By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter
The Davis Museum at Wellesley College is currently focused on the introduction and integration of modernism into the United States after World War I. Their exhibit, titled “Partners in Design,” chronicles the first head of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, who helped define how the United States thinks about modernism, as well as the Bauhaus aesthetic. While this exhibit focuses more on furniture, objects, and their design, a lesser-known name that is equally important in the understanding of modernism through textiles is Anni Albers, whose influence is demonstrated in the exhibit “Anni Albers: Connections.”
In 1984, Albers published a print series titled “Connections 1925/1983,” which included nine silkscreens she had designed to evoke pivotal moments in her nearly six-decade career. Each silkscreen was accompanied by an essay written by Edizione Squatriti explaining the development of modernism and Albers’ integral place in its history. Within this collection was included two pieces from her time at the Bauhaus, two from the 1940s when she taught in North Carolina, three from the late 1950s to the early 1970s while in Connecticut, and two from the early 1980s following her husband’s death.
Albers was a student of the Bauhaus, where she aspired to be a painter. Despite the claim for equality, workshops were strongly divided along gender lines, so Albers entered the weaving workshop, which was deemed suitable for female students. Initially, she lacked enthusiasm for the medium, but her talents began to thrive. The two pieces within her publication exemplified the foundation of the Bauhaus, which was the development of designs that incorporated both the fine and applied arts as well as rationality, minimalism, and functionality.
Shortly after she began at the Bauhaus, she met her husband, who was a part of the glass-blowing workshop. After the Bauhaus was closed by Hitler, the couple moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where they taught for nearly two decades at Black Mountain College, a new experimental liberal arts college that places arts at the center of its curriculum. Her textiles from this period differ from those at the Bauhaus. Her work began to feature a floating weft in additional fiber that was threaded through a woven substrate. This technique was most likely inspired by her trips to South America and Mexico.
The exhibit not only presents a wide range of Albers’ life, but also offers the chance to see and hear her speak about her own work. A room containing a video of Albers offers another dimension to the already full and dynamic exhibit at hand.
