Anni Albers

Born in Berlin in 1899, Anni Albers was one of the most influential textile artists and printmakers of the twentieth century, with a career which spanned almost eight decades. In both her textiles and prints, she explored concerns such as pattern, line, texture and colour, combining ancient craft techniques with the language of modern art.

Albers joined the famous Bauhaus school of art and design in 1922. Refused entry to the Painting Workshop on the grounds of her gender, she turned to textiles, then deemed ‘women’s work’. In 1933, she and her husband Josef Albers emigrated to the USA and a year later began to teach at the experimental art school, Black Mountain College. In 1949 Albers became the first textile artist to have a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

From 1974 onwards, printmaking became Albers’ primary means of artistic expression. She experimented with various printing techniques such as lithography, screen-printing, photo-offset, embossing and etching. The vibrant abstract print, TR III, shows Albers’ interest in colour and texture. The rows of triangles create a striking visual effect, which reveals the influence of the pre-Columbian textiles and artefacts which Albers admired and collected.

@ 2018 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/DACS, London
Image courtesy of Alan Cristea Gallery, London

This work was acquired with the support of the New Hall Art Collection’s Collecting Collective.