Artist Eight: Anni Albers

Anni Albers was born in Germany in 1899; she was a textile and graphic design artist as well as part of the Bauhuas movement.  Albers was fascinated by art throughout her life and attended Kunstgewerbeschule for two months in 1920, an in 1922 she studied at the Bauhaus.  While at Bauhaus, Anni Albers was not able to get into a glass workshop therefore she took weaving instead and fell in love with weaving and the challenges that it posed.  In 1925 Anni married Josef Albers and the school moved to Dessau, with a new focus on production rather than craft.  This is when Albers began to make textiles that were functionally unique; this led to having her designs published and contracts drawn up.  In 1933 the Alberses were invited to teach at the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina.  During their time at Black Mountain, Anni Albers created, designed and published many works and in 1949 the Museum of Modern Art showed her work, her show then toured the United States from 1951 to1953, making Albers the most well known weaver of her day.  In the 1950s Albers worked on mass-producible fabric patterns, while living in Connecticut.  By the mid 1960s Albers had found a new love for printmaking, especially lithography and screen-printing.  Over all Anni Albers was a major influence on the world of textiles with her numerous wall hangings, curtains, bedspreads, mounted images and mass-produced materials.