Anni Albers in Josef and Anni Albers' studio, Connecticut, 1969
Gift of Kenneth Tyler 2002
Photographer: William CRUTCHFIELD
Born Annelise Fleischmann in Berlin in 1899, Anni Albers studied art at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Art) in Hamburg, before enrolling at the Bauhaus in 1922. In 1925 she married fellow Bauhaus student Josef Albers. When the school was closed by the Nazis in 1933, the pair relocated to the United States and worked as teachers at Black Mountain College. Anni was a member of the weaving workshop at the Bauhaus and drew inspiration from the Andean weavings of ancient Peru; after her arrival in the US, weavings gathered on annual trips to Mexico became a new source of inspiration. In 1965 Albers published the seminal On weaving.
Albers first collaborated with Kenneth Tyler at Gemini GEL in 1970. Albers used the base motif of a triangle in repetition to create an image of great structural power. In 1978, Albers worked at Tyler Graphics to create the series of six white embossed prints, Mountainous. The grid-like structure recalls a woven object, with line rather than thread employed to carry meaning.
Emilie Owens
Chronology
1899
Born in Berlin, Germany
1916–19
Studies art under Martin Brandenburg
1920
Studies at Kunstgewerbeschule School of Applied Art, Hamburg, Germany
1922–30
Studies at Bauhaus, Weimar, Germany under Georg Muche, Johannes Itten, Gunta Stölzl, and Paul Klee; receiving diploma in 1930
1923
Participates in the first Bauhaus exhibition, decorating Haus am Horn with textiles
1925
Marries Josef Albers; Bauhaus relocates to Dessau, Germany
1930–33
Part-time instructor, Bauhaus weaving workshop
1933
Emigrates to United States of America
1933–49
Assistant Professor of Art, Black Mountain College, Black Mountain, North Carolina
1934
Travels to Havana, Cuba, where Josef Albers delivers lecture
1935
Travels to Mexico, the first of fourteen trips to the nation, and begins collecting Pre-Colombian art
1937
Included in exhibition Bauhaus 1919–1928, Museum of Modern Art, New York City, New York
1939
Becomes citizen of the United States of America
1940
Begins making and exhibiting framed weavings on linen base
1946
Included in travelling exhibition Modern handmade jewellery originating at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City
1949
Travelling exhibition, Anni Albers: textiles, originating at Museum of Modern Art, New York City
1950
Moves to New Haven, Connecticut; undertakes commission to furnish the Harvard Law School building designed by Walter Gropius
1953
Solo exhibition, at Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut
1954
Solo exhibition, at Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaii
1957
Receives commission to furnish Temple Emanu-El, New York City, notably her first commission to furnish a synagogue
1959
Travelling exhibition, Anni Albers pictorial weavings, originating at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; publishes On designing (Pellango Press: New Haven), which collates her published articles on textile design
1960
Solo exhibition, at Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, Texas
1961
Receives American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in the field of craftsmanship
1963
Begins printmaking at Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles
1964
Receives fellowship to Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, California; completes portfolio of seven lithographs entitled Line Involvements
1965
Writes On weaving (Wesleyan University Press: Middletown), which wins the Decorative Arts Book Award Citation
1966
Receives commission for tapestry for the Jewish Museum, New York City
1970
Writes Pre-Columbian Mexican miniatures: the Josef and Anni Albers collection, (Praeger: New York); completes editions of TR I, TR II and TR III at Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles
1971
Included in exhibition, Technics and creativity: Gemini G.E.L., at Museum of Modern Art, New York City
1972
Receives honorary doctorate in Fine Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore
1975
Travelling exhibition, at the Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf, West Germany and Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin
1976
Completes Triangulated intaglio series of etchings with aquatint at Tyler Graphics Ltd., Bedford Village, New York; receives honorary doctorate Philadelphia College of Art
1977
Retrospective exhibition, Anni Albers: drawings and prints, at Brooklyn Museum, New York City; included in exhibition, Art off the picture press, at Emily Lowe Gallery, Hofstra University, Hampstead, New York
1978
Completes Mountainous I-VI series of embossings and Second movement I-VI series of etchings with aquatint at Tyler Graphics Ltd., Bedford Village,
1979
Receives honorary doctorate from University of Hartford, Connecticut
1981
Receives American Craft Council Gold Medal
1984
Included in exhibition, Prints from Tyler Graphics, at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1985
Travelling retrospective exhibition, The woven and graphic art of Anni Albers,at Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
1989
Exhibition, Josef and Anni Albers, at Villa Stuck Museum, Munich, Germany
1990
Exhibition, Anni Albers. Gunta Stolzl, at Museum of Modern Art, New York City; honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom
1994
Anni Albers died in Orange, Connecticut
Barbara Delano © Tyler Graphics Ltd., revised Kate Buckingham, 2006
This chronology provides an overview of selected biographical information, major solo and group exhibitions held within the artist's own lifetime.
