An evening at the Tate Modern

Review by Dana Broadbent

The Anni Albers exhibit - currently showing at the Tate Modern from 11th October 2018 to 27th January 2019 - is a must go event for any student keen on discovering the intricate and meticulously made wall-hangings of the late Anni Albers.

Born in 1899 (and died in 1994), she was among the leaders of the modernist abstraction of the twentieth century, transforming the way weaving was understood professionally and artistically due to her use of abstract ideas, incorporating these notions fluidly into the ancient art of weaving - thereby creating artistic works that can leave the onlooker wanting to gaze for longer over its geometric impressions within close proximity.

Photo: Laura Morris

The patterns that Anni Albers created throughout her artistic life vary in colour and design - with some of her creations also being made purposively for clients (as for example, she was commissioned by the Rockefeller household to create curtains for their guest house, etc). The story of Albers is one of persecution, immigration, and glass ceilings: born in Berlin at the end of the 19th century, she was encouraged by her family to paint and draw, and ended up enrolling in the Bauhaus art college in 1922. Here is where she met her husband Josef Albers, a fellow artist whom she married in 1925.

Being barred from painting and sculpting while attending the college due to her gender, forced her into the position of having to adapt to the medium of weaving instead - one she eventually grew to see the artistically interesting capabilities of. The Bauhaus college ended up closing down in 1933, and the couple were forced to emigrate to the US due to the growing rise of Nazism in Germany.

Photo: Laura Morris

Albers’ work was highly influential to the artists that came after her (an example of somebody that openly praises her work is fashion designer Paul Smith) - as she showed that the craftsmanship of weaving and the use of textiles within the art world can be a medium taken seriously, used to create impressionistic and abstract pieces to help interpret the world around her. Her use of ancient techniques can make her arguably a modernist artist of excess, for she showed how the ancient method of weaving, used largely by people creating something they ‘needed’ (such as a basket, a blanket etc.) can be used as an excessive extension and comment on industrialisation within an increasingly modern/post modern age. It is in this way that her life is incorporated into her work, and also in this way that we understand it.

If you’re interested in seeing the Anni Albers exhibition (and many more like it) for cheap, students can sign up to the Tate Collective for free and pay only £5 to get into exhibitions: see www.tate.org.uk/tate-collective for more information.

Photo: Laura Morris

Photography Laura Morris.