GRAVITAS MAGAZINE GravitasMag.com | 79
One of the most recognizable pioneers of modern
printmaking artists during the 20th century was
Anni Albers. Born Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann
in an affluent family, she went to the Bauhaus as a
young student in 1922. Throughout her childhood
growing up in Berlin, young Anni was fascinated by
the visual world, and encouraged by her parents to
study drawing and painting. Expected by her parents
to follow a domesticated traditional life of marriage
and family, Albers decided to become an artist and
attended school that followed modernism and rugged
living conditions. Having only a single opportunity
to enter the weaving workshop, she soon embraced
the possibilities of textiles and experimented with
weaving, becoming known as a bold abstract artist.
Her artful creation wove straight lines and solid
colors to make works on paper and wall hangings.
Albers also experimented with metallic thread and
horsehair, traditional yarns, and utilized the raw
materials and components of structure as the source
of design and beauty.
She and her husband, Josef, fled Germany during the
Nazi invasion and came to the United States, and
were among the leading Modernists in the country.
Anni Albers
FROM TOP:
Betty Woodman,
American, born
1930. Greek Pots
Visit Edo, 2002.
Color woodcut,
lithograph and
chine collé on
paper. Published
by Shark's
Ink, Museum
Purchase with
funds donated
by Martha and
Jim Sweeny, MFA
Photographs:
Thomas U.
Gessler.
Pat Steir,
American, born
1940. Peacock
Waterfall, 2001.
Color silkscreen
on paper. Pace
Editions
Promised Gift of
Martha and Jim
Sweeny.
LEFT TO RIGHT: Anni Albers, With Verticals, 1983, weaving.
Portrait of Anni Albers weaving, Photograph by Helen M. Post.
