Tuesday 16 October 2018

Anni Albers at the Tate Modern

Anni Albers exhibition
On until 27th of January is a exhibition on Bauhaus weaver Anni Albers at the Tate Modern. I wasn’t familiar with her work as textile artists are not as mainstream unlike painters and designers, so it was thrilling to discover a textile pioneer! Work from the 1920s till the 1960s was displayed in a major retrospective of her ideas, textiles and her writings on the history of weaving.

She was first introduced to the art of weaving at the radical art school, the Bauhaus in Germany as an alternative to painting as that wasn’t deemed suitable for ladies to study! 

Weaving is a craft skill that I am fascinated with and if I had the time would try a short course for my own interest. It was mesmerising looking at Anni Albers work up close to see the colours, textures and sheer complexity of her weaving skills. I absolutely loved this exhibition and was amazed and quite hearten by the fact it was given a platform by such a major gallery. There still is a major climb in the general public’s perception in textiles as “art”, as exampled by bored students visiting, overheard dismissing the work as rugs! The teacher with them was no help as he remarked “we don’t do weaving, do we?” 

Hopefully, if more artists textiles were given this type of serious academic attention then the views will gradually change. I would definitely recommend this exhibition to anyone visiting London.




















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