31 July 2018

Rarely exhibited textile artwork 'Six Prayers' by Anni Albers on view at K20, Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf

From today, the rarely exhibited textile artwork by Anni Albers 'Six Prayers' commemorating six million murdered Jews in Europe is on view until 9 September at K20, one of the buildings of Kunstsammlung NRW (Nordrhein-Westfalen) in Düsseldorf, Germany. The memorial consisting of six fabric panels (cotton, linen, bast, metal yarn) was commissioned in the 60ies by the Jewish Museum, New York from where it travelled now to Düsseldorf to complete the retrospective (organized by Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, and Tate Modern, London) concerning the life and work of German born Anni Albers (1899–1994) who fled after the start of a new government led by the National Socialists in 1933 together with her husband artist Josef Albers to US. Bauhaus artist, craftswoman, textile designer, author Anni Albers and her husband were one of the first teachers at Black Mountain College, founded 1933 in Asheville, North Carolina, where other well-known artists taught in the following years like Buckminster Fuller, Merce Cunningham or John Cage.

fig. above, right: Anni Albers in her studio at Black Mountain College, 1937. Photography by Helen M. Post, Courtesy Western Regional Archives, State Archives of North Carolina. Photo: © Kunstsammlung NRW.

The woven abstract artwork 'Six Prayers' shows six panels with a pattern which may evoke associations of freedom-limiting chains or chain reactions caused by people's decisions with possible negative impact on a changing society with unpredictable dynamics.

fig. below: 'Six Prayers' by Anni Albers,1965-66, Baumwolle, Leinen, Bast, Metallgarn, 186,1 × 297,2 cm, Photo: © The Jewish Museum, New York. © Kunstsammlung NRW.

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