A Beautiful Confluence: Anni and Josef Albers and the Latin American World

Anni Albers was a weaver, print maker, and writer on aesthetic theory; she is considered by many to have been the most innovative and influential textile artist of the twentieth century. Josef Albers was a painter, print maker, teacher, writer, and maker of furniture, glass constructions, and metal work; his exploration of color behavior continues to effect the way people see and work in every visual field. Born in Germany, the Alberses met at the renowned Bauhaus School shortly after it opened its doors and remained there until the Third Reich forced its closing. When they were forced into exile in the United States, they accepted their move happily, in part because of the ancient Maya and Inca treasures they had discovered in a Berlin museum; they knew that by going to the united States, they would be near to Mexico and South America, and might come to know those cultures better. In fourteen trips south of the border, they discovered a world they loved. They believed that in Mexico and in other countries in Central and South America, “Art is everywhere.” They felt a complete emotional camaraderie with stone cutters and potters and weavers whose names they would never know, some of whom lived centuries ago, because of a shared interest in line and color and artistic technique, and a mutual feeling for the joy and emotional well being offered by visual experience.

With little money, the Alberses amassed a fantastic collection, and the exchange between what they bought and their own work became powerful. This exhibition reveals the very similar visual and artistic interests and personal passions of Anni and Josef and the native people of the world that became their haven. A Beautiful Confluence has been created for the Museo delle Culture above all to provide pleasure to the viewer by showing art executed by individuals of extraordinary talent and presenting the unexpected relationships that can exist because of qualities intrinsic to all human beings who love to look and see.