Anni Albers

Anni Albers
Born
Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann

(1899-06-12)June 12, 1899
Berlin, German Empire
DiedMay 9, 1994(1994-05-09) (aged 94)
Orange, Connecticut, U.S.
EducationBauhaus
Known forTextiles
Graphic design
Fine Art
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1925; died 1976)​
Websitewww.albersfoundation.org

Anni Albers (born Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann; June 12, 1899 – May 9, 1994)[1] was a German-Jewish visual artist and printmaker. A leading textile artist of the 20th century, she is credited with blurring the lines between traditional craft and art.[2][3][4] Born in Berlin in 1899, Fleischmann initially studied under impressionist painter Martin Brandenburg from 1916 to 1919 and briefly attended the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hamburg in 1919. She later enrolled at the Bauhaus, an avant-garde art and architecture school founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1922, where she began exploring weaving after facing restrictions in other disciplines due to gender biases at the institution.

Under the guidance of Gunta Stölzl, Fleischmann developed a passion for the tactile qualities of weaving, shifting her artistic focus from painting to textile art. In 1926, Fleischmann married fellow Bauhaus figure Josef Albers, taking on her husband's last name, and moved with the school to Dessau. The Bauhaus's emphasis on functional design led to innovations in materials that combined aesthetics with practical benefits like sound absorption and light reflection. She eventually headed the weaving workshop after Gunta Stölzl's departure in 1931. The political pressures of Nazi Germany forced the Albers to relocate to the United States in 1933, where Anni Albers took up a teaching position at Black Mountain College in North Carolina.

In 1949, Albers became the first textile designer to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. After leaving Black Mountain College, she continued to create textile designs and ventured into printmaking. In the subsequent years, the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation was founded to "perpetuate the vision of Anni and Josef Albers through exhibitions, publications, education, and outreach concomitant with the Alberses’ personal values".[5]

  1. ^ "Albers, Anni". Who Was Who in America, 1993–1996, vol. 11. New Providence, N.J.: Marquis Who's Who. 1996. p. 3. ISBN 0-8379-0225-8.
  2. ^ Reif, Rita (1994-05-10). "Anni Albers, 94, Textile Artist And the Widow of Josef Albers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference NMWA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Gipson, Ferren (2022). Women's work: from feminine arts to feminist art. London: Frances Lincoln. ISBN 978-0-7112-6465-6.
  5. ^ "Foundation". Josef & Anni Albers Foundation. Retrieved 2024-05-05.