For me, and for I’m sure many other art admirers, the name Josef Albers is much more readily accessible in the organization of my mind than his wife, Anni. It wasn’t until very recently that I even became aware of the work of his wife (perhaps I should begin referring to Josef Albers as the husband of Anni), even after studying his work extensively. Even given the short amount of time I’ve been aware of Mrs. Albers’ work I would say without hesitation that her weavings provide so much more than her husband’s fields of color. She focuses on textures and colors and creates them in ways that I emulate (I realized I have been using forms lifted directly from some of her tapestries before I even knew they existed, such as Black-White-Gold I (1950)). Abstractions of colors side by side, mostly muted, textures that fill the entire hanging, but full of internal variation, and only artifacts of any message not present in the medium – these are what draw me to her work (and I bring these points up about most every artist I discuss, but perhaps that’s the point).
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