‘B
eing creative is not so much the desire to do something as the listening to that which wants to be done: the dictation of the materials,” the artist Anni Albers once said. She and her husband, Josef, who both trained and taught at the Bauhaus before they escaped Nazi Germany for America, were two of the most groundbreaking artists of the 20th century.
Their work is still hugely influential. The most recent evidence of that is a new collaboration between the Spanish luxury brand Loewe and the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, which the couple — married for 50 years — founded in 1971. The collection of 60 pieces launches on Thursday.
Anni had a transformative approach to making textiles. She wove her threads with such kineticism that her wall hangings seem almost to move before one’s eyes. What’s more, they appear verging on synaesthetic. It’s almost as if they can be heard as well as seen.
Anni and Josef Albers at Black Mountain College in 1938
