With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Anni Albers
Architecture/Design
1899 – 1994
- Biography/Description of Work
Designer, teacher, lecturer, author and a graphic artist.Wife of Josef Albers.
Anni and Josef were members of the Bauhaus in Germany who came to United States to escape the Nazis. They eventually found themselves in New Haven where Josef became the head of the art department at Yale. Anni Albers was an innovator with weaving.
Anni was born Annelise Fleischmann in Berlin, Germany. She had art lessons at home as an adolescent and in 1922 became a student at the Bauhaus. She embraced new materials and received her Bauhaus diploma in 1930 on the basis of sound-absorbing material of cellophane, chenille, and cotton designed for an auditorium in Bernau. Married to Josef Albers in 1925. Emigrated to the United States in 1933. Philip Johnson (whom they met in Berlin) arranged for their employment at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. While she viewed machine weaving as a practical way to eliminate the boredom of hand weaving, she disliked the gulf between process and product that resulted from industry’s reliance on designers who worked on paper and never on the loom. After moving to New Haven in 1950, Albers focused on writing and weaving, publishing ‘Anni Albers: On Designing’ (1959) and ‘Anni Albers: On Weaving’ (1965). (from Heller and Heller, “North American Women Artists of 20th Century”)
- Sources view
- Uconn database
Bob Gregson
Heller and Heller: North American Women Artists of the 20th c.
http://www.albersfoundation.org/Home.php - Associated Resource(s)