September 19, 1977: Anni Albers, Drawings and Prints, an exhibition of 77 works by the internationally-known artist, teacher and author, will be held at The Brooklyn Museum, Eastern Parkway and Washington Avenue, from October 3 through November 11. Mrs. Albers first achieved recognition as a weaver. Now, in a retrospective of her work as a graphic artist, her production of prints made since 1964 (lithography, screenprints, embossing, photo offset, intaglio), and some of her major drawings made since 1947, will be on view to the public. The exhibition was organized by Gene Baro, Consultative Curator of the Museum’s Department of Prints and Drawings.
“Since the summer of 1964, the machinery of printing has been one of Anni Albers’ major guides,” says Nicholas Fox Weber in his essay in the exhibition catalogue.¹ “After many years of work as a weaver, she was introduced to the new freedom of printmaking. Her husband, Josef Albers, was working on a print series at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, and June Wayne, the workshop director, suggested that Anni also try her hand at printmaking. With textiles, she always let thread do what it could; with printmaking, she was free to take thread-like forms even further and to continue with some themes she had occasionally explored in goauche since 1947.”
As shown in the exhibition, Mrs. Albers has explored these themes in various graphic mediums, including lithography (“Line Involvements," 1964, and others); screenprints (prints “A” through “F” of 1968-69, her “Meander” series of 1969-70, a pair of prints produced at Gemini, 1970, her “Domberger” series of 1973, and various other editions); embossing (“TR III,” 1970, from Gemini); photo offset (her “Fox” prints of 1972); and her experiments in combination of photo offset and screenprint (“PO I” and “PO II” of 1973, and “W/CO” of 1974); and, most recently, intaglio (the “Triangulated Intaglios” produced at the Tyler Graphic Workshop in 1976).
Born in Berlin in 1899, Anni Albers joined the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau as a student in 1922. For many years she worked, she says, “with a weaver’s concern with threads as an artistic vehicle, interested greatly in the technique and discipline of the craft.” From 1933 to 1949, she taught at Black Mountain College, North Carolina, becoming an American citizen in 1937. In 1961 she was awarded a Medal in the Field of Craftsmanship from the American Institute of Architects, and in 1962 a Citation from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her fellowship from the Tamarind Lithography Workshop followed in 1964. Mrs. Albers has Honorary Doctorates from The Maryland Institute College of Art, York University, Toronto, Ontario, and the Philadelphia College of Art. She is the author of On Designing (Wesleyan University Press, 1962, paperback, 1971)[,] On Weaving, (Wesleyan, 1972, paperback, 1974), and Pre-Columbian Mexican Miniatures (Praeger, 1970). Her work has been exhibited and collected by major museums here and abroad.
“In weaving,” Mrs. Albers says, “one deals with the surface quality of the threads--rough, smooth, glossy, shiny. You have only a single result if you deal with pictorial weavings. This limits opportunity for exhibition....Prints give me a greater freedom of imagery and the duplication and exactness of image natural to printmaking and allows for broader exhibition and ownership of work. As a result, recognition comes more easily and happily--the longed-for pat on the shoulder.”
In evaluating her accomplishment, Gene Baro says that ”Anni Albers’ work maintains the viewer in an endless interplay of pattern and irregularity. The mood can be simultaneousIy severe and sensual. The organization creates a fugue-like balance of rhythm and proportion.”
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1. Anni Albers, by Gene Baro with an Essay by Nicholas Fox Weber. Foreward by Michael Botwinick, Director, The Brooklyn Museum; a Conversation between Gene Baro and Anni Albers; 96 pp.; 79 illustrations, 8 in color; catalog; biographical outline; selected bibliography. Published by The Brooklyn Museum, 1977. $5.95.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1971 - 1988. 1977, 020-21.
