Anni Albers: Woven thread as a universal language

Anni Albers was the first textile artist to whom the New York Museum of Modern Art dedicated a solo exhibition in 1949. She received numerous awards, yet often stood in the shadow of her husband, the artist Josef Albers, whom she studied under at the Bauhaus school. A retrospective at Düsseldorf's K20 Museum now showcases her textile and graphic design oeuvre mainly created with a weaving loom.

Albers attended the Weimar Bauhaus school from 1922, where she studied and later taught weaving — the only course available to women. Experimenting with both traditional textile design and industrial weaving techniques, Albers was also influenced by the color theory of artist Paul Klee, who informed the Bauhaus color palette of gray, black, red and mustard that is evident in this work.

Klee also aroused Albers' interest in abstraction: "By looking at what he did with a line or a dot or a brushstroke ... I tried through my own material and my own craftsmanship to find my own way," said Albers in an interview in 1968.

Josef Albers joined the Bauhaus school in 1920 as a student but soon became a teacher, initially for his skill creating stained glass. Later, he was the temporary deputy director. His became famous for his painted geometric shapes and bright colors, as seen here in this 1961 work. Like Klee and Johannes Itten, Josef Albers was a role model for his student Anni. The two married in 1925.

After the National Socialists closed the Bauhaus school, Anni and Josef Albers left for the US in 1933 and initially taught at Black Mountain College. Anni Albers combined craftsmanship with modern art, establishing weaving as a fully-fledged and "useful" art form. For example, she had already experimented with synthetic fibers at the Bauhaus, to create curtains that were easier to wash.

Travel led the couple to Mexico, Cuba, Chile and Peru. In the "countries where abstraction originated," Anni Albers studied traditional weaving patterns and techniques. In 1965 she published her seminal work On Weaving, in which she explored the history and significance of the art form. While she also painted, drew and experimented with printmaking, her primary medium until 1968 was weaving.

While her woven pictures with abstract shapes were intended as works of art for viewing, Albers also created functional room dividers, carpets and curtain fabrics. But throughout, Albers saw the woven thread as a universal language. In the pictured work titled Epitaph, which was 1.5 meters in length and made of cotton, jute and Lurex, the woven lines symbolize an inscription.

By the 1960s, Albers began experimenting with printmaking techniques including lithography and, as seen above, with screen printing. But until her death in 1994, she always remained faithful to the geometric abstraction instilled during her Bauhaus coming-of-age. The "Anni Albers" exhibition in the Düsseldorf K20 runs from June 9 through September 9, 2018.