21.OCT.2020 - 28.FEB.2021
Passersby 04: Anni Albers

The fourth exhibition in the Passersby series explores the way in which Anni Albers’s (Germany, 1899 - USA, 1994) trips to Mexico influenced her work in different fields; in addition to outlining the personal and professional relationships forged through this experience. Likewise, the exhibition analyzes her oeuvre and draws parallelisms between modern artistic practices and the ancient and contemporary cultures of America.

Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann, known as Anni Albers, was an artist, designer, essayist, collector, researcher, and teacher. She visited Mexico thirteen times with her partner, Josef Albers (Germany, 1888 - USA, 1976), who was also an artist. Together they amassed a significant collection of pre-colonial ceramic miniatures from different cultures of what is now Mexico. At the same time, Anni acquired textile pieces for the Harriet Engelhardt Memorial Collection at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Her travels through different regions of Mexico, in search of archaeological sites, textiles and other local crafts, significantly influenced her work and thinking.

Anni Albers was an avid observer of the textile traditions of multiple cultures, recognizing the weavers of ancient Peru as her great teachers. Her writings show an analytical mind, interested in linking her own thinking regarding the complexity of weaving with a broad understanding of the world she inhabited, so as to transcend it.

Through documents, objects, photographs, reproductions and works by Anni Albers, as well as contributions by other artists, this exhibition offers a contextualized reading of Anni Albers’s passage through Mexico.

Organized by Catalina Lozano, Guest Curator, and Adriana Kuri Alamillo, Curatorial Assistant, Museo Jumex.