One of the richer students thereโher mother was from the Ullstein publishing dynastyโFleischmann took the cold baths and straw mattresses of Weimar in her stride. What did come as a surprise was the attitude of the Bauhaus to women. Fleischmann, who had hoped to be a painter, grudgingly went for the last. By the time of the interview, her thoughts on threads had changed. So, thanks to Fleischmann, had those of the world at large. Since her marriage in , she had been known as Anni Albersโand become one of the pre-eminent textile artists of the 20th century.
This transformation was marked, in , by her work being shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in the first exhibition of its kind.
A checklist of the materials in the MoMA show suggests something of the sea change that Albers had helped bring about: black Cellophane, raffia and copper chenille; corn, grass and string; wood strips and dowels. The conception of what threads wereโof what weaving wasโhad shifted since When the Bauhaus belatedly opened a department of architecture in , women, predictably, were discouraged from joining: applications met with the stock reply that the department was already full.
She would make membranes that were wall-like. This idea of building by stealth would stay with her. In the interview mentioned above, she compares weaving not to art but to architecture.
Women being excluded from it, Albers worked around the exclusion. It was this redefinition of building that would spark her genius. Designs such as Intersecting were successful commercially as well as artistically Photo: Werner J. When she arrived at the Bauhaus in , she had found weaving feminine in the sense that Gropius intended.
