Hommage to Anni Albers

Appreciation Month 2023

Women’s

B-GREAT ORG IS A 501 (C)(3) NONPROFIT CORPORATION COMMITTED TO THE WHOLE YOUNG HUMAN CREATIVE ARTIST. WITH A WELLNESS FIRST MINDSET WE’VE AIMED TO PROVIDE SUPPORT TOWARD TRAINING & GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES.

SINCE 2015 WE HAVE DONE THIS THROUGH WELL PLANNED & POP-UP STYLE EVENTS, MASTER CLASSES, 2-WAY MENTORSHIPS, ONE ON ONE TRAININGS AND BEYOND.

WE BELIEVE EACH CREATIVE ARTIST IS AN ESSENTIAL CONTRIBUTOR TO THE NOURISHMENT & OVERALL WELLNESS OF OUR SOCIETY. (AS MADE OBVIOUS DURING THE LOCKDOWN)

THE CURRENT POST-PANDEMIC GOAL OF OUR MISSION IS TO BUILD AN OPEN AIR WELLNESS / TRAINING VILLAGE WHERE POST-HIGH SCHOOL AGE NEURODIVERSE & NEUROTYPICAL ARTISTS ARE EQUALLY & ALWAYS WELCOME TO TRAIN AND/OR FORTIFY THEIR PURPOSE IN AN ENVIRONMENT THAT VALUES & NOURISHES THEIR WELLNESS FIRST!

keepgoing@b-great.org

441 South State Road 7, Suite 9A / 10, Margate, FL 33063, USA

B-Great gave me the honor to teach thier tribe advanced art concepts. It did not matter how much experience each of them had or their ages it just mattered that they paid attention. It took a few days to put this worksheet together but I also learned along the way.

I choose a female artist to highlight women’s appreciation month in the United States. I selected Anni Albers because I thought she would be interesting. I did not realize just how interesting until I got deep into the woods.

I started the discussion on on a short overview of Art Nouveau and Art Deco. I need to do that to show the rejection of both by the Bauhaus where Anni was a

member. She and her husband joined the Bauhaus in Germany then in 1933 the Nazis shut it down and they migrated to Aschville North, Carolina. He husband became the head of the art school there and continue to espouse the fundamentals of Bauhaus, which can be sumed up as, ‘Less is More’ Annin in the meanwhile was relagated to the tapestry department as the only available avenue for women. She resisted at first then fell in love with the thread. Eventually she raised tapestry to the level of Fine Art with the first textile show at the Musuem of Modern Art in NY. I huge accomplishment. She kept working at it writing a book called On Weaving which opened Design History to academic study and then reinvented herself as a printmaker until the end of her life. - Shoosty

Art Nouveau - New Style

1890-1914

• S tarted in England with the arts and crafts movement

• Influenced by Impressionist painting and Japanese Woodblock prints

• The sy nthesis of art and craft and spiritually uplifting themes

• Asy mmetrical shapes

• Extensive use of arches and curved form

• Cur ving, plant-like embellishment

• Japanese motif s.

Asymmetric Shapes

Examples of Art Nouveau

Art Deco 1919-1939

• Decorative Art for Architecture and Design of household goods

• S quared the lines of Art Nouveau

• Strong harmonious geometry with vivid colors

• Embraced Technological progress

• Implied motion

• Influenced by Art Nouveau and Japanese Woodblocks

• Mass Production with Artistic Embellishments

• Luxurious and Modern

Examples of Art

Deco

• The most influential modernist art school of the 20th century.

• Embraced art, society, and technology

• Major impact both in Europe and in the United States

• Influenced by Art Nouveau and Art Deco

• Uniting Art with Industrial Design

• L ed to the Development of Modern Art and Thought in Europe and the United States.

• The Artist is an Exalted Craftsman.

• Form follows function

• Minimalism

• Emphasis on Technology

• It put Architecture, Interior design, Textiles, and Woodwork on a par with Fine Arts

• Most Influential Achievements were in Fields other than Painting and Sculpture

• Replaces “Fine Arts” with “Visual Arts” as more encompassing of industrial crafts

• L e Corbusier - “Modern decoration has no decoration”

Bauhaus

Then Reinvented in the USA

1919-1933

Bauhaus Examples

Josef Albers (1888-1976)

• Joins the original Bauhaus in Germany

• 1933, as the Nazis rose in power the Bauhaus was closed

• Migrated to the USA where he lead the NEW Bauhaus at Black Mountain College, Ashville, N.C.

• 1949, headed Yale University - Department of Design

• One of the Most Influential Visual Arts Teachers of the 20th century

• Expert in Color Theory - Homage to the Square

“Art is not to be looked at. Art is looking at us” - Josef Albers

“My hope when teaching is “...to open eyes” - Josef Albers

Josef and Anni Albers

Anni Albers (1899-1994)

• B orn - Annellse Elsa Frieda Fleischmann - Jewish

• Wife of Josef Albers.

• Studied painting before joining the Bauhaus

• The only studio at the Bauhaus open to women was the weaving workshop

• Reluctantly joined the weaving workshop. She learned to love it

• Took over the weaving department in 1931

• 1933, migrated to the USA as the Nazis rose in power

• Her husband became head of the Black Mountain Arts College

• 1949, her husband become chair of Yale University, College of Design, Connecticut

• 1949, she became the first textile designer to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, establishing her as one of the most important designers of the day!

• 1961, awarded The Craftmanship Medal, by the American Institute of Architects.

• 1963, at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, switched from tapestry to lithography and screen printing.

• 1965, published, “On Weaving” helping to establish Design History as a serious area of academic study.

• 1976, Josef Albers dies

• 1976-1994 half-dozen honorary doctorates and lifetime achievement awards.

• 1981 a second American Craft Council Gold Medal, for “uncompromising excellence”

Anni Albers with a tesselation

“In my case it was threads that caught me, really against my will. To work with threads seemed sissy to me. I wanted something to be conquered. But circumstances held me to threads and they won me over.”

- Anni Albers

“Like any craft it may end in producing useful objects, or it may rise to the level of art.”

- Anni Alb ers

Anni Albers Tapestry and Prints

A N N I A L B E R S

O

I T S O F

P R

T R A

Student Exercises

1. Paint a Tapestry - Lines Horizontal and Vertical arranged in a poetic fashion. Start with Pastels

• Using p astel we will draw lines and shapes on canvas and then seal them with acrylic medium.

• At the end we will cut the canvas and lace a piece of string to remind us of fabric based tapestry.

2. Use String or Pastel as a line. Complete a drawing using 1-3 lines as if was thread.

• Sinc e Anni Albers was a tapestry artist we can use a piece of string to make a drawing. Or a single line.

3. Create a Portrait of Anni Albers in the Bauhaus Style

4. Make a Tessalation - A Repeated Pattern

Anni Albers Tapestry Example Anni Albers String Example Bauhaus Style Portraits Anni Albers Tessalation

Photos by: ZetZetZetZetZ

Art work by:

Zoran Cardula

https://www.boredpanda.com/

Author, Community member

I’m artist and graphic designer based in SkopjeMacedonia with passion for collecting old goods and transforming them into contemporary art forms. My visual and conceptual vocabulary starts from classic painting technic to modern design forms through jewelry design.