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Anni Albers: Selected Writings on Design
The only source in print of the key essays of a pioneer of modernist design.
Anni Albers (1899 - 1994) was one of the most influential textile designers of the 20th century. Born in Berlin, in 1922 she became a student at the Bauhaus in Weimar, where she met her husband, Josef Albers. From 1933 to 1949 Albers taught at Black Mountain College. The fifteen essays gathered here illustrate Anni Albers's concept of design as the pursuit of wholeness ― "the coalition of form answering practical needs and form answering aesthetic needs." This beautifully illustrated book addresses the artistic and practical concerns of modern design and considers the ever-changing role of the designer.
Albers's work is in private collections and in those of leading museums both here and abroad. Among them are the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Museum Neue Sammlung in Munich, the Bauhaus Archiv in Berlin, and the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York. Her previous books include On Weaving (1965) and On Designing (1961), both published by Wesleyan
Anni Albers (1899 - 1994) was one of the most influential textile designers of the 20th century. Born in Berlin, in 1922 she became a student at the Bauhaus in Weimar, where she met her husband, Josef Albers. From 1933 to 1949 Albers taught at Black Mountain College. The fifteen essays gathered here illustrate Anni Albers's concept of design as the pursuit of wholeness ― "the coalition of form answering practical needs and form answering aesthetic needs." This beautifully illustrated book addresses the artistic and practical concerns of modern design and considers the ever-changing role of the designer.
Albers's work is in private collections and in those of leading museums both here and abroad. Among them are the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Museum Neue Sammlung in Munich, the Bauhaus Archiv in Berlin, and the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York. Her previous books include On Weaving (1965) and On Designing (1961), both published by Wesleyan
- GenresArtNonfiction
120 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 11, 2014
"Students worry about choosing their way. I always tell them, 'you can go anywhere from anywhere'."
Anni Albers' lovely 1982 essay, "Material as Metaphor", concludes this wide-ranging selection of her writings on art and design. Her ideas contradict, evolve, challenge. From the 1930's and the Bauhaus, to the 1940's and Black Mountain College, to her time with her husband at Yale, to widowhood, Albers always strived for an open mind and hand in her approach to both materials and finished product.
Many of her ideas about form and function, simplicity, and industrial design come out of the early Bauhaus years. And still resonate: there is no reason why useful objects cannot also be beautiful, well-made, and affordable.
She loved the man-made, the synthetic, the mass-produced; yet she also always emphasized the importance of being part of the entire operation, of choosing and experimenting and forming as tools for learning and designing: of knowing intimately structure and material and process.
She straddled both worlds, design and art, and her contradictory ideas and uncertainty are most noticeable in that border zone. But the last essay, "Material as Metaphor", also the most recently written in the book, seems to give art the last word. Certainly the bulk of her weavings and prints, and the Peruvian textiles she loved, moved way beyond utility in their desires, expression, and execution.
"Art is the final aim."
Anni Albers' lovely 1982 essay, "Material as Metaphor", concludes this wide-ranging selection of her writings on art and design. Her ideas contradict, evolve, challenge. From the 1930's and the Bauhaus, to the 1940's and Black Mountain College, to her time with her husband at Yale, to widowhood, Albers always strived for an open mind and hand in her approach to both materials and finished product.
Many of her ideas about form and function, simplicity, and industrial design come out of the early Bauhaus years. And still resonate: there is no reason why useful objects cannot also be beautiful, well-made, and affordable.
She loved the man-made, the synthetic, the mass-produced; yet she also always emphasized the importance of being part of the entire operation, of choosing and experimenting and forming as tools for learning and designing: of knowing intimately structure and material and process.
She straddled both worlds, design and art, and her contradictory ideas and uncertainty are most noticeable in that border zone. But the last essay, "Material as Metaphor", also the most recently written in the book, seems to give art the last word. Certainly the bulk of her weavings and prints, and the Peruvian textiles she loved, moved way beyond utility in their desires, expression, and execution.
"Art is the final aim."
April 26, 2025
a beautiful valentine gift from my absolute fave, about a fave. ♥️ recommended reading to all my creative friends & art family, as her writings are so needed… struggled to not list too many quotes below, but this book (& all her work) will be revisited many times!!
*
Courage is an important factor in any creative effort. It can be most active when knowledge in too early a stage does not narrow the vision.
One of the outstanding characteristics of the Bauhaus has been, to my mind, an unprejudiced attitude toward materials and their inherent capacities.
—3
*
Our world goes to pieces; we have to rebuild our world. We investigate and worry and analyze and forget that the new comes about through exuberance and not through a defined deficiency. We have to find our strength rather than our weakness. Out of the chaos of collapse we can save the lasting: we still have our "right" or "wrong," the absolute of our inner voice—we still know beauty, freedom, happiness... unexplained and unquestioned.
Intuition saves us examination.
—24
*
To circumvent the NO of the material with the YES of an inventive solution, that is the way new things come about—in a contest with the material.
—52
*
A short while ago I had a visit from a ten-week-old baby who looked at me wide eyed and I thought somewhat puzzled and was struggling as if trying to tell me something and did not know how.
And I thought how often did I feel like that, not knowing how to get out what wanted to be said.
Most of our lives we live closed up in ourselves, with a longing not to be alone, to include others in that life that is invisible and intangible.
To make it visible and tangible, we need light and material, any material. And any material can take on the burden of what had been brewing in our consciousness or subconsciousness, in our awareness or in our dreams.
Now, material, any material, obeys laws of its own, laws recognizably given to it by the reigning forces of nature or imposed by us on those materials that are created by our brain, such as sound, words, colors, illusions of space—laws of old or newly invented. We may follow them or oppose them, but they are guidelines, positive or negative.
—72
*
… material is a means of communication... listening to it, not dominating it makes us truly active, that is: to be active, be passive."
—73
*
The more subtly we are tuned to our medium, the more inventive our actions will become. Not listening to it ends in failure. (Years ago, I once asked John Cage how he had started to find his way. He will not remember it. "By chance" was the answer.) Students worry about choosing their way. I always tell them, "you can go anywhere from anywhere."
—72-73
*
What I am trying to get across is that material is a means of communication.
That listening to it, not dominating it makes us truly active, that is: to be active, be passive.
The finer tuned we are to it, the closer we come to art.
Art is the final aim. In an interview recently Maximilian Schell, the actor, said, "art is for realizing dreams."
—73
*
Courage is an important factor in any creative effort. It can be most active when knowledge in too early a stage does not narrow the vision.
One of the outstanding characteristics of the Bauhaus has been, to my mind, an unprejudiced attitude toward materials and their inherent capacities.
—3
*
Our world goes to pieces; we have to rebuild our world. We investigate and worry and analyze and forget that the new comes about through exuberance and not through a defined deficiency. We have to find our strength rather than our weakness. Out of the chaos of collapse we can save the lasting: we still have our "right" or "wrong," the absolute of our inner voice—we still know beauty, freedom, happiness... unexplained and unquestioned.
Intuition saves us examination.
—24
*
To circumvent the NO of the material with the YES of an inventive solution, that is the way new things come about—in a contest with the material.
—52
*
A short while ago I had a visit from a ten-week-old baby who looked at me wide eyed and I thought somewhat puzzled and was struggling as if trying to tell me something and did not know how.
And I thought how often did I feel like that, not knowing how to get out what wanted to be said.
Most of our lives we live closed up in ourselves, with a longing not to be alone, to include others in that life that is invisible and intangible.
To make it visible and tangible, we need light and material, any material. And any material can take on the burden of what had been brewing in our consciousness or subconsciousness, in our awareness or in our dreams.
Now, material, any material, obeys laws of its own, laws recognizably given to it by the reigning forces of nature or imposed by us on those materials that are created by our brain, such as sound, words, colors, illusions of space—laws of old or newly invented. We may follow them or oppose them, but they are guidelines, positive or negative.
—72
*
… material is a means of communication... listening to it, not dominating it makes us truly active, that is: to be active, be passive."
—73
*
The more subtly we are tuned to our medium, the more inventive our actions will become. Not listening to it ends in failure. (Years ago, I once asked John Cage how he had started to find his way. He will not remember it. "By chance" was the answer.) Students worry about choosing their way. I always tell them, "you can go anywhere from anywhere."
—72-73
*
What I am trying to get across is that material is a means of communication.
That listening to it, not dominating it makes us truly active, that is: to be active, be passive.
The finer tuned we are to it, the closer we come to art.
Art is the final aim. In an interview recently Maximilian Schell, the actor, said, "art is for realizing dreams."
—73
June 29, 2022
Political and poetical
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews