For my first spotlight on inspiring artists, I couldn’t think of a better place to begin than with Anni Albers. Ellie and I often talk about how much we admire her work, her bold designs, innovative techniques, and her distinctive visual language continue to inspire us both, and they’ve deeply influenced Ellie’s own practice over the years
Born in 1899 in Berlin, Albers initially aspired to be a painter but she found her initial training as a painter stifling. Her teacher Oskar Kokoschka discouraged her from continuing, and the Impressionist Martin Brandenburg forbade her to use the colour black. She spent 2 terms at the School of Applied Arts in Brandenburg but dismissed the textile methods used there as “sissy stuff”. She was introduced to the newly opened Bauhaus and although initially rejected she was accepted onto the course in 1922.
The Bauhaus was one of the most influential and radical art schools of the early 20th century, and its legacy continues to shape contemporary design. It sought to remove expressive artistry from design and to prioritise function over form. The school trained artists to collaborate with industry, use materials efficiently, and, above all, to embody a modern philosophy of design. Despite the school’s modern artistic principles, women were excluded from its main courses and confined to the weaving and bookbinding workshops.
Image: The Bauhaus School in Dessau
Albers excelled in the textile department, fully embracing the school’s principles. She developed new techniques and experimented with modern materials. In 1928 for her diploma work she created a wall hanging that would absorb sound on one side and reflect light on the other. This freedom to experiment with materials, combining natural and innovative materials, became a feature of her life’s work. She often incorporated unusual materials such as horsehair, jute, the newly invented cellophane, and Lurex, a synthetic thread made from metallic film, pushing textiles into bold new directions. After completing her studies at Bauhaus, Albers stayed on to become assistant in the weaving workshop and then later Acting Director.
In 1933, the Nazi regime closed the Bauhaus, condemning its modernist ideals as “degenerate art.” Following the school’s closure and amid growing persecution of Jewish people in 1930s Europe, Anni and her husband, the artist Josef Albers, were among the many who emigrated to America. After a chance meeting with the architect Phillip Johnson, the pair were invited to come and teach at the progressive Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where they would spend 16 years.
Black Mountain College was another radical school of the 20th century and offered sanctuary to many refugees fleeing the rise of fascism in Europe. Board members included Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus school and Albert Einstein.
Black Mountain College prioritised an interdisciplinary approach and fostered a culture of experimentation. Albers remained there for sixteen years, travelling widely across South America during this period. Influenced by both the college’s artistic community and the traditional weaving of Mexico and Peru, she redefined the possibilities of textile design.
She translated the geometric patterns from the ruined walls of ancient monument Calixtlahuaca in Mexico into her own work. In Peru, she learned techniques such as the floating weft, which she used to create her “pictorial weavings”, textiles designed simply to be looked at.
Image: Examples of Anni's work with floating weft
In 1949, she became the first textile artist to have a solo exhibition at MOMA, it was also the first solo show from a female artist. Included in this exhibition were an innovative series of five Free-hanging Room Dividers. They could shape and change space with more creativity and flexibility than solid walls. Inspired by ancient Peruvian weaving, Albers created open-weave structures that allowed different levels of light to pass through, adding a feeling of airiness that suited modern, open-plan buildings. These works remind me of Ellie’s wire weavings, where the use of wire introduces sculptural qualities that transform the piece from a flat surface into three-dimensional space.
In 1959, Albers was invited to collaborate with the Knoll Textile Department, work that reflected the Bauhaus ideals of uniting art and industry, producing mass-producible goods that were also beautiful. She would consult for the company for the next 30 years and in this time she developed the popular Eclat design, a geometric pattern animated by parallelogram forms that was used for everyday furnishing, and is still in production today.
She published two influential books: in 1959, a short anthology of essays titled On Designing, and in 1965, the seminal On Weaving. Serving as a kind of visual atlas, On Weaving traces 4,000 years of weaving history from around the world, while also examining the technical aspects of the craft and the evolution of the loom. In her later years, Albers turned to printmaking, yet continued to explore the same textile concerns that had long inspired her - pattern, line, knotting, and texture.
She was an avant-garde in her textiles, using new materials, combining new and old techniques and her impact on the 20th century is significant. Albers was truly avant-garde in her approach to textiles, crossing the boundaries of craft, industry, and fine art. She experimented fearlessly with modern materials and techniques, yet her visual language was deeply rooted in the ancient weaving traditions of South America.
Her work continues to inspire makers today, proving that the boundaries between art, craft and design are meant to be crossed. Ellie was encouraged to explore unusual materials during her time studying at Central Saint Martins, most memorably the cellophane she was given to weave with, a material once newly invented and famously used by Albers herself. Ellie continues this playful spirit in her workshops, bringing that same roll of cellophane with her, though no one has yet been brave enough to use it. Perhaps you will be the one to pick it up next time?
Image: Woven samples from Ellie's Central Saint Martin's Days
I wanted to end with a quote from Albers that seems to echo Ellie’s own story: “Threads… caught me… against my will…. But circumstances held me to threads and they won me over.” It captures not only the accidental beginnings of both women’s textile journeys, as Ellie only found herself in weaving because she stood in the wrong queue on her first day at art school, a fact that has always tickled me about Ellie, but that beautifully demonstrates the enduring and connective power of textiles themselves once you find them.
References:
https://www.albersfoundation.org/alberses/teaching/anni-albers/material-as-metaphor
Author: Annushka Cleminson