Essay: Anni Albers - Weaving a discipline of resilience
London
2018
Anni Albers (1899-1994) is the chosen artist to celebrate the Bauhaus centenary year at Tate Modern. The retrospective exhibition, Anni Albers, explores the pioneering female artist’s position within the history of abstract modernism and puts weaving in the spotlight. “It’s an opportunity for Tate to recognise a female artist whose name is still missing from many art history textbooks, who remains forever associated with her husband Josef, and whose discipline, textile, is still being sidelined by the world’s major museums.” expressed Ann Coxon, curator of displays and international art at Tate Modern.
This essay responds to the Tate Modern’s exhibition and The Event of a Thread: Anni Albers conference by examining how Albers as an overlooked Bauhaus artist wove a legacy of resilience through rethinking, reinventing, rebranding and reorienting weaving practice.
