- 14.75 x 12.75 x 1.75 in
- Anni Albers
Known for her pioneering graphic wall hangings, weavings,
and designs, Anni Albers (née Annelise Fleischmann) is
considered one of the most important abstract artists of the
twentieth century, as well as an influential designer,
printmaker, and educator. Across the breadth of her career,
she combined a deep and intuitive understanding of
materials and process with her inventive and visually
engaging exploration of form and color.
Drawing played a significant role in her practice, particularly after 1963 when she largely moved away from weaving to focus on printmaking. As in the present work, Albers often created designs from conglomerations of meandering or tangled lines that recall the intertwined threads of her weavings.
Built from minimal and reiterated elements, Albers's complex
compositions were also greatly informed by the work and teachings of Paul Klee, her instructor at the Bauhaus and artistic
mentor. As Jenny Anger observes, “Nicolas Fox Weber has noted that Albers never forgot that Klee suggested that one might ‘take a line for a walk’”
Born in Berlin, she studied weaving at the Bauhaus beginning
in 1922, eventually joining the faculty in 1929. Her innovative
textiles from this period combined avant-garde geometric
abstractions with weaving for the first time, creating works that
were at once functional and aesthetic. In 1933, the faculty of
the Bauhaus chose to close the school instead of collaborating
with the Third Reich. Albers and her husband Josef left for the
United States to become founding members of the Black
Mountain College.
Albers was deeply influenced by pre-Columbian art and
textiles, which she encountered on trips to Mexico during her
time teaching at Black Mountain College in North Carolina
between 1933 and 1949. She went on to employ
long-forgotten techniques discovered through her in-depth
study and collection of these works, leading eventually to the
creation of her pictorial weavings of the 1950s. After 1963,
she largely moved away from weaving to focus on printmaking
and drawing as well as a select number of commissions that
likewise engaged her singular approach to composition,
creating numerous abstract motifs. Along with her husband
Josef Albers, the artist would make monumental contributions
to artistic pedagogy in the United States.