Anni Albers

Born in Berlin in 1899, Anni Albers was a German textile artist and printmaker who is said to have blurred the lines between traditional craft and fine art. Known for her pioneering graphic wall hangings and weaving designs, Albers is considered one of the most important abstract artists of the 20th century. She studied weaving at the Bauhaus beginning in 1922, before eventually joining the faculty in 1929. Her work during this period combined avant-garde geometric abstractions with weaving—something that had not been done before. Creating works that were at once functional and aesthetic, Albers was a true innovative. Further on in her career, she became deeply influenced by pre-Columbian art which she encountered on trips to Mexico during her time teaching at Black Mountain College in the decade after 1933. Anni Albers passed away in 1994.