Anni Albers Mono Show. How threads can turn into art. K 20, Dusseldorf. Until Sep 09, 2018

Weaving “limp threads”? No, not at all!

Weavings. Well, admittedly, that does not sound particularly exciting at first glance. Some may even think with nameless discomfort to the innumerable, crooked woven telephone underclothes or table runners, which were created more or less enthusiastically as craft work in kindergarten or elementary school.
To be fair, it must be said that Anni Albers herself initially did not have a very high opinion of this manual work. In fact, she, who wanted to take up an artistic education at the Weimar Bauhaus at the age of 23, was sent to the loom. She herself wanted to paint, but for women, the Bauhaus only provided for artistic education and training in the pottery, bookbindery or textile workshop.
“Fate has given me limp threads,” she initially said rather frustrated. However, her highly engaged and very creative engagement with the subject as a result led to an impressive number of versatile and unique works for over five decades.

“Textile” and “art” in the highest perfection

Anni Albers’ first inspiration were the color theory and geometry of Paul Klee, her teacher from the preliminary course. She translated his graphic compositions into fabrics and tapestries. She designed brilliant patterns and contrasting structures, in the spirit of the Bauhaus, as a perfect harmony of form and function. Thus, her work for the final exam was a sound-absorbing wall covering for the auditorium of the Federal College of the German Trade Union Confederation in Bernau.
With her husband Josef Albers, whom she had met at the Bauhaus, she emigrated to the USA in 1933. There she taught at Black Mountain College, which, from the conceptual approach much like the Bauhaus, saw science, art and craft as equal elements of a collaborative creative process. On numerous trips to Central and South America, Anni Albers was inspired by traditional techniques and patterns, which she incorporated into her works. However, over time, she considered the actual manual work of weaving as being a limitation, both in terms of technique and in terms of creativity. She overcame this limit in her experimental drawings and graphic works with abstract, geometrically developed patterns, which she also translated into her work as an industrial designer for Florence Knoll and Sunar Textiles.

„Ordinary“, every-day-life design? …. No, not at all !

Walking through the current K 20 exhibition, actually changes one’s view, or rather opens it, I might say, “at second glance.“ One starts recognizing and appreciating the textile material itself, the colourfulness, its actual structure and feel, luster and languor, the changing strength of the different threads. The difference in appeal of the traditional natural materials on the one hand, and the innovative synthetic threads on the other hand, for the fine and single silver thread, which has no “practical” use, but puts an important accent to the work, and last but not least, one feels the respect that Anni Albers herself has brought to her material.
Anni Alber’s view of her “material” and its possibilities was indeed “awake” and extremely inspiring and associative. How else could she (and would she!) develop a necklace, made of an ordinary sieve and paperclips?
Let yourself be inspired!
And yes, somehow the creative power lies actually in the Albers’ family. And to finish this entry, here’s an idea for another day trip: At the same time as the Anni Albers exhibition, Villa Hügel in Essen shows „Interaction“, presenting iconic works of her husband, Josef Albers.