Anni Alberi: Woman of Textiles, Essay Example

Introduction

Anni Alberi, wife of Josef Alberi was a German born American textile artist of the period  1899 to 1994.  She was most noted for her association with the Bauhaus school in Germany and  inspired the arts and crafts movement; when her German shaft loom from the Bauhaus, was dedicated as a museum exhibit to the arts.

Anni was born in Berlin on June 12, 1899 and was a student at the Bauhaus.  From 1922.  She obtained a diploma in 1930 and became assistant director of weaving.  She worked at all three of the Bauhaus locations, i.e., Berlin, Weimar and Dresden.  Anni married Joseph Alberi in 1925 and when the bauhaus closed in 1933 they immigrated to the US.

Anni is most associated with the arts and crafts movement.  She studied weaving materials using unusual fabrics in the weaving process; these reflected in her lifetime career in teaching the subject.  In Bernau, whilst studying for her degree.  She created a pre-fabric for an auditorium by using chenille on the fabric back and light reflection on the front using cellophane.  The black  chenille had  the quality of sound absorption, and this was later used more widely as a commercial application. ” Anni became Assistant Professor of Art at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. She naturalized in 1937. In 1949 they moved to NYC where Anni was the first weaver to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.” (Piroch, 2008)

In 1950, and the move to Connecticut where she was given the chair of the Dept. of design at Yale University. During this time, she held many exhibitions and received numerous awards. Her books remain as leading references in the work of Art in design, to  this very day.  Josef died in 1976, and Anni in 1994.

The Bauhaus movement

The Bauhaus movement was dedicated to modern arts and architecture and has its foundation in the school of arts and crafts that originated in Weimar, Germany in 1902.  It was inspired by the Belgian artist Henry Vin der Velde. ” The central idea behind the teaching at the Bauhaus was productive workshops. The Bauhaus contained a carpenter’s workshop, a metal workshop, a pottery in Dormburg, facilities for painting on glass, mural painting, weaving, printing, wood and stone sculpting. The Bauhaus architecture featured functional design, as opposed to the elaborate Gothic architecture of Germany. Famous modern artists like Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger and Kandinsky were invited to lecture at the school.”  (The Bauhaus Movement in Weimar, Germany, 2007).

The movement spread around the world,  it became the source of new social and political ideology in Germany.  This resulting in the declaration of a new  Republic, claimed  by the social Democrats in 1918.  After the second world war  the fine arts was dropped in 1951.  After this it became a school for communist workers and farmers.  Today it is a museum in Weimar, housing a display of modern furniture.

At the Bauhaus Anni experimented with textiles, using new materials for weaving.  She created highly colored designs on paper and translate these two war hangings in silk, cotton and linen yarns.  Her work was considered to be both inspirational and a source of significant beauty.  In 1925 the Bauhaus moved to the city of Dessau.  Here, the Alber’s lived alongside many famous artist teachers.  In 1933 they moved to the USA, where Anni est. the Black Mountain College in Asheville North Carolina.  At this time, Josef was making a reputation as an abstract painter and a highly respected teacher and writer. They remained at Black Mountain until 1949. (Webber, 2009)

Anni’s Role as a Woman

Anni was the daughter of a Jewish furniture manufacturer, and Joseph, 13 years her senior, was an accomplished painter.  Joseph coming from a mining background, where his Catholic father was a skilled labourer.  Some consider this to be an odd match, particularly given the extraordinary events that were happening in Germany at this time.  ” Anni completed the gruelling foundation course, but despite the institution’s egalitarian leanings, was barred from architecture, wall painting, and furniture workshops because the course of study was considered too demanding for their fragile physiques. Instead, she found herself seated behind a loom.”  (Lane, 2000).

In 1933. It was Adolf Hitler that closed the Bauhaus. This resulting in Andy and Joseph immigrating to the USA.  Josef Albers was to become an accomplished teacher at Yale  University, until his death in 1976. Anni lived until the grand age of 94 when she became acknowledged as one of the most influential people in changing the place of women in arts or around the world. ”

In addition to her many accomplishments in art and design, Anni was a very adept teacher, and in this sense she was complimentary to Josef.  In addition Josef was an accomplished painter and artist, and therefore was extremely interested in design.  As such, both Anni and Josef had very close interests and shared a common love of the arts.  It is without a doubt that Anni was a woman of great fortitude and courage.  She had the determination to pursue her career during particularly adverse times in Germany. Equally the move to the United States, as inspired by an architect friend, was a large leap of faith at that time.  They must both have been people of considerable vision foreseeing a terrible war that was to come to Germany in 1939.  In particular, the ethnic background of Anni may well have led to her persecution in nationalist socialist Germany at the time.  The fact that Adolf Hitler was responsible for closing the Bauhaus, may well have been the realization of the changes to come in Germany.

During her time at the Black Mountain College, Anni created some of the most remarkable piece of work.  This included the drapery for the Rockefeller guesthouse in New York.  In addition,” a one person exhibition at the Museum of modern Art in 1949, the first exhibition of its kind devoted purely to textiles”. (Susan Ware, 2004)

On a visit to Mexico and Central America,  Anni introduced a collection of textiles from these areas and became the first to recognize the achievement of weavers in Mexico and Central America. During the 20 years that Josef was a professor at Yale University, Anni focused on her writing and weavings and it was join the 1950s.  When she developed the majority of her pictorial weavings.

The Bauhaus

Josef was introduced to the Bauhaus in 1920 ” Before enrolling as a student at the Bauhaus in 1920, Josef had been a school teacher in his hometown of Bottrop, in the northwestern industrial Ruhr region of Germany. Initially he taught a general elementary school course; then, following studies in Berlin, he taught art”  (Webber, Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, 2003).  In 1925 Josef was one of the first students asked to become a teacher there and he remained until 1933 as one of the most distinguished Masters gaining recognition as both a teacher and artist. Anni had somewhat of a different voyage being raised by an affluent Jewish family, hence: ” Having been brought up in an affluent household where she was expected simply to continue living the sort of comfortable social life enjoyed by her mother, she showed great courage in going off to an art school where living conditions were rugged and the challenges immense. She entered the weaving workshop because it was the only one open to her, but soon found her way.”  (Webber, Albers Foundation, 2009).

The Bauhaus movement was one of the most influential in Europe between the period of 1919-1933.  It happened in the Weimar republic of Germany, considered one of the originators of modern art and design. ” The impact of the horrible experiences in the First World War, poverty and inflation created a new consciousness, which influenced strongly Design, Architecture and Art. This was the age of the Bauhaus, a movement which was a reaction to social change and which aspired an aesthetic relevance.”  (Anon, 2010).

The movement also later came under severe criticism for members that co-operated with the Nazi regime.  Although those later questioned stated it was purely an act of survival.  Perhaps one of the more extreme reported cases was that of  Franz Ehrlich ” Who was Franz Ehrlich? Was he a political prisoner arrested by the Nazis and forced to plan the Buchenwald concentration camp, or an ambitious Bauhaus-trained architect who took advantage of the chance to gain professional experience? It was Ehrlich (1907-1984) who planned the gated entrance to the camp where around 50,000 prisoners died.”  (Divir, 2010).  Ehrlich not only designed the gate to the notorious concentration camp he was also responsible for designing furniture for high ranking SS Officers and many of these exhibits were later found in his home ” The Bauhaus archive sifted through materials found in Ehrlich’s estate after his death, and some fascinating documents began to come to light,” Brau says by telephone from Germany. “A lot of things there were related to Buchenwald, but it took us four years to understand that he was the person who designed the gate. He never spoke publicly about his past, even though the same furniture he designed surrounded him in his home until the day he died.” (The Bauhaus Movement in Weimar, Germany, 2007).

Franz Ehrlich was not the only Bauhause Architect to become indicted for assisting the Nazi regime during the holocaust era.  In 1972 the Vienna Auschwitz trial began and two further Bauhaus architects were similarly indicted ” On January 1, 1972, the “Vienna Auschwitz trial” began in which two high-ranking architects, Walter Dejaco and Fritz Ertl, were in the dock. The two men had planned Auschwitz-Birkenau, where up to around 1.5 million Jews were murdered. One person  of a well-known family of architects, was a Bauhaus graduate who was drafted into the military arm of the SS in 1939. Two years later he was assigned to the construction bureau at Auschwitz, where he oversaw the camp’s expansion. He planned the gas chambers that were labelled in the blueprints as “showers for special needs.” (Divir, 2010)

This underscores the forward thinking of both Annie and Josef in immigrating to America and avoiding the terrible consequences of what was to follow between 1938 and 1945.

Summary

Anni approach to work in a very similar manner to that of the sculptor.  In this sense the hand of the Weaver did not interfere with the pattern or design, that she wanted to be seen in the finished product.  Her keen eye and sense of adventure, not being afraid to experiment with fabrics, led to many innovative designs and concepts.  Her ability to interweave these skills in a temperate Josef’s design richly earned them the title of the ‘first couple of modern design’.  In addition to the tremendous artistic skills., they were both very much, thinkers and philosophers.  This concept was reflected in both of their teaching styles.  They created “Europe’s new world vision, based on the premise that high-quality design of everyday objects, could enhance the lives of every person”  (Materson, 2005).

Anni’s approach to design was also reflected in the futuristic designs for her jewellery.  Even when the war created a sure shot materials.  She was able to achieve amazing designs from every day, not objects, like paper clips, wine corks Kitchen strainers etc.  This inspired places like urban outfitters, and MoMa store to provide components to make DIY jewellery based upon her designs.  This again is another indication of her innovation and creativity towards her work; not only the ability to create creative designs with fabrics, but also to enter the fashion world and make innovative and interesting story at an affordable price for all.

The weavings of Anni Alber spanned both crafts and arts.  She received many honour and acclaims for her work and several honorary doctorates.  One particularly noteworthy comment from the Carnegie Institute of Technology ” Anni Albers brings an extraordinary order to weaving. She distinguishes ‘useful’ weaving (the worn, walked-on, and sat-upon) from the ‘useless’ (the pictorial), but in her hands both share the virtue of being unique as works of art. Masterful with the hand loom, Anni Albers exerts a similar mastery over the machine in so ordering her design that the machine also produces a work of art.”—Paul Schweikher, former Head of the Department of Architecture, Carnegie Institute of Technology”  (Albers, 2001).

There is no doubt that the couple had a very successful marriage and together survived a number of hardships.  Not least the alienation from their homeland Germany and having to create a new life in North America. This they accomplished with the same sense of purpose and conviction that they both established in Germany. ” many archival photos show them in spontaneous embrace—he was painting or designing furniture, and she was weaving. And though the interdisciplinary couple never collaborated, curators Nicholas Fox Weber and Matilda McQuaid make the case that his objects and her fabrics share jazzy geometries that helped change the subject of design from nature to abstraction”  (Giovannini, 2005)

Works Cited

Albers, A. (2001). Anni Albers: selected writings on design. Retrieved 2 21, 2010, from Weslyn University Press: http://www.upne.com/0-8195-6447-8.html

Anon. (2010). The Bauhause Movement 1919-1933. Retrieved 2 22, 2010, from Fashion Style You: http://www.fashionstyleyou.co.uk/the-bauhaus-movement-1919-1933/

Divir, N. (2010, 1 13). Members of the Bauhaus movement cooperated with the Nazis, too . Retrieved 2 21, 2010, from Haaretz.com: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142290.html

Giovannini, J. (2005, 5 21). Modern Love. Retrieved 2 21, 2010, from New York Times: http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://images.nymag.com/nymetro/arts/architecture/reviews/architectreview041018_175.jpg&imgrefurl=http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/architecture/reviews/10101/&usg=__nB4TKCaTP_qdABenodZMfiUjkw0=&h=225&w=175&sz=9&hl=en&

Lane, J. (2000, 6 29). Anni Albers. Retrieved 2 21, 2010, from Humanities Web : http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=g&p=c&a=b&ID=318

Materson, R. (2005, 1 7). Anni Albers – Bauhaus Textiles. Retrieved 2 21, 2010, from Layers of Meaning: http://layersofmeaning.org/archives/000210.html

Piroch, S. (2008). Anni Albers. Retrieved 2 21, 2010, from Arts Foundation: http://www.artsstudio.org/anni_albers.htm

Susan Ware, S. L. (2004). Notable American Women. In S. Ware, Notable American Women (p. 15). Boston MA: Harvard College.

The Bauhaus Movement in Weimar, Germany. (2007, 3 23). The Bauhaus Movement in Weimar, Germany. Retrieved 2 21, 2010, from The Bauhaus Movement in Weimar, Germany: http://www.scrapbookpages.com/easterngermany/Weimar/Bauhaus.html

Webber, N. F. (2009). Albers Foundation. Retrieved 2 21, 2010, from Albers Foundation: http://www.albersfoundation.org/Albers.php?inc=Introduction

Webber, N. F. (2003). Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. Retrieved 2 21, 2010, from Josef and Anni Albers Foundation: http://www.albersfoundation.org/Home.php