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Anni Albers
Selected Writings on Design
Sales Date: 2001-04-16
120 Pages, 8.50 x 10.00 in
The only source in print of the key essays of a pioneer of modernist design.
Anni Albers (1899 - 1994) was one of the most influential textile designers of the 20th century. Born in Berlin, in 1922 she became a student at the Bauhaus in Weimar, where she met her husband, Josef Albers. From 1933 to 1949 Albers taught at Black Mountain College. The fifteen essays gathered here illustrate Anni Albers's concept of design as the pursuit of wholeness — "the coalition of form answering practical needs and form answering aesthetic needs." This beautifully illustrated book addresses the artistic and practical concerns of modern design and considers the ever-changing role of the designer.
Albers's work is in private collections and in those of leading museums both here and abroad. Among them are the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Museum Neue Sammlung in Munich, the Bauhaus Archiv in Berlin, and the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York. Her previous books include On Weaving (1965) and On Designing (1961), both published by Wesleyan
Foreword – Nicholas Fox Weber
Introduction – Brenda Danilowitz
A Start
Weaving at the Bauhaus
Work with Material
Art – A Constant
Designing
On Jewelry
One Aspect of Art Work
Constructing Textiles
Design: Anonymous and Timeless
Review of Ben Nicholson's Paintings, Reliefs, Drawings
The Pliable Plane: Textiles in Architecture
Conversations with Artists
Weaving, Hand
Designing as Visual Organization
Tactile Sensibility
Material as Metaphor
Bibliography
ANNI ALBERS is known for her work in the field of textiles as an artist, a designer for industrial production, a lecturer, and a teacher. Born in Berlin, she was a student at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau, where she met her husband Josef Albers. From 1933 to 1949 she was an assistant professor of art at Black Mountain College. In 1961 Mrs. Albers was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects in the field of craftsmanship. Her work has been widely shown and collected by leading museums, among them the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
"I have consistently found Albers's writings, in both On Weaving and the already re-released Selected Writings on Design (Wesleyan University Press, 2001), to be eye-opening on a range of topics. Materiality, tactility, nonverbal language, the histories of both handcraft and factory production — Albers provides clear and rigorous analysis of these and other issues throughout her books."
~Becky Peterson, HYPERALLERGIC
""The weavings of Anni Albers have bridged the gap between craft and art. They stand on their own as complete and thoughtful statements of her approach to life and to design.""
~Cecil Lubell, former Executive Editor of American Fabrics Magazine
""Anni Albers brings an extraordinary order to weaving. She distinguishes 'useful' weaving (the worn, walked-on, and sat-upon) from the 'useless' (the pictorial), but in her hands both share the virtue of being unique as works of art. Masterful with the hand loom, Anni Albers exerts a similar mastery over the machine in so ordering her design that the machine also produces a work of art.""
~Paul Schweikher, former Head of the Department of Architecture, Carnegie Institute of Technology
"The weavings of Anni Albers have bridged the gap between craft and art. They stand on their own as complete and thoughtful statements of her approach to life and to design."
~Cecil Lubell, former Executive Editor of American Fabrics Magazine
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