ANNI ALBERS

As a student at the radical and ostensibly egalitarian Bauhaus art school, Anni Albers, like other women, was barred from becoming a painter. Instead she enrolled in the weaving workshop and made textiles her means of expression. Albers (1899–1994) rose to become an influential figure, exploring the technical limits of hand-weaving to pioneer innovative uses of woven fabric as art, architecture and design. Tate Modern’s full-scale retrospective explores this influential but rarely seen trailblazer for a new interdisciplinary art form. It brings together the most important examples of her work, from beautiful small-scale creations to wall hangings, as well as exploring the textiles she designed for mass-production and her use of new technologies and synthetic fibres.