Anni Albers

Born Annelise Fleischmann in Berlin, Anni Albers entered the Bauhaus and joined its weaving workshop after encountering restrictions on women in other disciplines. She developed an innovative practice combining structure, colour and industrial design, married Josef Albers in 1925, and eventually helped direct the Bauhaus weaving workshop.

Because Anni was of Jewish ancestry and the Bauhaus had closed under Nazi pressure, the Alberses left Germany in 1933 for Black Mountain College. There she taught weaving and created textiles that crossed the boundary between functional design and independent art. These Blue Mountains uses her documented arrival in North Carolina to illuminate the possibilities and costs of artistic exile.